“A THORN IN
THE FLESH”
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A sermon preached Readings: 2
Corinthians 12:2-10; Mark 15:16-22
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2 Cor 12:7
“I was given a thorn in the flesh”
So
what does Paul mean by a “thorn in the flesh”?
The word he uses is skoloy (skolops)
which is a word which can mean thorn or it can mean a stake driven into the
ground –
so whatever this thing was, it was more than a passing inconvenience,
it was a huge problem and pain for Paul.
What
exactly is this Thorn in the flesh which so troubles Paul?
He
doesn’t say. There have been many suggestions –
·
Maybe a physical problem – poor sight (Gal 4.13-15),
or malaria or epilepsy or migraine
·
At least one modern commentator has suggested
that the thorn refers to repressed elements of Paul's sexuality.
·
Or maybe it was something quite different – maybe it was opposition.
When people stand out against us and try to thwart us, we tend to say -
”Oh he ‘s a real pain in the neck”
(or maybe a pain in some other delicate part of the anatomy) –
maybe Paul’s thorn in the flesh was an opposition group -
the Jewish authorities or the traditional Jewish camp within the Christian
Church -
he is saying they were a real thorn in his flesh – a real pain in the neck…
·
Maybe the thorn is the temptation to sin –
it is his pride, or perhaps lust or greed or sloth or self pity.
·
Some wit has even suggested that Paul’s thorn in the flesh was his
wife….
We
just don’t know–
only that it evidently humbled him and pained him greatly.
We
don’t know what Paul’s thorn was–
But that’s maybe no bad thing –
it helps make sure we don’t discount the passage as only relevant to one particular
problem –
we can all identify with it – because we all have our thorns in the flesh at one time or another -
whether a physical ailment,
a relationship which doesn’t work,
depression and anxiety,
an awful job or no job,
being hooked on drugs, or whatever –
between us there is a great thicket of thorns –
I
wonder what the thorn in your flesh might be?
And I
wonder if you have prayed about it?
Perhaps
that God might take your troubles away?
That is
just what Paul did - He prays that God will take it away.
And
when nothing happens he prays again – and then again -
– three times he prays – only then as
for Jesus in Gethsemane,
does he finally recognize that his
prayer has been answered,
but, the answer is NO.
I don’t know if anyone has seen the new film “Bruce Almighty” –
it is the story of a character played by Jim Carrey
who is given God’s powers for a week.
It is a fun movie – take the scene
where Jim divides not the Red Sea but the Red Soup in his plate before drinking
it.
But he is quickly inundated by millions of emails –
because everyone’s prayers are forwarded to his in tray.
He can’t cope, so he just sends a blanket reply “Yes” to every request.
The result isn’t as he hoped –
thousands and thousands of people had prayers to win the lottery –
and so they all do,
and the payout is just a few dollars each for the first prize and everyone is
furious –
and so on…
It’s
a jokey movie – but the point is clear –
prayer and providence are a lot more complicated than God just indulging our
every whim
or even removing our every sorrow.
Often
– as for Paul with his thorn and Jesus with the cup of suffering,
God is not going to sit in heaven disregarding freewill
and juggling the laws of nature to take away our trials and tribulations –
Often
God says
“you must travel on with the thorn in your flesh –
the suffering cannot be removed right now –
maybe never this side of death.
Now
there is a tricky area here –
we have to avoid what has been called “transcendental masochism”
(EM Sidebottom,
Good News of God, DLT 1982 p.98)
a belief that God actually sees suffering as a good thing to be
encouraged.
God is love and seeks the fulfilment and joy of all his children.
If we really believed suffering was a good thing,
there would be no point in trying to alleviate it or prevent it.
But Paul says that his thorn in the flesh is a gift not of God but of the
devil.
God
does not wish suffering –
but in a world where he has given sinful people freewill,
suffering must sometimes be endured.
But –
and this is the key point –
God permits suffering, but he can - if we allow him -
work through it for the good.
In
the famous words of Romans,
”And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God” (Rom
8:28).
Or in Donald Eadie’s words –
“The definition of Almighty is that there is no evil out of which good cannot
come”.
Suffering
is not willed by God, but can be used by him.
God
took the cross – the ultimate symbol of suffering and desolation –
and turned it into a means of grace.
Will
he not also take our sufferings and use them creatively?
If we
have an ailment, a disability, a sorrow, a despair –
A
“cross to bear” a “thorn in the flesh” – God can use it –
and we have all experienced this in our lives -
·
Perhaps to make us more compassionate and understanding of others’
sorrows
·
Perhaps to help us reassess the priorities in our life
·
Perhaps to make us more appreciative of the blessings we do enjoy –
Our
suffering can be used to help us and others grow and love
And
this is the challenge for Paul and his thorn – and for you and me –
whether we can take our suffering and (when the burden cannot be lifted from
us)
offer it back to be used creatively by God?
This
is the way to sainthood –
to join those who, in Brian Duckworth’s words,
“hear as music what we hear as pain”.
It is
the ability to discover
“that springtime which some choose to call autumn”.(Donald
Eadie).
All
this comes when we cease to rail at our sorrow but offer them to God.
We
may think our sorrows a poor gift to offer–
but he is Almighty and can use it for good –
Leonard
Cohen sings of the cracked bell –
“Ring
the bells that can still ring,
forget your perfect offering
there is a crack in everything
and that is how the light gets in”
So Paul
has a thorn in his flesh.
Like
his masters’ crown, it is not ordained by God,
and yet it is turned by God from a symbol of evil and sorrow
into a means of love and joy.
Do
you know the old legend of how a priest
miraculously finds Christ’s crown of thorns,
and places it on the altar on Good Friday.
On Easter Sunday he decided to remove the relic,
since it was out of keeping with the joy of the resurrection.
But when he opens the Church,
the crown of thorns has blossomed into a crown of flowers,
and the church is filled with its fragrance.
Peter Jarvis comments on the tale:
“Only a sentimental story of
course;
but pointing to a curious truth.
If we lay our “thorns”,
our limitations, afflictions, sorrows, sufferings on the altar,
as Jesus did;
if we accept these things and give them back to God,
a miraculous beauty can spring from the travail of our souls,
from our importunate pleadings,
from our grief and pain and indignation.”
(Expository
Times June 1997 p.273)
So
let us offer our pain and trouble to God –
that cracked and broken though it may be
it may become in God’s power a means of grace and power.