Sermon for the Palm Sunday/Sunday of the Passion - Phil 2:5-11

 

  Sunday of the Passion

                                                                                                Phil 2:5-11

                                                                                                3/29/26

 

 

            Around 200 A.D. a person scratched a message into the plaster wall of a room near the Palatine Hill in Rome. He drew a picture of man looking up. Above him was a figure on a cross. However, rather than the head of man, this figure had the head of a donkey. Below the picture this individual wrote a message which said: “Alexamenos worships his god.”

            This famous piece of graffiti was written to mock a Christian and his belief. The person who wrote it was saying that to believe in Christ crucified was to believe in a jackass. He was saying that the faith of Alexamenos – and of all Christians – was completely absurd and ludicrous. Only a complete fool would believe in this crucified criminal.

            In our text this morning the apostle Paul says that Christ “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” The famous Alexamenos graffiti helps us to understand what Paul means when he says, “even death on a cross.” The weakness, shame, and humiliation of crucifixion meant that it was shocking and offensive to claim that this was God acting to save us.  It seemed that only a fool would worship a crucified Lord.

            In our text this morning Paul explains who Jesus Christ is and what he has done for us. This reading has been chosen for today because Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week. We have begun the remembrance of the week when Jesus Christ’ saving work reached its culmination.  The reading of the Passion of Our Lord according to St Matthew set before us the events we will commemorate. We will gather on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday as we consider Christ’s last supper with his disciples, his arrest, trial, and crucifixion.

            Paul begins by saying, “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 emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” The apostle begins by telling us that Jesus is God. He was in the form of God and he had equality with God.

In Galatians Paul tells us that Jesus is the Son of God who existed with the Father. Then, in the fullness of time God sent his Son into the world. In words that describe the incarnation, the apostle says in our text that the Son “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” The Son did not consider equality with God to be something that he would continue to grasp and hold onto.

Now it is not that the Son became any less truly God when he entered the world as Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Paul told the Colossians about Christ: “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” Jesus was, and still is, true God.

This emptying of himself was also not the fact that he became true man.  Jesus Christ the ascended Lord is still true God and true man today, and he is not less than the Father because of it. Remember, God declared his created world to be very good. Bodily existence is not in any way a bad thing. And Jesus took on humanity as Adam was created to be – a humanity free from sin.

The key for understanding this emptying of himself is found in the phrase, “by taking the form of a servant.” Jesus Christ was in the world to serve. Though true man, he had not ceased to be true God. He still had all of the power of the One who had created the universe. But the striking thing about Jesus’ ministry is that he did not use this power to serve himself.

Jesus worked mighty miracles. He healed those who were sick.  He gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and made the lame walk. He raised the dead. As we heard last Sunday, he fed thousands. But among all of these mighty deeds we do not see Jesus using his power to help himself. We don’t see Jesus using his power to attack and destroy his enemies. Not even in the Garden of Gethsemane as they come to arrest Jesus does he put up any resistance.

Instead, Jesus humbled himself as he carried out the Father’s will to save us. Paul says in our text, “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Christ didn’t only take on the form of a servant. He was the Servant of the Lord prophesied by Isaiah. At his baptism the Father designated Jesus as the Servant when he said, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased” and put his Spirit upon Jesus.  Jesus the sinless Son of God submitted to John’s baptism of repentance because he was taking our place; because he was taking our sins.

Jesus humbled himself. We on the other hand are not really into humility.  We prefer to focus on me, myself, and I. We want our plan, not God’s plan. We want to focus on our needs, not those of others. We want our lives to be easier and better, even if it means ignoring others in order to achieve this.

 Paul says that Christ “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” As the Servant of the Lord, Jesus humbled himself by bearing your sins and receiving God’s judgment against them on the cross. God condemned your sin in the flesh of Christ.

We view the cross as a symbol of comfort. We display the cross in our churches and homes. We wear it as jewelry around our neck. But we would never imagine doing such a thing with the guillotine, or gallows, or electric chair. This fact helps us to understand what Paul means when he says “even death on a cross.” Paul freely admitted to 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.”

To the world the cross is folly – it is moronic. That’s certainly what the person who drew the graffiti mocking Alexamenos was saying. But we know that it is in fact the power of God for salvation. It was the just God justly judging our sin in Christ. By this action he has redeemed us. He has freed us from sin so that now through faith in Christ we are justified. We have the status of being holy in God’s eyes. As Paul told the Romans, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

This week we enter into Holy Week. On Friday, Jesus will hang dead on a cross. On Saturday his body will be buried in a tomb. Paul tells us that Jesus was obedient unto death on a cross. And if death on the cross was the end of things, then faith in Christ truly would be folly.

But 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.” God highly exalted Christ by raising him from the dead. A week from today we will celebrate Easter. When God raised Jesus, he demonstrated that he had been working through the cross. What had looked like humiliation, weakness, and failure was in fact God’s most powerful action to save us.

Jesus rose from the dead on Easter. Forty days later he ascended into heaven as he was exalted to God’s right hand.  Now he exercises all power and might as the One who is still true God and true man. Paul says that every knee must bow before him in submission. Every tongue must confess that Jesus is Lord.

This is what you do now. The Holy Spirit has called you to faith in Christ. You have received the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Spirit in the water of Holy Baptism.  You confess that Jesus is Lord – he is your Lord. And because of this you have salvation.  Paul told the Romans that “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

This is what everyone will have to do on the Last Day.  The risen and ascended Lord will return in glory. Every knee will bow before him and call him Lord – even those who rejected him during their life. This will be the vindication for all who have believed and trusted in Christ – for Alexamenos and all Christians who have been mocked and ridiculed by the world. But for those who have rejected Christ the realization of the truth of the Gospel will be too late. Having rejected the forgiveness found in Christ, they will stand before God the judge in their own sinfulness and will receive eternal damnation.

Our text from Philippians is a crucial one for understanding the person and work of Jesus Christ. But what we need to note is that Paul does not engage in this discussion for its own sake. Instead, he talks about Christ in order to guide and shape the way Christians live.

Just before our text Paul says, “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.”  The apostle calls upon the Philippians to be united with one another as they live in Christ.

Then Paul describes what this looks like as he says, “Do nothing from selfish ambition 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.” He says that Christians are not to act in self-centered ways. Instead, they are to act in humility – a humility that looks out for others first. In fact Paul says that we are to count others as more significant than ourselves. We are to put them ahead of ourselves.  We are to look out for the interests of others.

Jesus Christ then becomes the model and the reason that we are able to do this. Paul says in our text, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.” Christians live and act in humility just as Christ humbled himself to save us. Here Jesus is the model for the way that we live. But he is more than a mere example.

Paul says that we are to think this way as we are in Christ Jesus. You have been baptized into Christ. Through the work of the Spirit you have been joined to Christ and his saving work. And now the Spirit of Christ is at work in you. Or as Paul told Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Through his Spirit Christ is at work in you to lead and enable you to live in his humility as you put the needs of others before your own.

This week – Holy Week – we will see how Jesus did this for us. The Son of God did not consider equality with God a thing to which he would cling. Instead he emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant. He did not use his power to serve himself, but instead he humbled himself to the point of death – even death on a cross. That is where this week ends.

The good news of the Gospel is that after seven days there is the eighth day of new creation as God raised Jesus from the dead. There is Easter. We live in the confidence provided by what Paul says today: “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.