Thorny Reminders
If today’s letter from Paul were part of a South Park episode, his plea to the Corinthians would be captured in the phrase “Respect my authoritah!” But Paul is in a delicate situation. Some of his friends from that church, a church with which he had a long-running relationship, have fallen under the spell of what he terms “super apostles.” Apparently these individuals have invested themselves with authority and are leading the Corinthians astray.
Thankfully, Paul is a skilled writer, and he is able to subtly veil his claims to authority in today’s passage without making explicit statements.
He begins by referring to “a person in Christ” who — fourteen years before — visited what he calls “the third heaven.” This sounds a bit confusing; it did to me on first reading, because we don’t typically talk about more than one heaven. This is an instance when I need to remind myself that Paul was not writing to me, he was writing to a specific audience who would have been familiar with that term. Other literature from the Ancient Near East refers to the idea of a third heaven, and “in Paul’s culture, heavenly journeys often functioned to confirm divine approval and authentication. This story counts as a boast on that basis.” (Sampley, 1002)
About whom was Paul boasting? Bible scholar Paul Sampley describes the apostle’s tactic this way: “Paul chooses to cast the story of his own translation into heaven in the third person and to describe it as having happened to ‘a man,’ but there can be no doubt that the man is Paul.” (Sampley, 1001) “If the [intruding super apostles] are boasting of their visions and revelations, Paul one-ups them with this extraordinary heavenly journey and then, irony of ironies, refuses to build a case for his authority upon that, choosing instead to let the matter be decided by what they have seen and heard in him.” (Sampley, 1002)
Paul names another challenge besides the super apostles, though. Yes, he’s been exposed to special revelations, insight so divine that is is “not to be told,” but that elation is tempered by what he refers to as a thorn in the flesh. We don’t know exactly what it is, but Paul “seems to expect that [the Corinthians] know well what it refers to in his life.” (Sampley, 1003) Bible scholars are not so sure, and Sampley writes that “the candidates for identification of his [thorn] in the flesh have been of two sorts: either his opponents or a physical problem such as epilepsy, hysteria, depression, headaches, or eye problems — even leprosy and malaria have had their advocates, as have stuttering, [and] spiritual temptations (from opponents or generated from his own conscience).” (Sampley, 1003) And the speculation doesn’t end there. “Whatever the stake actually was, Paul here interprets it as a trap, a palisade, a torture prepared by a clever enemy to take him out of the battle plan.” (Sampley, 1004)
Nonetheless, Paul perseveres, even after appealing to the Lord on three occasions for relief. Paul might be witness to special revelation, but he is still subject to whatever human condition dampens his elation.
I grew up in rural Northwest Ohio, three miles from the village of Fayette and its 900-some residents. By today’s standards, there wasn’t a lot to do in my neighborhood of seven houses. We were out of the reach of cable TV, and the World Wide Web was not yet a thing. Sometimes, the most exciting event on a given day was the delivery of the US mail (especially if it contained a Johnson Smith novelty catalog). I often joke that an advantage of growing up in such circumstances is that everyplace I have lived since has been exciting by comparison.
While I wouldn’t choose to return to a life without smartphones, streaming movies, and online shopping, I’m glad to have grown up without those things. I feel I have greater appreciation for and perspective on the technologies that are part of modern life. And I take pride in my ability to function without them when the need arises.
When considering Paul’s thorn at last week’s Bible study, we discussed adversity and suffering in our own lives. Some experiences fell into the category of character-building. I mentioned how growing up without air conditioning makes me extra grateful to have it now (especially on a day like today). I wonder what comes to mind for you, experiences that you certainly don’t want to repeat but that helped you become the person you are today. Maybe it was living in modest circumstances, or maybe it was going through your first heartbreak. Maybe it was weathering a health scare, or overcoming a difficult situation at work or school. These are all things that can be formidable challenges, but from the other side offer lessons learned and the ability to better counter future adversity.
We also discussed those occasions where adversity becomes needless suffering. Illness without recovery. Bad relationships that aren’t escaped. Ongoing food insecurity. Like Job, Paul reminds us that on those occasions when we’re afflicted with a painful thorn, whether that be in the flesh literally or figuratively, we can call out to God for aid. There’s no need to suffer in silence. Our heavenly parent wants to hear from us. Bible scholar Luke Powery writes, “How long shall we endure suffering? It is necessary and good to wrestle out loud with this question, whatever the thorn might be, as the flood of unanswered prayers fills so many sanctuaries of the faithful in the face of unwanted suffering and pain. Voicing this question gives permission for many who might feel that questioning God is taboo or even sinful.” (Powery, 185)
Paul’s torment is also a reminder that all of us are susceptible to thorns. The prosperity gospel preaches that if you are faithful and live an exemplary life, you will experience wealth and health. That’s simply not always the case. You can probably point to people you know who are generous and kind yet afflicted with health issues or relationship issues or money issues. You can also point to biblical figures such as Job and Paul and even Jesus himself who earnestly asked for an escape from suffering and were denied. Sometimes the best we can do is survive and pray.
It might be good that we don’t know the exact nature of Paul’s affliction. That being the case, we’re “unable to distance ourselves from Paul’s suffering,” (Powery, 184) and thus we can more easily relate, because we all suffer at one time or another. Even those conditions we face that are not visibly of the flesh, such as heartbreak or anxiety, can act as thorns and be experienced physically. So to some degree we know what Paul is going through.
Bible scholar Candida Moss writes that “for Paul, not only does he replicate the sufferings of Christ, his experience of suffering makes him physically proximate to Christ.” (Moss, 329) Jesus is with his followers in their suffering because he himself suffered. Paul’s thorn not only kept his elation in check; it also helped him feel closer to his savior. “Weakness — the lover’s sickness of body and soul when separated from the beloved — perfects divine power” writes Bible scholar David Fredrickson. (Fredrickson, loc. 50616)
Paul embraces his weakness, even equating it with strength. He recognizes Satan as a powerful force with a plan to thwart God’s own (Sampley, 1004), and that pursuit of conventional strength often plays into Satan’s plan. Thus weakness on the part of Jesus-followers is not something to be avoided. The fate of the universe is not in our hands, and we do not need to become the powers and principalities of our age to bend the future to our will, even with the best intentions. Sampley writes that this is “part of the grand contention that ultimately eventuates in God’s victory, that grace, not sin, that righteousness, not death, will have the last word.” (Sampley, 1005)
Was Paul weak? As a pharisee, he had standing in certain communities, though his following Jesus might have jeopardized relationships with some fellow Jews. He was educated and a skilled orator. He had profound spiritual experiences, and had evidently “heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat.” He was even a Roman citizen. That said, he was not wealthy nor was he in a position of political power. It’s likely he would be considered inconsequential by many in our society. Nonetheless, we’re still reading his letters almost 2,000 years after they were written, while the teachings of his day’s “super apostles” are lost to history.
It’s somewhat foreign to champion the idea of weakness during the weekend following July 4th. Many in the U.S. have been celebrating our country, what some consider “the best country in the world,” with grand fireworks displays, patriotic music, and the Stars and Stripes flown proudly. So maybe it’s not the best time to bring up the thorns that might prevent us from being too elated . . . but I’m going to go ahead and do it, because I know we’re capable of holding ideas in tension.
We all have our own personal thorns, but we have collective thorns as well. We can celebrate the people and ideas and innovations and beauty of the land we inhabit, but it’s irresponsible to do so without recognizing the painful aspects of our history, the repercussions of which continue to this day.
By the time the Declaration of Independence was penned, chattel slavery had existed in our country for over 100 years. Some refer to this practice as our country’s original sin. The reason we live in a republic and not a democracy is due to allowances made to legally accommodate slavery. Slavery was unspeakably cruel and immoral, creating wealth for a few while subjecting millions of others to systemic family separation, physical abuse, rape, lack of education, poverty, and countless other transgressions. Even when slavery was officially outlawed, it was replaced by the Black Codes, Jim Crow, an unjust correctional system, and the damage and lingering effects of these practices continues in today’s racial injustice.
We also can’t ignore the genocidal practices that took place while establishing our country’s borders. The people who had inhabited these lands for thousands of years before White people decided it was theirs to steal were massacred and displaced. Their surviving descendants are largely confined to reservations, and many live in poverty.
We also can’t ignore the fact that we have failed to heed President Eisenhower’s warning about becoming a country driven by the military industrial complex. Since that time, we have engaged in needless wars that have claimed the lives of tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers, hundreds of thousands of civilians, and millions of non-U.S. soldiers.
Sadly, all of these efforts were championed by super apostles and false teachers. Many pastors claimed that the practice of slavery was condoned by the Bible. Manifest Destiny and the Doctrine of Discovery were supported by Christian leaders all the way up to the pope. Even the wars in Vietnam and Iraq were deemed righteous by some church leaders.
An idea championed by today’s super apostles is Christian Nationalism, which is a misnomer because there’s no room in Christianity for idolizing one’s country. Christian Nationalism suggests that America was founded as a Christian nation, that one must be a Christian to be a true American, that one should vote in a manner that will help bring about a Christian theocracy, that the Constitution does not include a separation of church and state, and that political violence is justified. (Faithful America) You’ll even find some of today’s super apostles leading churches that host Christian Nationalist speakers. Needless to say, their philosophy does not find strength in weakness.
We act in accordance with God’s will when we do things in accordance with God’s will, not when we boast about doing it. We can engage in theatrics like posting select scripture passages in public spaces, or we can live by those scripture passages. We can claim that we’re no longer a racist country, or we can adopt anti-racist practices that bring equitable funding to schools and better representation in home ownership and the board room. We can wish for world peace, or we can take measures to reduce the influence of defense contractors on our national budget.
Paul refrained from boasting, preferring that those in Corinth judge him by who he was. He demonstrates that what we do is more important than what we say about ourselves. And one thing we can do is embrace our weaknesses, because we know that our weakness plus God’s strength can blunt the pain of any thorn. God’s grace is sufficient, and will always be so.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
Works Referenced
Brown, Alexandra R. “The Second Letter of Paul to the Colossians.” In The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha, 5th ed., edited by Michael D. Coogan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Faithful America. “A Preacher’s Toolkit for Confronting Christian Nationalism.” Accessed July 6, 2024. https://act.faithfulamerica.org/signup/preachers-toolkit-christian-nationalism/.
Fredrickson, David E. “2 Corinthians.” In Fortress Commentary on the Bible: The Old Testament and Apocrypha, edited by Gale A. Yee, Hugh R. Page, Jr., Matthew J. M. Coomber. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014. Kindle edition.
Moss, Candida R. “Christly Possession and Weekend Bodies: Reconsideration of the Function of Paul’s Thorn in the Flesh (2 Cor. 12:7–10.” Journal of Religion, Disability & Health 16 (2012): 319–333.
Powery, Luke A. “Between Text and Sermon: 2 Corinthians 12:2–10.” Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology Vol. 77, №2 (2023): 184–186.
Sampley, J. Paul. “The Second Letter to the Corinthians.” In New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume IX. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2015.
Stone, Matt and Trey Parker, writers. South Park. Season 2, episode 4, “You Will Respect My Authoritah!” Aired May 20, 1998.
Thomas, Johnn Christopher. “‘An Angel from Satan’: Paul’s Thorn in the Flesh (2 Corinthians 12.7–10).” Journal of Pentecostal Theology 9 (1996): 39–52.
