Thorns and Weakness, Part 2

Weakness Through Eastern Eyes

Three times I implored the Lord that it might depart from me, and he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you; for power is perfected in weakness.”

Biblical weakness is an often misunderstood concept in Western Christendom. In the East, including the regions in which the Scriptures were incubated, people were far more preoccupied with honour-shame than the righteousness-guilt (i.e. right-wrong) thread that weaves its way through European cultures. Or the power-fear dynamic common in other areas.

In the Eastern world, even today, one’s position in their community, and the community’s perception of them, are of prime importance. The far-reaching effects this has should not be underestimated.

I remember one year I was serving in a Filipino church. Slowly I came to realize how much appearance mattered to the congregation. Clothes, especially shoes, should be immaculate as it implied a clean life. A minister should never have hands in their pockets as it implied indifference or laziness. In China, I remember being told that speaking with a toothpick in your mouth was taboo because it implied being a gangster. At all times, Easterners are hyper-aware of how they were being perceived.

Westerners who are high in empathy may also be aware in this way, however, the difference is the response. A strong preference for individualism tends to disregard such matters.

As Jackson Wu, theologian and missionary to Asia explains, such cultural issues are related to an intrinsic honour-shame dynamic — honour and shame being umbrella terms that contain or connect a lot of other ideas, like group identity, family name, etc.

Most of us do recognize this, in, say, the choosing of David over his “more suitable” older brother. However, we tend to overlook its more obvious expressions in terms like boasting and glory, and also the many subtle occurrences— what it means to be Abraham’s offspring or to be slaves to sin, or, why the prophet approached King David with a kidnapped lamb story rather than outright accusation. (John the Baptizer’s straight talk with Pharisees and kings makes him an intriguing outlier in this regard.)

Once seen, it becomes obvious that the Scriptures are soaked through with honour-shame. Wu believes that it comprises a sort of underlying logic to the Bible, its value to interpretation being much the same as background music in its ability to cue an audience to otherwise hidden meanings in a text. I have to agree.

Of course, many of us would rather the biblical writers had made it easier. Some might want Paul to be more direct when speaking of his thorn in the flesh, to say things plainly, just as the disciples asked of Jesus. However, we must remember that direct statements can be just as misunderstood as indirect ones (just ask any politically charged news article, or your spouse)! It is no wonder that Jesus spoke in parables.

Weakness is a good example of this, a gateway example, so to speak, in that it affords the previously ignorant reader access to much larger themes of honour-shame in the Bible.

Weakness West and East

In Scripture, weakness is mentioned in many places, but nowhere so controversially as in Paul’s thorn in the flesh. There, as we’ve seen in the previous article, a certain messenger of satan was out to discredit Paul, trap him, and even cause violence against him as the apostle of a radical new covenantal revolution.

In the culture of that era, having this kind of opposition would have absolutely been seen as a weakness. Yet Western Christians have difficulty with this nuance, since from their perspective, weakness is typically limited to

• lack of physical strength
• insufficient skill
• a character flaw

That is to say, western weakness is commonly seen as incompetence, or failure. This is why many pastors and theologians incorrectly interpret Paul’s thorn as either a physical infirmity or “besetting sin.” Unfortunately, misunderstandings like these will continue to accrue until an adjustment is made in our biblical lens.

What Does It Mean To Be Weak?

Weakness, to the Easterner, has a broader definition. Even when it does include physical frailty or task incompetence, it is really in the context of what such a shortcoming would mean for the individual’s position in society.

In many (though not all) biblical passages, weakness and strength involve the public perception of a person in light of their

• loss of face
• relational debt
• disfavor with authority
• low status or class
• poverty and want
• lack of influence
• chaotic disposition
• family or community conflict
• public dishonour

and, of course,

• shame

To this day, in Eastern cultures, all of these things are signs of weakness.

In the New Testament, one of Jesus’ most famous parables contains an example of weakness that would have startled and astonished its hearers.

In Luke 15, Jesus tells the story of a father who

1. gave away his inheritance before he’d even died,
2. ran through the streets with
3. his robes hiked up and legs bared,
4. embraced a shunned (dead) child, and
5. left a celebration to plead with his older son

Any or all of these, and I can’t stress this enough, would have been seen as incorrigible weakness in a Middle Eastern setting.

The Cross and Shame

“Anyone going after truth in love is inevitably going to encounter those walking across the grain, at cross purposes with that intention.”

Understanding the extent that shame plays in the Eastern world is also vital to our understanding of the cross. Jesus inhabited a world where a person would much prefer a private flogging to a public rebuke. In a later Japan, an individual’s seppuku in isolation was much preferable to a public beheading since it preserved the honour of the entire family.

This is where Jesus’ suffering at his crucifixion comes in. Should we acknowledge the excruciating physical torture and death he endured on the cross? Yes, of course. However, it cannot compare to the public dishonour of carrying that wooden beam through the streets. Or, worse, being lifted up on it outside of the holy city, atop notorious Golgotha.

The intense disgrace crucifixion brought to Jesus' family, his name and his 3.5 years of ministry is hard for those outside Eastern cultures to fully comprehend. Where other men would have sworn their innocence over and over, shouting themselves hoarse in a desperate bid to keep their reputation intact, Jesus was, what?

As a Lamb silent before its shearers.

It was an unthinkable response.

Yet it becomes increasingly clear that it was not only important that the Son of Man die, but that He die a certain way. Consider again the love of God through the Christ, Jesus, whose blood shed behind closed doors would have theoretically been enough to found the New Covenant, forgive all sin and heal all disease.

Yet He, for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross, and despised the shame.

Despised the shame? Why?

‘If I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all people to Myself.’

The Godhead placed importance on not just dying, but doing so publicly, in a way that all people might see.

He said this to signify what kind of death He was about to die.

In order to draw all people to Himself, Jesus needed to break through the culture of shame by making the full extent of His love as outwardly humiliating as possible. This is not to say that God went out of his way to orchestrate maximum humiliation. No, it simply means that anyone going after truth in love is inevitably going to encounter those walking across the grain, at cross purposes with that intention. What ensues is a sort of Darwinian power struggle in which weakness is destined for one side or the other. In a yet unredeemed world, Jesus went low in order for others to be high. This is the context for turn the other cheek.

Being born in Nazareth, the Roman Empire, the invention of the cross, Pilate, Caiaphas, the Pharisees, the incensed mob … humanity’s entire history of violence, all of it comes into play, screaming like a nest of metal arching toward an electromagnet.

If I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all people to Myself.

Humanity is moving freely, yes, but inexorably toward one divine purpose. A drawing not out of coercion, but by love, a love with its own peculiar power, for power is perfected in weakness.

What Do You Think?

Out of all the books of the Bible, Paul’s two letters to the Corinthians seem to be concerned with weakness the most. Armed with an Eastern mindset, how do these texts hit differently for you now?

• God’s foolish thing is wiser than human beings, and God’s weak thing is stronger than human beings. For look at your vocation: that not many are wise according to flesh, not many powerful, not many well-born; Rather, God chose the foolish things of the cosmos in order that he might shame the wise, and God chose the weak things of the cosmos in order that he might shame the mighty, and God chose the lowborn things of the cosmos and the things treated as nothing… (1Co 1:25–28)
• To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak; I became all things to all persons, that in every case I might gain some of them. (1Co 9:22)
• I shall instead most gladly boast in weaknesses, so that the power of the Anointed might overshadow me. Therefore I delight in frailties, in insults, in exigencies, in persecutions and ordeals on behalf of the Anointed; for when I am weak, then I am powerful. (2Co 12:9-10)
• …he was crucified in weakness, but he lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by God’s power. (2Co 13:4)