Becoming Weak in Christ

The Bible has a way of running head-on into our normal (and preferred) way of thinking. Jesus, for example, taught that the way up is down, the way to live is to die, the way to be first is to be last, the way to lead is to serve, the way to save your life is to lose it, the way to be exalted is to be humbled. And he showed by his life that the way to be strong is to be weak. In 2 Cor 13.4, Paul says of Jesus: “For indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God directed toward you.”  What does it mean that “crucified because of weakness,” or that we are “weak in Him”?

To be weak means to be unable, to be powerless, to lack in strength, to not be in control. Was Jesus crucified because he was powerless to prevent it? Obviously not, for he could have called those twelve legions of angels to take him down. He was in control of the entire situation. Yet though he had the greater power, he allowed the world to have power over him. By his own will he submitted to the evil will of others. He gave up his rights and relinquished his power, making himself completely vulnerable. He chose the way of “weakness.”

Which, by the way, is really the way of strength! After all, which takes the greater strength: to strike back against a weaker opponent, or to refrain from striking back at all? If you’ve ever walked away from a fight that you knew you could win, you know the answer. What incredible strength it must have taken for the perfect, righteous Son of God to allow himself to be crucified!

And that is the weakness that we become in him. Jesus gives us the strength to be weak. He gives us the power to forgo our rights, to submit to others, to let others be first or get the glory or get the last word. He gives us the strength to forego retaliation and revenge; to be gentle, patient, kind, and forgiving. Not that there is never a time for justice, severity, wrath, or standing up for what is right. But when the greater good was served by weakness Jesus chose weakness, “entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously” (1 Pet 2.21-22). By faith and trust, he was empowered to be “powerless”, strengthened to be “without strength”, enabled to be “unable.” And if we will entrust ourselves to the same righteous judge, we too can become weak, just as he was weak.
 

© 2006 Randy Hohf