30If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.
Do you know anyone who is a one-upper? Maybe you don’t you know the word, but you know the personality.
You say, “I’m sick,” and they say, “let me tell you about the time I was real sick.”
You say, “I know this person of importance,” and they say, “I know this person who’s more important.”
They are always richer or poorer. They have always more or less. They are always better off or worse off.
If it’s a game of comparison, there’s no comparison. They win! Or lose, depending on how they want to boast.
The apostle Paul is in a boasting match in our Epistle from 2 Corinthians.
Some context is helpful. There are some bad pastors and preachers in Corinth. And they are boasters – one uppers. But Paul wants to lead God’s people away from them back to the true Christ and His Word – so he plays their boasting game for a bit.
22Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. 23Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one
If they’re boasting about suffering, Paul can beat them in that. Imprisonments, beatings, lashes, danger, danger, danger for Paul (vs. 23-27).
If they’re boasting about knowledge and visions and revelations, Paul can beat them in that. He was taken up to the third heaven.
Paul can tell you more about that, except, he can’t actually. Only God knows (12:2-4).
Paul is kind of sassy. Very, very sarcastic and boy, I sure don’t know anyone like him.
Paul won’t play the game for long, though. When we’re being one-upped or one-upping, there really is no end.
There is nothing to be gained by it, Paul says.
The only thing he’s going to keep coming back to is this:
30If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. (3 different times)
Why would he do that?
Because Jesus told him “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” So, he’ll boast in that weakness to boast in Christ’s power all the more.
So, let’s play that game for a bit, too.
Boast in our weakness.
And we’ve got plenty of that. Let’s not brag about them, but let’s be real about them. We all have prayed and are likely praying that prayer Paul prayed, “Take this away from me.” And the Lord has said, “No. My grace is sufficient for you.”
He could, you know, take that away.
All authority in heaven and on earth is all authority. That’s foundational to prayer. He is able.
But’s He’s not taking it away.
Name the diseases that affect you and your families.
Name the addictions and the repeated sins.
Say all the things you don’t know what to do about, and all the people you don’ t know how to help, and all the times you wish you would have done or said something differently, and all the loneliness and fears.
Let’s gather that all up and boast about that!
Why?
Because we can gather around Jesus did with all that and hear from Him that His grace is sufficient and His power is made perfect in our weaknesses.
He is here – with His power and with His grace and with all the gifts He wishes to strengthen with today.
There really is nothing to be gained by one-upping each other – either those things that make us proud or those things that will make us despair, because we are in His presence and He can one-up us all.
Who’s smart? He is Wisdom.
Who’s powerful? He is Almighty.
Who’s got a name or knows some names of which they can boast? His is the name above every name in heaven and on earth.
And who is being hurt by others?
And who isn’t thanked enough for what they do?
And who is rejected? or suffering deep within their soul and spirit? or hurting in their body? or grieving, or dying, or lonely, or feeling forsaken or betrayed?
Don’t you know that Jesus knows?
And don’t you think Jesus knows how to help more than you know how to ask?
St. Paul boasts in his weakness, because his weaknesses will not allow him to boast in anything else about who he, Paul, or what he, Paul does.
And that is good.
Because it will help him boast about who Jesus is and what Jesus did, does and will do.
Jesus’ grace is sufficient for you.
Here, right now, we gather in the presence, not in a disappointed or unsympathetic Jesus, but a gracious and strong Jesus who is here for us.
He who was so strong, chose to face all those sufferings so that you might know His grace is sufficient for you.
Is – not was, though it was.
Not will be, though it will be.
But also, here now, Jesus says to you, My grace is sufficient for you.
Because of Him, you really do have a one-up Word.
Though Satan is strong, we are bound together to the One who is stronger.
Though the flesh is weak, we are given the strong and willing Holy Spirit again today.
Though we die, yet shall we live.
We have a one-up Word against every weakness this life can throw at us.
All from Jesus –and we can boast about that.