One of the lectionary readings for today was 1Corinthians 9:16-23. It got my mind thinking and praying about what’s happening in it. Here’s some of what that looked like…
In this passage Paul is doing something he does a good bit, showing folks how to follow Jesus by showing the concrete ways in which his life and work takes its cue directly from Jesus.
So it’s as if he’s saying, “I don’t make full use of my rights or freedoms because Jesus didn’t do that. Jesus offered himself as a servant to us all and so in my work of sharing the Good News I have to find ways to do that very thing. I am to be a servant to all people that I may perhaps win some of them to Jesus, that I may be able t direct them to Jesus through living a life that is specifically formed and shaped by his way of being w/ us. And Jesus didn’t come as someone different than us, but as our friend and brother, one who was like us and knew us.”
Then he goes on to mention three examples of the kinds of people that he becomes like in order to be like Jesus. He mentions the Jews. He mentions the Gentiles. This is in some ways, I suppose, a way to say he’s become like “EVERYBODY” cause in that world (for Jews) there were Jews (God’s people) and there was everyone else (the pagans or gentiles). I suppose in other ways it is to say what Paul says in Ephesians (I think) that in Jesus God is working to make one family out of the two, tearing down the dividing wall and Paul then has to be in on the same work. And in both of these what is at least implicit is that these two groups of people are opposites. And yet Paul, like Jesus, is to become like them both in order to direct them to Jesus.
But then Paul moves on to say, “To the weak I became weak, to win the weak.” The end.
There’s no inverse here.
Why. Why is Paul silent here about the strong?
Is he saying there really is no such thing? I think I could see that. I can buy that.
Or is he saying something like what Jesus means when he says after seeing the rich young ruler walk away from him, sad in the gospels and said, “You just can’t save the rich. That’s nearly impossible. But God can do anything.”
Or perhaps (maybe not all too different from that thought) is Paul saying you can’t be like Jesus and become like the strong. Cause Jesus showed us God through weakness, humility, suffering and death.