The Power of the King

 

Text: Philippians 2:5-11

Focus: Lent 6

Function:

⁵Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

⁶who, though he existed in the form of God,
    did not regard equality with God
    as something to be grasped,
⁷but emptied himself,
    taking the form of a slave,
    assuming human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a human,
⁸    he humbled himself
    and became obedient to the point of death—
    even death on a cross.

⁹Therefore God exalted him even more highly
    and gave him the name
    that is above every other name,
¹⁰so that at the name given to Jesus
    every knee should bend,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹and every tongue should confess
    that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

Good morning to God’s beloved!

Again, for me, we are looking at a transformational passage of scripture. What I mean is that the lessons in this passage have played a large part in forming my spiritual journey.

My nephew, an Orthodox priest calls it the great kenoptic passage. It means that Jesus emptied himself of his heavenly glory.

It is a passage that looks into the heart of Jesus and what appears to be the onus behind his motivations, He emptied himself of his glory, authority and power to show us how to love one another and to prove to us that God and faith in God is greater than anything, even death.

In the passage, we see God’s own aversion to pride in this highly symbolic gesture of humility. And we tie that in with Palm Sunday and Jesus subverting the culture by riding into the city on the offspring of a service animal.

The Jewish people were looking for a kind of Messiah like King David who was a great military leader that delivered the people of God by faith from the power of an enemy stronger and mightier than them.

And the military leader would ride a war horse in a triumphant parade.

Jesus, on the other hand, enters Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey. It is a lowly beast of burden, much like the picture we have of Joseph and Mary coming into the stable Christmas night with Mary on a donkey instead of a horse.

Jesus is trying to show them that he is indeed the coming King and Messiah, but he isn’t a military hero. What the people didn’t know was that the kingdom of God is not political, but spiritual and it resides in the hearts of those who have decided to walk in Jesus’ way of humility and love for others.

As Carol wrote for us in the liturgy, we live in a tension Holy week between the rejoicing that we see on Palm Sunday when the crowd welcomed Jesus as the Messiah to the crowd calling out for his death at the end of the week.

I don’t believe it was entirely the same crowd. But, it is true that people are fickle and easily manipulated.

So the first lesson we have learned from this symbolic act of riding into the city is humility. And that goes to our text today how Jesus humbled himself.

The second lesson from the text today is that Jesus came to serve and we should be here with a passion to serve God like Jesus did by serving others.

By riding on the foal of a service animal instead of a war steed, I believe he shows that the new kingdom is about us learning to serve and aid others so that we all can prosper. And that aspect of living to serve the other is brought out in our text this morning when we read that Jesus didn’t act as if his equal nature with the creator was something to lord over people, but instead, he does what we do on Maundy Thursday, as leader, he washes their feet. Then he commands them to follow suit and live their lives as servants for others.

I believe that applies to us as well. It is a worldly idea to think of ourselves first over others. God wants us to think of a good that brings prosperity for both parties, not one party taking advantage over the other or capitalizing on their misfortune.

There is a third lesson from our text, and that is obedience. Jesus was obedient to God.

He had faith in the promise of God. In the garden when Jesus is wrestling with the temptation to quit and he prays fervently to God he surrenders and says to God: “Nevertheless, not my will by yours be done.”

It takes faith to believe in the power of the resurrection that even if when we suffer, God is here and God has our life held in Their hand.

The power of the king of kings is in humble, obedient, service to God.

So, as I mentioned, I believe this passage gets into the heart of Jesus and his willingness to undergo the ordeal of Holy Week and Good Friday so that we can all experience the power of the resurrection of Easter morning.

At his heart was humility and a desire to serve others first, and as our text says, serving even to the point of death.

And that sums up the first stanza of the, actually a hymn sung by the early church.

The second stanza is the consequence of the passion of the Christ. The consequence for us from Holy Week.

This is the real reason why we celebrate.

He first shows us how God is true to the promise to exalt the humble by stating that Jesus, because of his humble obedience has now been exalted to the highest name among the people of the earth.

The name of Jesus is a powerful name for us to use in prayer. When we pray in Jesus name, we are praying in that same spirit of faith that trusts that God is in control in spite of the apparent circumstances.

We rest in God.

But there is a lot more to this second stanza:

There is the promise here about the future restoration of all of humanity.

He is saying that in the end, everyone will eventually come to a place where they trust in Christ. Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is lord.

And I love the fact that he says everyone.

I am not sure how to preach the book of the Revelations of St. John at the end of the scripture since there is a warning to to add or take anything away from the book.

But in the revelation, John has a vision of heaven in the 20^th chapter. There is a Great throne and God is sitting on it. There is an Emerald colored rainbow around the throne and there are wonderful angelic creatures flying around it.

In front of the throne is a sea made of crystal and every soul of humanity is standing on the sea.

The old earth is passing away and the new heavens and earth is coming. And in that scene God opens the books and the deeds of people are exposed before God.

I don’t know if there is terror because God is perfect and we are seen to be less than perfect. The theology I was raised with had an angry God at this point ready to condemn.

But the God of the New Testament is the God of love, the father of humanity.

And it seems to me that at this point, given the nature and glory of God and the revelation of Jesus as the Anointed Messiah, that everyone who didn’t get a chance on earth to confess Christ will confess Christ then in faith.

There are theologians who point out the word for their confession means a willing or glad acknowledgment of who Jesus is. I point that out because the Apostle penning these words sees the wonder of this acknowledgment.

God saved humanity through Jesus during Holy Week and that is why we take the time to reflect and worship this week.