Palm Sunday/Sunday of the Passion
Phil
2:5-11
4/5/20
One of the things I find endearing
about Marion is the annual Homecoming parade.
I had never experienced anything like it before moving here. Growing up, my hometown of Bloomington, IN
had two high schools that were both larger than Marion High. The city had
divided loyalties to begin with, and then on top of that it was also home to
Indiana University. The university
sports scene dominated everything, and so the idea of a homecoming parade for
one of the high schools was just never going to happen.
After that I lived in Ann Arbor, MI,
St. Louis, the Washington, D.C. area, Dallas and Chicago. Once again, in these large settings there was
never a community homecoming parade for a high school. That was just not how
life worked.
And so when we moved to Marion, the
first homecoming parade was a bit of a shock.
I had never seen anything like it, except in movies that were portraying
a scene of small town Americana. Yet
here it was passing by the church – shutting down Carbon St. for a time, in a mood
of celebration shared by young and old alike.
A mood of celebration and excitement
certainly was shared by all on Palm Sunday as Jesus entered into
Jerusalem. In the reading from John chapter
twelve that we heard at the very beginning of the service we learn that a large
crowed that had come to the feast of the Passover, heard that Jesus was coming
to Jerusalem. Jesus was already a
celebrity. But he had just done
something nearby that had people even more interested than normal – he had
raised his friend Lazarus from the dead.
We learn that the large crowed took branches
of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed
is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”
With excitement and joy they greeted Jesus as he rode in on donkey. It was quite a celebration, and even the
Pharisees could see this. In disgust
they said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the
world has gone after him.”
For
Jesus’ disciples it must have been thrilling to see their Lord acclaimed in
this way. Perhaps it was enough to make
them forget – or at least help them to ignore – the fact that Jesus had on
multiple occasions predicted his coming passion in Jerusalem. At that moment, as the crowed greeted Jesus
with joy and excitement, surely they could not fathom that on Friday morning at
nine a.m. Jesus would hang, nailed to cross.
Of course Jesus knew it was going to
happen. That was why he had come to
Jerusalem. He had told the disciples in
very direct and plain words. Matthew tells us, “And as Jesus was going up to
Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, ‘See, we
are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the
chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death
and deliver him
over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will
be raised on the third day.’”
Jesus knew it would happen because
this was the goal of everything he had done.
He, the eternal Son of God, had entered into our world as he was
conceived in the virgin Mary through the work of the Holy Spirit. He had been baptized by John the Baptist and
anointed by the Holy Spirit. He had resisted
the devil’s temptations. He had engaged
in a ministry of teaching and healing.
Jesus Christ had done all of it in order to arrive at this week. He had done all of it in order to hang on a
Roman cross in Jerusalem on Friday morning.
That is what St. Paul is telling us in
the epistle lesson this morning. He
writes, “Have
this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he
was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be
grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of
a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” The Son of God is one substance with the
Father. He is true God in every way. At
yet in the incarnation he emptied himself and took on the form of a servant.
The incarnation was about serving.
It
was about serving in an unimaginable way. Paul tells us, “And being found in
human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of
death, even death on a cross.”
Jesus Christ humbled himself in order to carry out the Father’s will. As
the eternal and almighty Son of God, the Son could not be killed. But by taking on a human nature in the
incarnation – by becoming the God-man, Jesus Christ could be killed. He could
suffer death. And that was the point.
Adam’s
disobedience brought sin and death into the world. God warned Adam before the Fall,
and it has been true ever since: The wages of sin is death. Now, Jesus Christ had come as the second Adam
to act in obedience – obedience to the point of death. As Paul told the Romans, “For as by the one man's disobedience the
many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be
made righteous.”
God sent
Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God to atone for sin. He sent him to be the sacrifice, for sin
required punishment by the just God.
Paul says, “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a
gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received
by faith.” God did this “to show his righteousness at the present
time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in
Jesus.”
We have heard this many times. Theologically it all “makes sense.” Yet in our text, Paul adds one phrase that is
meant to shatter any sense that we are comfortable with Jesus’ sacrifice. He says, “And being found in human form, he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Many
people have died heroic deaths defending or protecting others. But Jesus, the
incarnate Son of God, was obedient to the point of death on a cross. The cross
was the most humiliating and painful form of execution that existed in the
Roman world. And for that reason, the Romans government embraced its use. The
cross was about shame and helplessness.
Only those whom the Romans considered to be far less than themselves
could be subjected to it. It was such
terrible thing, that polite Roman company didn’t even talk about it.
Yet
this was the way God carried out his
saving work for us. And in doing so he throws out any notion that the death of
Jesus makes sense to human reason. Paul
came out and said this when He told the Corinthians, “For
the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to
us who are being saved it is the power of God.” He added, “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek
wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews
and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
In
obedience to the Father, Jesus suffered and died on a cross. As the God-man, he died. And then they did to him what was done for all who died –
the buried him in a tomb. This is the
Sunday of the Passion as we begin Holy Week.
Holy Week itself ends with the dead body of Jesus in a sealed tomb.
But
I’ll give you a preview of what happened after that. He didn’t stay dead. Instead, on the third day God raised Jesus
from the dead. He defeated death through
the resurrection, just as he defeated sin by Jesus’ death on the cross.
And
God didn’t just raise Jesus. He exalted
him as the ascended Lord who has all authority.
Paul goes on to say in our text: “Therefore God has highly
exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on
earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Our
text has received massive attention from biblical scholarship – and for good
reason. The things we have just talked
about get at the heart of the person of Jesus Christ and his saving work. But
we also need to pay attention to why Paul
tells us these things.
He
begins by saying: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ
Jesus.” The reason he says this is
because he has just been talking about how Christians are to live. He began by urging the Philippians to live in
unity with one another as he said: “So if there is any encouragement in Christ,
any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit,
any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same
mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.”
And then Paul gives a description of
what behavior guided by this looks like. He says, “Do nothing from rivalry
or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than
yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also
to the interests of others.”
Now Jesus was obedient to the point
of death, even death on a cross, because we don’t always act this way. Yet, you have been baptized into Christ. You have been buried with him through
baptism. His saving death has become
yours and so your sins are forgiven. It
was the Spirit who worked regeneration in that baptism. And this is why Paul
says in Romans, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order
that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the
Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
The Spirit who raised Jesus from the
dead has made you a new creation in Christ.
The power of Christ’s resurrection is already at work in you. And that
is why Paul can say in our text, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is
yours in Christ Jesus.” Jesus Christ’s
act of sacrificial humility becomes the pattern of life for those who are in
Christ.
So, Paul is saying, because of what
Jesus has done for you; because of what Jesus’ Spirit is doing in you, act in humility
like Jesus. Put other people first and
look out for them. Don’t only think
about yourself, but take care of others.
You’ve been forgiven so that you
can act in this way.
The place this begins is the place many
of you are seeing a lot of these days – at home. Live this out by seeking to help your spouse
or siblings. Put their needs ahead of
your own. Seek to help them in ways that
make their life better, easier and more joyful. For when you do this, you are
living as Jesus in their midst. You are living with the mind of Christ that
Jesus made possible by being obedient to the point of death – even death on a
cross.
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