TITLE: 16 The Triumph of Weakness

TEASE: What makes a winner? Most would agree that a winner is strong and successful. Have you ever heard of someone who won through weakness? If you’d like to find out more, join us today on Windows of Hope.

SERMON

In a world where our children grow up admiring the exploits of comic book superheroes, it seems everyone wants to be strong. Have you ever wondered, if superpowers really existed, what power you would like to have? Would you be super-fast, so you never needed to arrive late for a meeting? Super- strong, so that you could take on any challenger? Or perhaps you’d like to be invisible so that you could slip around unseen and observe people without them knowing you’re there.

It’s fun to speculate, but of course we know that in real life people don’t get bitten by mutant spiders – like Spiderman – and emerge with the ability to spin webs and swing from one building to another. Nor do real people get struck by lightning or dropped into vats of toxic waste and somehow manage to emerge with incredible strength or other amazing abilities.

Stories of superheroes are popular because most people at some time in life feel the need to be rescued. When we feel overwhelmed, when trouble or tragedy strikes, it awakens in us a longing for someone bigger than ourselves, a hero who can come and save us.

One of the most enduring and popular of the classic comic book superheroes is, of course, Superman. Originally created back in the 1930s, Superman has survived through the decades in comic book, TV show, and movie form, always hiding his amazing powers behind the mild-mannered form of newspaper reporter Clark Kent. But those who are avid fans of the superhero genre will probably know a few things about Superman’s past that might make us wonder who the real hero is.

For those of us who may not be quite so knowledgeable, it may come as a surprise to learn that Superman, unlike other comic book heroes like Batman or Spiderman, wasn’t born here on earth as an ordinary human being. No, he came from a planet far away. After his planet’s destruction, he was sent to earth as a baby with a mission from his powerful father to use his powers to help the people of Earth. Coming to Earth as a helpless baby, Superman was raised by a simple farming family, only later discovering his true powers and embarking on his mission of fighting crime and evil.

Now I have to stop and ask you, friends, do the broad outlines of that story sound at all familiar to you? Do you know of anyone else who came to this earth from far away, sent by His Father on a mission? Anyone else who began life as a baby in a poor peasant family, Who grew up to discover that His origins and His mission were far beyond that of any ordinary human being?

I think most Christians would find it impossible to hear the story of Superman without thinking of the true story of Jesus Christ. He is the One who truly came from far beyond this planet, sent by His father to save the world. As Superman saves the world over and over again in comic book tales, Jesus saved the world once, decisively, from the grip of sin and evil. Of course we can find other myths, other stories from different cultures that also follow the same pattern. These are the stories that resonate with us because they reflect our deepest need – someone Who comes from outside, yet is also one of us, someone more powerful Who can help and save us. No wonder stories of superheroes have always been so popular!

But there’s an important distinction between Jesus and Superman – quite apart from the fact that one is real and the other is fictional. It’s a striking difference, yet one that we don’t always notice or focus on. And it’s the difference that changes everything.

In all the superhero stories, the hero triumphs by being stronger than his opponent. Oh, he may suffer for a time – he may be imprisoned, or captured, or tortured – but he always emerges triumphant and defeats his enemy. By definition, a superhero is strong, and his strength is what enables him to win every battle.

Was Jesus strong? Physically, we don’t know. He certainly didn’t have superhero-strength – or at least, if He did, the Bible doesn’t mention it. He was probably as physically strong as any ordinary man of His times who spent much of His life doing manual labor. But the Gospels never record a situation where Jesus triumphed through the use of physical force. He meets the devil in the wilderness, but defeats him through the use of Scripture verses rather than winning a wrestling match with Satan.

Jesus did have other kinds of strength, though. He had strength of character. The Bible tells us He was without sin. Through His incredibly close connection with God the Father, He had the ability to heal, to perform miracles, even to walk on water! Yes, Jesus was strong in many ways, and He used these strengths to help and bless others throughout His life.

But at the moment of Jesus’ greatest conflict, He triumphed not by being strong, but by being weak. His most amazing, most triumphant, most victorious act was not to burst out of prison or defeat a criminal, but to hang on the cross, dying the death of a criminal Himself. As Isaiah 53, verse 3 says:

“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.”

Today the cross has become so powerful as a religious symbol that we don’t fully appreciate what a symbol of shame and disgrace it was in Roman times. It was the instrument the Romans used to execute, not Roman citizens who committed a crime, but foreigners, rebel slaves, and terrorists. It was a horrible death. We might have some tiny glimpse of it if we imagine a person dying in the electric chair or by lethal injection today, but that doesn’t really give us a sense of it, since crucifixion was a method of torture as well as execution. Nobody was proud to say that they followed a Man who had died on a cross. In the early days of Christianity, Christians didn’t even use the cross as a symbol to identify themselves, as they began to do later – it was too shameful, too shocking.

The ancient Israelites, long before the time of Roman rule, didn’t know about crucifixion. They knew about hanging someone as a method of punishment, and they decreed that anyone who was hung from a tree was cursed by God. The apostle Paul takes this Old Testament verse and applies it to Jesus’ death on the cross in Galatians, chapter 3, verse 13, where he writes: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.’”

Nobody would have looked up at Jesus, hanging on the cross, and thought, “This man is a hero! This man has triumphed! He has succeeded!” Death on a cross was clear evidence of absolute failure, of weakness rather than strength.

Can you imagine Superman on a cross? Perhaps a superhero might endure a similar fate – but only temporarily. It would be just a roadblock on his way to ultimate victory. He would come back from the shame and defeat stronger than ever and overwhelm the enemy with his mighty power.

But, you might ask, isn’t that the same as Jesus? For Him, too, the cross was a temporary setback, for He rose from the grave three days later, triumphant.

True – but here’s the important point, the point we so often miss. Though Jesus’ resurrection was a vital part of the story, and His victory would not have been complete without it. He didn’t have to wait until resurrection morning to triumph over sin. The cross wasn’t just a temporary setback on the road to victory – the cross was His victory. It was by His defeat, by being destroyed by the powers of sin, that He won His victory over them.

What an amazing truth this is! We are so used to stories of heroes who triumph by being strong, that we often don’t realize that every time we pray, we worship a hero who triumphed through weakness. It was in suffering that Jesus’ greatest strength was proven. It was in dying that He won our victory, by paying the price for sin and breaking the power of death and the grave.

Nobody could have known that, walking past the hill of Golgotha that day, seeing the little knot of people gathered at the feet of one of the many crosses that dotted that sad hillside. Jesus would have looked like no more than another criminal, one more poor, tortured loser suffering along with the others. Perhaps He had a few more friends there to mourn Him, but essentially, in the eyes of those watching, He was no different from the others. He had failed. He suffered. He was about to die a horrible, shameful death.

Only in the light of the resurrection can we look back and see that the cross was Jesus’ greatest moment. He didn’t triumph over sin and Satan by winning a swordfight or a boxing match or by using magical powers. He won by losing. He won by allowing the full weight of sin to fall upon Him and crush Him – so that the rest of us could be saved.

And what does that mean for us today? It means that we’re not saved by Superman or Spiderman or any other superhero. It means that strength and power are not the ultimate source of our salvation. It means that we can take comfort from the words that God gave to the apostle Paul, recorded in 2 Corinthians 12, verses 9 and 10:

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Speaking of his own prayer to be freed from suffering, Paul says that God didn’t answer that prayer as he had hoped. His power is made perfect in weakness. When we are weak, then we are able to be strong in Him – just as Jesus Himself was, suffering and dying on a Roman cross.

You see, God’s definition of success is not the world’s definition. God doesn’t save us the way a superhero saves – through overwhelming strength, through the use of force and violence. Instead, He conquers through weakness and saves through suffering. The values of His kingdom are completely upside-down from the values of this world.

Is that the kind of Savior you want? Maybe on some level we’d prefer Superman or Batman to swoop down and save the day. But instead we have Jesus, dying on a cross, taking our sin and shame and suffering upon Himself. And He promises the same path for each of us – a path that leads through weakness and suffering, so that we can glory in God’s strength rather than in our own.

If you feel weak today, remember the lesson of the cross. God’s power is made perfect in weakness. Place yourself, your situation, in His hands, so that He can bring triumph through your suffering. Join me now as we pray.

PRAYER: Dear Father in heaven, it comforts us so much to know that in our weakness, You are strong. Give us the strength we need to face life’s challenges, just as Jesus found strength when He faced His greatest test. For it is in His name that we pray, Amen.