This Is A World Without Superheroes - Part 3
by Chris Kamalski
“TO BE A HUMAN BEING IS TO FIRST AND FOREMOST RECOGNIZE THAT GOD became one of us in Jesus Christ. To be human means that we recognize our lives are constituted first and foremost by God’s refusal to let us destroy ourselves. How we do that is through recognition of vulnerability.” (Stanley Hauerwas, theologian and ethicist, answering the question ‘What does it mean to be human?’)
Why is recognition of vulnerability central to being human? Of all the definitive characteristics that constitute a human being, such as the power to reason with logic, to consider the future, to speak with intelligence, or even the intangible yet undeniable presence of the human soul, why recognition of vulnerability above all other things? Perhaps the awareness of vulnerability colors every other aspect of our humanity because it is designed by God to be so. Although made in the image and likeness of God, could our (lack of) strength actually be purposeful, an intentional ‘tell’ that reminds us that both spirit and breath are drawn from the God who first dreamed us up?
Paul has a subversive take on strength and weakness in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NIV), writing “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
What if weakness was actually seen as strength in the eyes of God, for it invited humanity into a relationship designed for dependency, as human beings continually returned to God for life, breath, and strength itself? What if vulnerability is not weakness, but the deepest reality of being human, a purposeful struggle intended to draw our eyes back to the rest that alone is found in God? Could a community of vulnerability, where weakness is encouraged, actually be a community where God is most deeply felt?
All of this feels so upside-down, I suspect we may be onto something, for the Kingdom of God is truly upside-down! Maybe vulnerability doesn’t belie one’s humanity after all, but in actuality, most centrally define it, inviting us towards a life that is welcoming and open before all.
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“We are not the healers, we are not the reconcilers, we are not the givers of life. We are sinful, broken, vulnerable people who need as much care as anyone we care for. The mystery of ministry is that we have been chosen to make our own very limited and very conditional love the gateway for the unlimited and unconditional love of God.” (Henri Nouwen, In The Name Of Jesus)