Thorns are rigid, hard extensions of leaves, roots, or buds with
sharp stiff ends that offer a plant protection from herbivores. They are not
pretty and they do not seem to have much use, except that they burn hot.
Yet, God chose to write thorns into His redemption story. Thorns first appear
in the Scriptures in Genesis 3 when God cursed the ground with them after Adam
and Eve sinned. The thorns marred God's perfect creation, making it more
difficult for man to grow and gather his food. From that time on, every field overgrown
with thorns and thistles, every thorn covered bush we encounter on a hike, and
every painful prick we receive when we trim our roses reminds us of both the
pain we endure and the pain we cause through sin.
After Genesis, thorns were mentioned several times. They became an
intricate part of the revelation of God's grace, starting with Moses. Jesus
described the burning bush from which God spoke to Moses as a burning thorn
bush in Luke 20:37. In his article, The
Splendor of Thorns, Jud Davis says, "The One who appeared in the
Garden and pronounced the curse of thorns now reappears in the midst of the
thorns, promising deliverance."
God later instructed Israel to build the tabernacle out of Acacia
wood, which is a small bushy tree covered with long thorns. He instructed
Israel to cover it in gold. Maybe God chose to use an element that was a result
from the Curse to build a dwelling place for His glorious fiery presence as a place
He could meet with sinful men. Could it be that God was reminding mankind that
He came to deliver us from the curse--the curse which included spiritual
death?
In the New Testament thorns appeared when Jesus, who was the
promised Prophet, Messiah, and Savior all rolled into one, was about to be
crucified. First, He was stripped and beaten and then with back bleeding and
raw He was clothed in a robe and crowned with a crown made of thorns. The
soldiers may have meant the crown to be an insult because they were placing the
curse of the fall upon His brow. However, He who had the power to speak the
world into place, the power to calm angry seas with a word, the power to drive
out demons that held men captive, and had the power to silence His enemies with
a single word chose, instead, to bear the thorns for you and for me. Those
thorns on His brow--they remind us that the curse came because of our sin and
our rebellion and remind us that He, the sinless One, was willing and qualified
to bear the curse on our behalf. They remind us of the abundance of God's grace--a
grace big enough to cover all of our sin. As Davis so eloquently put it in his
article, "Adam comes naked to a live tree and spiritually murders the
entire race by a single act of disobedience. Jesus comes to a dead tree and
allows Himself to be stripped naked. Then, in the ultimate act of
obedience--His very death after a lifetime of full and total obedience to
God--He makes alive all those who would ever by God's grace repent of their
sins and trust in Him alone for salvation."
I find it interesting that God also used thorns as analogies. He
used them to warn Israel as they entered the Promised Land that if they did not
drive out the inhabitants of the land, those remaining would become like barbs
in their eyes and thorns in their sides. Even after Jesus died, rose again, and
descended into heaven, Paul used thorns as an analogy in 2 Corinthians 12:7,
"So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness
of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to
harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited." I've heard a few sermons
on this passage and most say that Paul did not specifically say what the thorn
was so we could all relate to what it is. Some claim it was a physical ailment,
some claim it was reminders of His past, and some say that it was perhaps a
fleshly weakness he had to continuously battle in the process of
sanctification. I don't think it matters, except to understand that the thorn
served to birth humility in the Apostle Paul who was shown glorious visions no
man had seen before.
I believe thorns can be all sorts of things. I also believe each
thorn will serve a purpose driven by God's grace. Thorns can be addictions we
battle daily that cause us to depend totally on God to grow in holiness. They can be besetting sins that trip us up--those sins that became ingrained before we knew Jesus that are sometimes still driven by overwhelming urges, especially when we are tired or stressed and long
most to be who Christ created us to be. The grace of these kinds of thorns
drive us to a moment by moment walk with the One who can give us victory over
them. Thorns may also be illnesses that cause pain, leaving us depleted, aching,
and a bit homesick for heaven, graciously allowing us to maintain
a heavenly perspective others don't have. They may also be lies
spoken to us by others or whispered into our minds by the Enemy that somehow
became core beliefs ingrained and seared into our brains. These can be
lies about God's goodness and His love. They can also be lies about us--lies that tell us we are unlovable, irredeemable, inadequate, and unclean. The
grace in these thorns drive us to the truth of who we are as sinful children
redeemed by grace and made clean by our God who has an unfathomable passion to save. The
grace in these is that as lies are uncovered, the daily choice to choose God's
truth breaks the power of the lies and changes the belief system one decision at
a time.
Thorns can also be painful, dysfunctional relationships. We have
all had a few of those. There were times in my youth I was thoughtless and
difficult and a thorn in the sides of others. I hope to this day God
healed people who were hurt by my choices, my words, my reactions, and my sin.
I believe there are also times when we try our best to be loving and kind and are
still a person who is a trigger or a thorn to someone. In those cases it may be
our personality, our character, our faith, or our experiences that causes
someone to experience emotional pain by simply knowing us. It is hard to be in
those situations, but it helps to remember that ultimately the pain they
experience is due to past trauma, broken relationships, or because it brings to
the surface negative beliefs and insecurities.
I know I personally was an unwilling thorn in some of my
relationships to people I cared deeply about. It was as if just my presence could
hurt them. In one relationship, it was my faith that drove the person away.
In another, it was the fact that I had five children and the other couldn't conceive. It hurt my heart that the prick of the thorn was felt
every time she saw me with my children and she was left to continue reconciling God's
sovereignty and her desire to have children. Another friend who had lost three
babies actually shared with me that seeing me with my last baby was like a
thorn in her side. I hated that her just seeing me with my baby hurt her, but
thankfully she recognized the thorn as a sign she needed to continue processing her grief, allowing us to remain friends until she passed away. For
another, it was my spiritual gifts that drove a wedge in a relationship by triggering insecurities in a very gifted person. Ironically, when I chose to
enter recovery for an eating disorder, it was my healing that at first became a
thorn in my sweet husband's side. As I got healthier, our relationship was
thrown off balance and my husband had to reconnect with a wife who now used her voice, a wife who could think for herself, and a wife who expressed opinions of her own, which challenged his distorted view
of the oneness to which God called us.
At times I hated the feeling of unintentionally being a thorn in
others' sides. At one point, I wrestled long and hard with God over that concept, grieving the discomfort and brokenness experienced. I didn't want
to be the source of pain and just wanted God to surround me with people who
would love me for me and let us all enjoy warm fuzzy feelings of
relationships as I imagined them to be. Over time I accepted that being an unintentional thorn
in another's side is a part of the iron sharpening iron sanctification process
that God uses to grow His character in us. Maybe He intentionally brings certain
people together who sharpen each other--and yes sharpening and pricking are
painful, but they are both directed and carried out by a God whose love knows
no end.
In the middle of processing these things called thorns with
friends, I realized God used those relationships, over which I wrestled, to
plop me in the middle of a ministry in which I, and those who serve with me,
have to be willing to be thorns in the sides of women, many of whom are
struggling and/or who have been victimized. As much as they want to get healthy
when pain is triggered or fear rises, we find ourselves having to firmly resist
their persistent attempts to draw us into the unhealthy, ungodly, and
self-defeating systems of denial and dysfunction formed in response
to past trauma and pain. But, it is necessary for us to be willing to
be thorns that will prick them to help them move out of denial and
self-protection so God can heal their pain and they can fulfill the calling of
God on their lives to love both God and others well.
I also realized our ministry itself is a bit of a thorn in our
church's side. Every year when we advertise groups, at least a third of our women
are reminded of pain they are stuffing and the stories they are denying. Some
are reminded of the shame they hide that was inflicted on them through abuse or shame that was self-induced by hiding sinful or self-deprecating
behaviors they use to numb. We are a thorn in the sides of people who sit in
church satisfied with surface relationships and mask wearing, because we get
real and women walk out never willing to wear masks again, refusing to deny their
stories, or be content with fake relationships. We are a thorn to those who
have mistreated, abused, or contributed to the abuse of victims because we
remind them they inflicted pain on others. We are probably even a thorn to
our leadership who are reminded that at least one third of our women in our
church have been victimized and that how they act, speak, and react to wounded
women, whom they most likely will not even be able to identify, will either cause
secondary wounding or promote healing.
I’m so thankful my church is willing to let us enter messy lives
of women in ways that facilitate healing for them and their families. There
have been a few hard conversations along the way, but they were conversations
that bore fruit. I’m thankful one of the pastors even called to
discuss a sermon he was going to preach and wanted to be sensitive to the women we serve and build them up.
As I am writing this it has occurred to me that just as the
physical thorns were woven into the redemption story, the thorns of analogy
have been intricately woven into the process of sanctification. While the
grace of the physical reminded us of both the curse and the Saviors'
willingness to bear it for us, the grace of the analogy is that it reminds us
of the need of a moment by moment walk with Jesus that results in sanctification. When God calls us to be thorns, we must remember His grace
and be willing to do what He asks whether it be speaking the truth in love,
exhorting, comforting, encouraging, or simply forgiving. Though there may be
times God calls us to walk away from painful relationships, there will be
more times He wants us to stay so sin is exposed and confessed, lies are
surfaced and replaced with truth, and pride is dissolved into humility that
allows His glory to be reflected through us. That is the grace that is
in the thorns.
https://answersingenesis.org/biology/plants/the-splendor-of-thorns/
