students of jesus

Do we really believe God’s power is perfected in weakness? To those with hopes of powerful ministry the scripture asks of us, “What price are you willing to endure?” The apostle Paul, God’s great herald, was weakened and battered by beatings, shipwrecks, bandits and hunger. He became an object of scorn among the very people he tried to help: people from one of his own churches said of him, “His bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.“ He was not only endangered and rejected by men, he was targeted by the Devil, tormented by a messenger of Satan. Three times Paul asked the Father to remove this curse.

God’s answer? “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”

While God’s answer might have crushed others, Paul embraced it to the full: “Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

Let’s look at the perfection of beauty, Jesus. Can we see in him what we learn from Paul? Of course, only more so: Jesus, King of Kings and Prince of Peace, perfected his strength in weakness.

He was:

Weak as an infant, newborn

Weak in exile as a youth

Weak in the labor and sweat of daily work

Weak as one rejected by those he came to save

Weak as one betrayed by a close friend

Weak as one falsely charged and arrested

Weak as one beaten and mocked by the stewards of the law

Weak as one stripped naked and lifted up in public

Weak as one who asked, “Why have you forsaken me?”

Weak as one who died a curséd death

And what strengths were perfected in such a humble Lord?

Strong as one who laid aside his rights as God

Strong as one who made all things, yet had no place to lay his head

Strong as one fatigued by the heat of the day, yet still served others

Strong as one content in the Father’s praise

Strong as one who drank the bitter cup reserved only for him

Strong as an innocent man who refused to plead his case

Strong as one whose stripes healed the wounds of the world

Strong as one whose scars of shame became the marks of glory

Strong as one who placed his spirit into the hands of God, declaring, “It is finished”

Strong as one resurrected by God, who sits enthroned forever over all creation