Today was Palm Sunday. I had the opportunity to preach at Believer's Baptist Fellowship in Hendersonville, TN. During the service, the congregation read together the story of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey and
everyone waving palm branches and laying their coats on the road in front of
Jesus shouting Hosannah to the one who comes in the name of the Lord. This story reminded me of Martin Luther’s use of the concept of “Right-handed” and“Left-handed” Power. In this context,
right-handed power is power that is derived from might and force. It is a power
built on hierarchies, manipulation and military might. Left-handed power, the
power that Jesus demonstrates again and again, is a power that subverts the
hierarchies, uses the power of self-control, and challenges the traditional
order.
A military leader, driven by
“right-handed power”, would have ridden into Jerusalem on a powerful white
stallion. He would display his military might with a show of troops and
weapons. He would demonstrate his power
and domination by parading conquered people through the streets as defeated
slaves. There would be no doubt about
the authority of such a leader, but such a person would lead by power,
might, and coercion.
On Palm Sunday, we recall Jesus,
who comes riding on into Jerusalem, not on a stallion, but on a lowly
donkey. There are no weapons. There are no defeated slaves. Jesus’ presentation is the opposite of what
might have been expected in his day, but Jesus is welcomed as one who is
great. Did all of the people there
understand who Jesus was and what kind of leader he was? Obviously not. Not even his inner circle of 12 fully understood
that, but there was something about this man that drew people to him. Jesus is once
again demonstrating His power through humility, and it is on this idea that I
would like to offer reflection.
The New Testament lectionary
reading for today was Philippians 2: 5-11.
However, I would like to expand that to include vss. 1-4, because these
verses have often been misunderstood and misused in a way that ultimately hurts
people and waters down what I believe is the intended message. I am reading this passage from the NRSV this
morning, but if you are reading from another version, you will see that there
is some diversity in the interpretation of some of the words that make a
difference in how we understand this passage.
Philippians 2:1-11
If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5 Let the same mind be in you that was[a] in Christ Jesus,
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Paul’s encouragement here is
perhaps not what it seems on the surface.
I know in my own life and in the lives of others that I have met, that these
verses and others like them have often been interpreted and used in such a way
that led people to deny their own giftedness and neglect their own needs. Living
this passage out in this way, people wind up feeling inadequate and depleted. People who have attempted to live
self-sacrificially in this way, soon find themselves at the point of burnout
and resentment. This can lead to
depression, anger, and disappointment.
Instead of finding unity
in purpose, churches (and other groups) have pushed for uniformity -
uniformity of thought, beliefs, and ideas.
This push for uniformity drives those with different ideas to the
margins and excludes others. It creates
groups that lack diversity and fuels societal power structures. I seriously doubt that this is what Paul is
intending in these passages and I do not believe this is the example of Jesus
portrayed here and throughout scripture.
So, let us examine these verses to try to better understand.
Verse one may not appear as
such, but in a way, it is a challenge to us.
There is an implied question, “Does knowing Christ make a difference?” Does the love of Christ transform us? Do we find any comfort or sympathy through
our faith in Christ? Paul goes on to
say, “If this truly makes a difference, then it should show in the way you
interact with others.”
These next few verses, to me,
are the most difficult to understand; “be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord
and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition
or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let
each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.”
As we have tried to live this out, many of us have
believed that harmony is the highest virtue.
We have set aside our own thoughts and feelings in order to get along. We
have tried to “play nice” and avoid disagreements or arguments. We have tried not to think too highly of
ourselves and to always let other people get their way. We have believed that is not ok to say what
we want or what we like. We have
attempted to defer to others and to only think about what is best for them, but
not think about what is best for us. The
result of this way of trying to live out this passage, results in all the
things I mentioned above – burnout, resentment, depression, anger, and disappointment. How can we live
to the fullness of what we were created to be if we keep denying our gifts,
abilities and interests in order for others to succeed?
In our churches, we have gravitated towards being with
people who look like us, believe like us, and live like us. We have divided the body of Christ because we
cannot figure out how to live in harmony and because we cannot accomplish what
we think it might mean to be of “one mind”.
We have made this about uniformity rather than unity.
Paul’s encouragements in verses 1-4 are often taken out
of their full context of the verses that follow. Paul suggests that we look to
the example of Jesus as the guide for what this Should look like, and this may
help us to better understand these verses.
Paul is pointing out that while we call Jesus the son of God, Jesus is
part of God’s being and has existed with God and is, himself, God. However, in order to demonstrate God’s love
for us and in order to provide us an example of what is important to God, Jesus
comes to live among us as one of us.
Paul points out that Jesus is fully God, but Jesus divested himself of his
divine place, his divine privilege and his divine prerogatives. He does not
deny his own identity but chooses to not benefit from it in order to encourage
and empower others. This is Jesus’ humility.
As I look at this, I see there are some major ideas that might be
helpful to us as we learn to live this out for ourselves. I am not presenting these in order of
importance. It is just a list.
Humility does not mean denying your gifts and
abilities. Humility is not about losing
your identity. It is about working to be
all that you can be and encouraging others to be all that they can be. It is about recognizing the support and
contributions that others make to our success.
It is having the awareness that as much as some might like to believe
it, there is no such thing as a “self-made” man or woman. We were created for connection, we live in
community, and the humble person accepts the contribution of others to his or
her success with gratitude and is willing to make some sacrifices to help
others succeed as well.
In a similar vein, humility
does not see success as a zero-sum game.
A “zero-sum game” is one in which in order for someone to succeed,
someone has to lose. This idea breeds
competition and envy. It assumes that if
another is doing well, I have lost my opportunity to also do well. Our culture pushes us to be the best. Our culture values doing and values material
wealth as a measure of success. We are
pushed to look good on the outside, whether we are healthy on the inside or
not. Humility would be able to admit
when we need help. It acknowledges that
we are not self-sufficient, and we need others in our lives. It means I have gifts and abilities that I
can use to contribute to the community, but you also have gifts and abilities
for the community. I do not lose
anything if you are successful and it should not diminish you, if I am
successful. If it does, we are probably doing
it wrong.
Conceit might be defined as
thinking too highly of ourselves and Paul warns against this, but there is
such a thing as healthy self-esteem, and this is not what we are warned
against. Healthy self-esteem accurately evaluates our own abilities. We should know what we are good at, and we
should know the places that we struggle.
We should be able to be honest with ourselves and others about both of
those things. Paul’s encouragement does not prevent us from knowing our gifts
and abilities and his encouragement is not to neglect our own needs. One of the places that you see a difference
between translations of this verse is at this point. The difference in translations indicated the fact
that when Paul says let each person look not to their own interest, this might
be better rendered as “let each person not look only at their own
interests. Some of your translations of
this passage say it exactly this way. The
assumption is that we will look at our own interests and that is not a
problem. What becomes a problem is when
we look ONLY at our own interests and do not consider the needs of others or
how our actions affect others. This
indeed, is a lack of compassion and sympathy for others.
Many of us might be able to
point to various industries or companies that are notorious for minding their
own bottom line at the expense of others.
I have seen stories on the trucking industry, the owners of Trailer parks, Amazon warehouses, payday lenders, and fossil-fuel powered power plants – just to name a few of such
businesses in which the way the business is run, adversely affects the
employees, the consumer, or the environment in the interest of making more
money for the owners or the shareholders.
Focusing more on our own interest
also occurs at a personal level. We see it when a person only looks to what they are
getting out of a relationship or looks at other people as a way to get that
they want. When other people are reduced
to what we can get from them, we do damage to them, but we also hurt
ourselves. It is ok for us to have our
own wishes, dreams, desires, likes, and ambitions, but we cannot act on these
without considering the implications for others. In some cases, this might mean we sacrifice
something of our own for another’s benefit, but in other cases, it might be
working collaboratively with others to reduce the negative impact of our plans
on someone else.
Another way that I think
about this is about how we relate to people who might be lower in rank than we
are. How do we treat children, servers,
people who make less money that we do, people who are different than us, or people
who cannot “do” anything for us? Do we
see the inherent value in the person as a child of God who is also created for community,
or do we measure the other’s value by what they do or what they can do for us? Jesus made time for children. He made time for those who were shunned and
rejected. He offered great love to those
seen as bad or useless. This is what
humility looks like – not thinking about ourselves as so important as to not
take time to know the humanity of another.
So, if we revisit those first
four verses of Philippians 2, I might paraphrase them this way:
If your faith makes a
difference. If you believe that that the
love of God transforms lives. If you
believe we are called to offer compassion and sympathy to those who are hurting
and those who struggle, then let this be true in your community of faith. Strive to prioritize this love and compassion
in every aspect of your life. You don’t
have to agree on everything, but make sure you are prioritizing compassion in everything.
Make sure you are valuing people and
relationship over material goods or earthly measures of importance. Let the love of Christ and the example of
Christ be the singular focus in our life.
Community only functions when every person develops his or her gifts to
the fullest and so encourage others to be the best that they can be. When you are thinking about how you live your
own life and what you want, don’t just think about your own needs, but
also consider how your decisions will affect others. Live in a relationship where you encourage
one another, where you support one another; rejoice with those that rejoice and
cry with those who cry. Be willing to
sacrifice your own privileged position to help someone who may not have equal
opportunity. Do your best to live and
love as Jesus did so that He may be exalted in your actions. Amen.
