Along the street that leads to our house, several cacti grow by the sidewalk.  They grow on someone’s lawn, and they do not change at all during the course of four seasons. 

 Cactus, as you all know, is a tropical plant that usually grows in the South.  There are some five thousand different species of cactus around the world.  Cactus thrives in hot and arid climate, like deserts of Arizona and Nevada.  Within its cells, cactus stores a lot of moisture; in fact, cactus is like a reservoir of water in a dry desert.  Such characteristics allow cactus to survive in dry, arid climates.

But there is a reason why I have a special interest in cactus.  As you know, all types of cactus have thorns.  There is no cactus without thorns and cactus also blooms beautiful flowers according to season.  No matter how beautiful flowers it may bloom, a cactus always has thorns.  And cactus flower usually blooms amongst, or wedged in between the thorns.  For those cacti with large, long thorns, the flowers tend to be small and beautiful; for those with small, sliver-like thorns, the flowers tend to be large.

Then why does a cactus have thorns?  If a cactus had no thorns, more people would be able to admire, touch, and get closer to these beautiful flower-bearing plants.  First of all, because it stores a lot of water, a cactus is a prime target of herbivorous, or plant-eating, animals of the desert.  A lot of thirsty desert animals will look to cactus as a source of much-needed liquid.  The thorn on the cactus, then, acts as a self-defense mechanism, to ward off these animals from the cactus.  The tough outer tissues of the cactus, which contain and hold these thorns, also prevent moisture from evaporating out of the inner cells.  The thorn-embedded outer skin of the cactus acts as a storage tank of all the moisture that is held inside the cactus, to prevent evaporation to allow the cactus to survive in the extremely dry climates.

Nowadays, a cactus has wide uses around the world.  It is used as an ornamental plant, as a medicinal plant, as a source of food (cactus tea and honey), as animal feed, and as cosmetics ingredient (lotions, creams, soaps, etc.).  The rough and thorny cactus is able to bear beautiful flowers because of these thorns, and it is because of these thorns that cactus survive long enough to be of use to humans.

One day, while looking at the thorns on a cactus that grows on our side of the street, I got to thinking about the thorn in Peter’s side and the story of a Korean-Japanese baseball player I read in a book called A Low Fence. 

The thorns on the cactus serve several useful purposes, despite its often hideous and prickly appearance.  These thorns are the weapons that protect the cactus from outside elements.  It keeps the cactus alive, protecting it from preying animals and crippling heat of its environment.  Likewise, the thorn that bothered Peter also served a crucial purpose.

In the 12^th chapter of the Second Epistle of Corinthians, Peter prayed three times to God to eliminate the ‘envoy of Satan,’ or the ‘prickly thorn’ that was tormenting him.  Scholars interpret this thorn as either a disease or a psychological anguish.  If it were a disease, it would probably have been an eye disease.  If it were a psychological pain, then it would have been a mental anguish stemming from the guilt he felt for his past transgressions as a tormentor and persecutor of Christians.

Either way, the pain was real and Paul felt great anguish and pain.  That is why he prayed three times to God.  For a great disciple like Paul to pray three times, it means that he did something like three iterations ‘40-day fasting prayers.’  But how did God answer Peter’s prayers?

2 Corinthians 12: 9-10 states the following.  “And he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’  Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  God told Peter that he would have to live with these thorns for the rest of his life.  Only when one has thorns in his side that he is humbled, that he does not depend on his own abilities, and that he looks to God for help.  In short, the thorns were a path, a mechanism, for Peter to humble himself and accept the grace of God.

In the winter of 1944, in Hiroshima, Japan, four boys gathered around a log fire to bake and eat some sweet potatoes.  Behind these four boys, a truck was backing up.  Unfortunately, the driver of the truck did not see these four boys crouching around a fire.  When the truck approached, the three older boys were able to get out of the way; however, the youngest boy, deeply occupied with eating sweet potato, was not able to get out of the way.  As the truck bumped into him, the boy fell forward, his right hand plunging into the burning log fire.

The boy was rushed to a hospital, but many people were waiting ahead of this boy.  His turn came very late, and his status as a Japanese-born Korean had a lot to do with that.  He was eventually seen, but not until it was too late only the thumb and the index finger remained in tact on his right hand, with remaining three fingers burned and fused together by the fire.  The boy ended up with a thumb, an index finger, and a very large disfigured finger on his right hand.

As he grew older, this boy wanted to play baseball.  But since he was right-handed, he decided to be left-handed in order to play baseball.  Determined that ‘if I can’t do it with my right hand, then I’ll do it with my left,’ he learned to throw and catch as a left-handed person.  Although there was a great decrease in strength in his right hand, he remained a right-handed batter.  This boy would go on to become one of the greatest sluggers in Japanese professional baseball.  He had 3,083 hits while recording a career batting average of .391.  Do you know who this is?  He is famously known as Chang Hoon.  Although people called him a baseball natural, a baseball genius, he was a handicapped person, with disability in his right hand.

To Chang Hoon, his right hand was the thorn in his side.  As a baseball player, it should have been a crippling handicap.  But because of his three-fingered, disfigured right hand, he was able to become a greater baseball player.  For him, the handicap on his right hand was the path, the mechanism that brought him greater glory and blessings!

Today, we will take a look at today’s scripture while thinking about the thorn on a cactus, the thorn in Peter’s side, and the thorn in Chang Hoon’s side.  Today’s scripture is widely known as a letter that Peter sent to the ‘diaspora Christians,’ or Christians that were scattered throughout Asia Minor.  These Christians, who lived in five regions of Asia Minor, were newly converted Christians.  Although they had great faith in their new religion, they were also very afraid of gruesome persecution that most Christians had to suffer in that time.  During those days, believing in Christ was no easy thing.  It was an endeavor that could cost someone his or her life.  These Christians, who were very fearful of suffering and martyrdom, probably had three choices to choose from, when faced with the moment of truth.

The first option is giving up all hope.  Thinking that there is no exit, one is completely overwhelmed and paralyzed by fear of suffering and death (martyrdom), eventually giving up one’s belief in Christianity.  The second option is denial or escapism.  Although the reality poses great dangers, one refuses to accept reality and pretends that there is no danger.  Denial leads to refusal to face and accept reality which ultimately results in running away from reality.  Even though one professes to be a Christian, he does not have the faith to face and fight for his beliefs and his religion.  Third option is when one accepts today’s suffering, believing it to be a part of God’s great intent, and perseveres through faith.

Disciple Paul is asking the recipients of his letter to take the third option.  He is telling them that the suffering they are faced with is all part of God’s grand yet secret plan.  Most of all, those who are suffering have the living hope, which stems from the resurrection of Christ.  Because hope of resurrection is a living hope, as opposed to lifeless or dead hope, it promises Christians great and new inheritances in Heaven.  These inheritances are, as outlined in verse 4 of today’s scripture, imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.

Christians have this great promise from Heaven, of imperishable, undefiled, and unfading inheritance a ‘living hope’ as demonstrated by resurrection of Christ.  Christians do not need to be afraid of suffering and martyrdom, or death.  Take a look at verses 6 and 7 of today’s scripture.  “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 

Christians are tempted and naturally anguish because of these temptations, or tests of fire.  No one can escape temptation and anguish.  But Christians rejoice when tempted or when they anguish.  Why? By withstanding the tests of temptation and anguish, our faith becomes stronger and more precious than the gold that perishes while being forged in a smelting pot.  Our faith cannot be forged and shaped without the tests of temptations and anguish, just as precious gold cannot be forged without tests of fire.  Without them, our faith will become delicately nurtured plants in a greenhouse, vulnerable to harsh elements of the environment.

Likewise, a cactus needs thorns.  Peter needed the prickly thorn in his side.  Chang Hoon needed the thorn of suffering.  And like them, all Christians need suffering, anguish, and tests of temptation, that is, the thorn.  Through them, our faith becomes forged and stronger, strengthened to weather the environment.  Through them, we can cultivate great character of faith.  When Jesus Christ advents, we will be able to receive His praise, glory, and noble status as children of His Kingdom.

English philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626) left an interesting yet humorous phrase.  “Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.”  Hope is good in the morning, because it gives one the expectation of what lies ahead in the day; yet, in the evening, same hope, if unrealized, becomes a stale, useless reminder of what has not been.  This kind of hope is not a living hope.  It is a lifeless or dead hope.  The living hope in Jesus Christ is good in the morning, afternoons, and evenings.  It was good yesterday, is good today, and will be good tomorrow.

Because we have this living hope, we are not afraid of the thorns.  Rather, the thorn purifies and forges us, like pure gold, so that we can become the blessed bowl that is worthy of containing God’s blessings.

Sir Harry Lauder (1870-1950) was a famous Scottish singer, composer, and comedian.  His only son, Captain John Lauder, died during World War I in France.  Despite receiving the news that his only son had died in war, Harry Lauder had to appear on stage that evening to sing and humor the audience.  From this, an unforgettable phrase was coined:  “The Show must go on!”  After his performance on stage that night, Harry Lauder fainted.

He later confessed to a friend the pain and the sorrow he felt after losing his son.  “When a person comes to a thing like this, there are just three ways out of it there is to drink; there is despair; and there is God.  By God’s grace, this last is for me.”

It is true.  When faced with shocking, painful events, people try to forget by looking in other places, trying to find some activity that will enable them to forget and lessen the pain.  But such method only leads to greater sorrow, pain and emptiness.  In great despair, people can also fall into deep depression.  This also is a foolish way to cope.  Only when we approach God, He will console us.  He will transform our thorns into a flower wreath.

A cactus must have thorns.  Thorns allow a cactus to live.  Because of the prickly thorn in his side, Peter became one of the unforgettable heroes in the history of Christianity.  Because of the thorn called disfigured right hand, Chang Hoon became a renowned baseball player.  Because of the thorn called the loss of only son, Harry Lauder became a greater man.

A cactus without a thorn is not a cactus!  Christians without the thorn called suffering are not genuine Christians!  God creates genuine Christians through these thorns, training and forging them to have great faiths.  By reciting together verse 7 of today’s scripture, we will conclude today’s sermon.

“That the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 

​Amen!