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.
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