Day 36—Holy Tuesday, April 15, 2025

1 Corinthians 1:26-31

Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.

I learned very early to hide my vulnerabilities. I learned very early that this world was a dangerous place and you’d better toughen up if you were going to make it. So I did. I learned grit and determination, strength and courage. I stood up to bullies and protected those who could not protect themselves. I took pride in my resilience. It didn’t help that surrounding society celebrated and encouraged this kind of stoicism. The stronger I became the more I was rewarded so I became stronger even still.

Until I wasn’t. Until I had to face my own weakness. Until I had to accept the reality that I was a mere human, broken and needy like everyone else. Thankfully, in God’s upside-down kingdom, it turns out that weakness is exactly where we need to be. And nothing teaches us that truth quite like the events of Holy Week.

Today, on Holy Tuesday Jesus’s strength and moral fortitude are on full display as he curses the fig tree and delivers the Olivet discourse. In it, he challenges the religious establishment, saying things like

“Blind guides!…For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness…Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell?” (Matthew 23:24-33)

Now this is a Jesus I can get on board with, a Jesus whose fortitude and passion exude a strength and determination. This is a Jesus I can follow—the Jesus of overturning tables in the temple, the Jesus who stands up for the oppressed, the Jesus who digs deep to find that grit and depth of character that would make anyone proud.

But in just a few short days, this strong Jesus will be weak. He will be low and despised and reduced to nothing. He will be shamed and exposed, vulnerable to all the dangers of the world.  And in the ultimate display of solidarity with those on the margins, this same Jesus, the powerful Son of God, will die because he refuses to fight back.

When I think of today’s text in light of this, I see the shape of the One, who by human standards, was a failure. But I also see the beauty of grace, that inbreaking of God’s presence and provision that can’t be explained in human terms. I see the wisdom of God in inviting us into weakness so that we can finally receive all that God is ready to pour out upon us.

I don’t think I’ve ever believed that I earned God’s grace or approval, but I’m not sure I understood my desperate need for it either. Surrounded by a culture that celebrates power and self-reliance, we must remember that it is the weak who receive grace because they are the ones who need it most. And so, slowly and steadily, I’m learning to let myself be weak, to embrace those vulnerabilities and wounds that I’d rather hide. I’m learning that it is here in the tender, broken places that grace shows up.

-Hannah Anderson