The Weakest Link

A very popular quiz show on UK television during the last decade was called ‘The Weakest Link’. Essentially it took the form of nine contestants pitting their skills against each other at answering questions posed by the strict and sometimes sarcastic quiz host. As each round progressed, the contestants formed alliances with each other to eliminate other contestants whom they regarded as the ‘weakest link’. This continued until only two contestants were left, who then fought each other for the cash prize that had been accumulating during the programme.

In many ways, the quiz embodied the philosophy, held by so many, that human beings and every other living creature must have somehow evolved to their present state by the strongest and fittest surviving at the expense of the weak. Some Christian believers have even embraced this belief, but to me it’s something that’s inconsistent with the God I see in the Bible, who seems to have such a heart for the weak and the vulnerable.

From the earliest chapters of his written record of human history in the Bible, we see God choosing men and women who are the least, and not the greatest. If He truly designed creation to evolve by favouring the strong and the fit, He’d be going against His own nature by reaching out to help the weak and the oppressed.

The truth stated in our verse for today is in stark contrast to the ‘wisdom’ of this world. God chooses the weak and despised people of the world to shame those who think they’re strong and noble. He cares about the marginalised and the poor, the outcast and the rejected.

If you feel weak today, and seemingly disqualified by the world around you, know that God’s heart is for you. When He came to earth as a human being in the person of His Son Jesus, He couldn’t have become any weaker. He was born as a helpless baby, dependent on a human mother for survival. As a man, Jesus then took the lowest place, and suffered the cruellest death possible, on a cross. So, the most broken and weakest of us can find, in Him, someone who truly understands and cares.

It’s good for us, as Christians, to remember that God chose us when we were lost sinners, and when we were weak and helpless, especially as we grow in our Christian walk. Sometimes we can start to think we’re strong in ourselves, and then the Lord needs to allow us to go through seasons where we feel our weakness again. The Apostle Paul said ‘When I am weak, then I am strong’ (2 Corinthians 12:10b). We all need to be able to echo those words, to truly depend on the Lord, and, also, to have compassion on those other ‘weak ones’ he wants us to reach out to.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You that Your amazing grace will always be sufficient for me, and Your power always made perfect in my weakness. Amen.