The Lesson of the Thorns

A man with leprosy knelt before Him and said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man, “I am willing,” He said. “Be clean!” Immediately, he was cured of his leprosy. ~ Matthew 8:2-3

What happens when Jesus is not willing? What happens when we pray and the cancer remains? What happens when we beg and the bombs still fall? Although my husband accuses me of being an optimist, I’m finding it harder and harder to be one these days. The world is a mess and many of our lives are a mess, whether they’re touched by COVID, the war in Ukraine, cancer, depression, or a tragic accident. So what do we do when we ask God for relief and we only get silence?

Let me be honest—I have no answer. In fact, as I began typing this blog I thought, “Where am I going with this? I need the answer myself!” God is such a patient teacher, isn’t He? As I was thinking that, God reminded me of the Apostle Paul who also received a “no” from Him. In II Corinthians 12:7-10, we read that Paul had some sort of problem he mysteriously calls “a thorn in the flesh.” Paul asks three times for God to remove it, and Jesus tells Paul that He won’t take it away because, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (II Cor. 12:9). The thorn would remain because it was vital in teaching the lessons that only a thorn can teach.

I think, too, of Jesus who begged on His knees in Gethsemane for God the Father to take away the need for the cross. How sad that Jesus had to die, but how tragic for us if God had taken away the cross. Without Jesus’ atoning death, we would be people without hope, destined only for an eternity of darkness. On the cross, Jesus wore the crown of thorns for us.

Some prayers cannot be answered with a “yes” because to do so would keep God from working out a greater good, one we won’t see in its fullness until Heaven. This gives me hope. I don’t want suffering for myself or those I love, but I’m encouraged that our loving, all-knowing God doesn’t give us thorns without a reason. Maybe, like Paul, He wants to teach us through our suffering. Maybe, like Jesus, He wants to use our lives to bless others. I suspect that He’s using the thorns to do both. Today, let’s name our thorns, and then let’s surrender them to Jesus and ask Him to use them for a purpose and healing beyond anything we can ever imagine so that we can say with the Apostle Paul, “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distress, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (II Cor. 12:10).

(I don't mean to imply that this is easy. I think of someone I love dearly who has endured years of physical pain for no apparent reason. I think of the innocents in Ukraine. My list goes on... But I have to cling to this truth, that in the end, when we reach Heaven, we will see that the suffering was somehow worthwhile and somehow redeemed by Jesus.)

Lenten reading: Matthew 8:1-4

Photo courtesy of https://pixabay.com/photos/rose-thorns-thorns-rose-flower-5370314/