But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

ISAIAH 53:3 

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.

2 CORINTHIANS 12:9

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When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday he did so with the cross on his mind. The beginning of his triumphant victory, crowning him King over all, was a crucifixion. I still remember the youth group night when our leader went into graphic and gruesome details of Jesus’ death on the cross. It’s a harrowing image for anyone, when confronted with the realities of a Roman execution.*

The passage in Isaiah, pointing to Israel’s ‘suffering servant’, prophesies this torment. Jesus was pierced, he was crushed, he was punished, and it was only through these wounds that we were healed (1 Peter 2:24). In this submission to death, a deliberate weakening of his body, Jesus ironically displays his ultimate power over all things, including death itself (Hebrews 2:14–15; Colossians 2:13–15).

Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, then, frames Christ’s ultimate power as ‘made perfect in weakness’. Paul lets us peek into the mysterious purposes of Jesus’ death in the greater redemption story, our wounded healer bringing life through his broken body.

But Paul doesn’t stop there. He challenges us to boast in our weakness. I don’t know about you, but when I am introducing myself to someone new or doing a job interview, I don’t reel off my regrets or magnify my mistakes. I do the opposite, sometimes even slightly exaggerating my achievements.

Yet, Jesus put his weakness on full display for the world to speak about for the rest of time. It is through weakness that we are reminded that, unlike Jesus, we do not have an intrinsic power over death (John 10:17–18).  He is God and we are not. Through our inadequacies, Jesus’ full sufficiency is revealed. Weakness reminds us of our need for a saviour, our need for a restorer, our need for God.

This can be hard in the day-to-day if our skills are praised, our positions give us power, or we’re healthy and fit! When life is easy, we can too frequently find fulfilment in the gifts rather than the giver.

So, this Easter, let’s be bold in our prayers, asking God to show us our shortcomings. Let’s be vulnerable and boast in our blemishes. Let’s be humble and confront our faults, so God’s glory shines all the brighter through these clay vessels (2 Corinthians 4:7).

Jesus’ act upon the cross, as God-in-the-flesh, models the ironic power of weakness. By boldly embracing our wounds and humbly accepting our limits, we are able to better serve God and others.

Al and Mims Atkinson 
Al works as a lobbyist and Mims is LICC’s Culture and Discipleship Project Lead. 

How will you model the power of your weakness this week?

*See, for instance, the movie The Passion of the Christ (2004), informed by physician Alexander Metherell’s graphic description, summarised here, in Lee Strobel’s revised edition of The Case for Christ (Zondervan, 2016), 191–204.