Philippians 2:5-11, Part 3

 

THE ROAD TO GLORY

By: Scott Grant

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The human journey

 

            We’ve spent two weeks considering the journey of God as seen in the incarnation and exaltation of Christ. Now it’s time for us to make a journey. For the journey of Christ is the journey that was marked out for humanity long ago. It’s the journey marked out for Adam and Eve and for Israel and, finally, for you and me. The journey of God, then, becomes your journey. It is the greatest journey you can make.

            The first leg of Christ’s journey, culminating in his crucifixion, inspires us to let him into our hearts. The second leg, his exaltation to the highest place, compels us to worship him. Now we must follow him. We must walk where he walked. To do so, we must continue connecting with him by opening our hearts to him and worshiping him and by marveling at his example. Also, we don’t walk the path alone. Christ himself, through his Holy Spirit, gives us strength and guidance.

            Paul inserts the story of Christ at this point in his letter to the Philippians so that we might follow the example of Christ. The grammatical links in the context of Philippians 2 are the words “humility” in verse 2 and “obeyed” in verse 12. We are to humble ourselves before God and others in the family of God and obey God just as Christ “humbled” himself and became “obedient” (verse 4).

            Our journey, then, will follow the path of Christ on the road to glory. In a metaphorical sense, we’ll go to the womb in vulnerability, to the floor as servants, to the garden in prayer, to the cross to forgive and to the throne in exaltation. This is the journey that conforms us to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29).

           

            Philippians 2:5-11:

            [5] Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: [6] Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, [7] but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. [8] And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross! [9] Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, [10] that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11] and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

 

            In Philippians 2:3-4, Paul speaks of the attitude, or mindset, that Christ exemplifies: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” He’s advocating humility that expresses itself in active love for others. Such humility creates and maintains unity so that the gospel may advance (Philippians 1:27-2:4). This is the kind of mindset that Paul wants to see, literally, “in yourselves” — in the church. One of the ways to cultivate such a mindset is to observe the life of Christ.

 

The womb

 

            It’s not that Christ grasped for equality with God. He was in very nature God, but he did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. This was his mindset that led to his remarkable actions. Instead of exploiting his position as God, he became human. In becoming human, he defines what it means to be God. He also defines what it means to be human. His definition offers a critique of competing definitions, most of which posit different ways to get and use status, power and privileges.

            The first place Christ visited in his human journey was the womb of a woman. His entry into the world as a human embryo set the course for the vulnerability he exhibited throughout his journey in the world. He lived in dependence on God.

            We all started out in the same place, of course. Each of us entered the world as a vulnerable human embryo, completely dependent on God. Will we let our entry into the world set the course for our journey in the world? When we make Christ our Lord, we acknowledge our dependence on God, in a sense, by entering the womb to be born again (John 3). In another sense, God at times takes us to the womb to show us that we are vulnerable creatures, not the Creator. Our health fails. A friend abandons us. Our dreams crash into reality. Jetliners crash into towers of strength. I have a friend who finally acknowledged God when she was giving birth and things didn’t go so well. She came to the conclusion, “I’m not in control.” God took her to the womb, so to speak, when she lost control of her own womb.

            Why would God take us to the womb? To give birth to something new. From the standpoint of the letter to the Philippians, he takes us to the womb, showing us our vulnerability, that we might acknowledge our dependence on him and assume a different posture toward status, power and privileges. They are not to be used to our own advantage. This is the mindset we must adopt and cultivate if we are to act like Jesus.

            In the movie “Braveheart,” William Wallace, a commoner, confronts the nobles of Scotland with these words: “You think your titles exist to provide you with land. I say it exists to provide the people freedom. I go to get it for them.” We must assume that whatever status, power and privileges that come our way must be used to bless others and, if need be,  relinquished in order to bless others.

 

The floor

 

            Christ “made himself nothing” (literally, “emptied himself”) by becoming a human and specifically by becoming a human slave who served God, his Master, by serving humanity. The Apostle John illustrates this in John 13:1-5, where Jesus removes his outer garments, wraps a towel around himself, as a slave, gets down on his hands and knees, and washes the feet of his disciples. When a slave washed the feet of a visitor, the master of the house was saying, “Welcome to my home. You are my honored guest. Make yourself at home.” When Jesus, the Master of Creation, washes the feet of his disciples, it’s an outlandish expression of his acceptance of them.

            Jesus not only exemplified servanthood, he taught it: “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:42-45). After washing his disciples’ feet, he tells them, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you” (John 13:14-15).

            The American dream is to rise to a position of status, power and privilege. The story of Christ beckons us to empty ourselves, to pour ourselves out, to become servants with no rights. The lowest task of a servant, which Jesus turned into the greatest task, is washing feet. For us, that means we greet and accept and honor one another and everyone who enters our midst regardless of their faults. Most people are afraid of rejection, but we accept them as our special guests so that they can see that they are the Master’s special guests. Greeting, accepting and honoring someone — faults and all — in the name of Christ can change his or her entire outlook on life.

            Kathleen Norris writes of a monk in his mid-70s who had this assessment of himself: “I am tolerant, compassionate, and bossy — probably the result of having been lucky all my life. I have, since childhood, always felt the strong support of family and friends — so strong that it has prevented my dwelling on my numerous shortcomings because it’s shown me that my shortcomings are acceptable to those I care about.” When we greet, accept and honor someone, we show him that his or her shortcomings are not only acceptable to us but to our Master as well. We take off the outer garments of expectation, we put on the towel of servanthood and we keep an eye out for whose feet we can wash.

 

The garden

 

            Christ humbled himself before God and others, taking the lowest place, not the highest place, and he became fully obedient to God, culminating in his death on the cross. Lest we get the impression that this was effortless obedience, the gospels show us Jesus in agony in the garden of Gethsemane, where he seeks the will of the Father but asks him for a path away from the cross.

            If we find Jesus in the garden, and if we aspire to be the Master’s humble and obedient servants who wash the feet of others, we must go to the garden as well. The garden is the place where the hard choices are made. It is the place where we do battle with our urges to follow a path other than that of the servant. It is the place where we present all our messy motives to God. It is the place where we wrestle with his strange purposes and wonder whether there is another way. It is the place where God receives from us our prayers and in return gives to us the strength to follow Jesus. It is the place where God transforms us from masters of our fate to servants of the Lord.

            All things considered, the garden may be a place we’d prefer to avoid. Judas left before Jesus entered the garden. The rest of the disciples, troubled by the turn of events, fell asleep in the garden. We must go to the garden and do what Jesus instructed his disciples to do there: watch and pray.

            For my annual personal retreat last year, I decided to meditate and pray through this passage. As I reflected on the story of Christ, the Holy Spirit took me to the garden, where I had to confront my own attachment to status, power and privileges. Of the seven personal retreats I’ve taken, this one was the most difficult. I didn’t sense comfort coming from God’s presence, as I have on other retreats. Instead I felt urges and motives that troubled me. I trust that whatever happened there was a good a necessary part of the journey. Every so often, we must go to the garden to do business with God.

 

The cross

 

            Strengthened by prayer and in obedience to the Father, Christ goes to the cross, where he suffered for the sin  and sorrow of the world. He was broken that the world might be blessed.

            Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). As followers of Jesus, we must go where he went: to the cross. The cross is the place where sin and sorrow gather. It is the place where we hear and see and feel the pain of others, even the pain of the world. It is the the place where our hearts break for a broken world. It is the place where we mourn and weep and intercede for others, often with groanings too deep for words. It is the place where we enter the sin and sorrow of others, come alongside them and suffer with them. We embody the love Christ demonstrated on the cross. We become the hands and feet of his suffering love.

            The cross is the place from which Jesus looked down upon his accusers and said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Most significantly, the cross is the place from which we offer forgiveness to those who have wounded us.

            Listen to the words of Martin Luther King, who took the example of Christ to heart:

            To our most bitter opponents we say: “We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capactity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. ... Throw us in jail, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.”

            Love is the most durable power in the world. This creative force, so beautifully exemplified in the life of our Christ, is the most potent instrument available in mankind’s quest for peace and security. Napoleon Bonaparte, the great military genios, looking back over his years of conquest,, is reported to have said: “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have built great empires. But upon what did they depenjd? They depended on force. But centuries ago Jesus started an empire that was build on love, and even to this day millions will die for him.” Who can doubt the veracity of these words. The great military leaders of the past have gone, and their empires have crumbled and burned to ashes, but the empire of Jesus, built solidly and majestically on the foundation of love, is still growing.”

            We are a community of broken, wounded people who have found something for our pain in the love of Jesus and then seek to apply the medicine of his love to the wounds of others. The greatest medicine we can apply is forgiveness.

 

The throne

 

            Because of the journey Christ took from heaven to earth, God exalted him by raising from the dead and enthroning him in heaven. God will do the same for those of us who follow Jesus. God shares his throne with Christ, and Christ will share his throne with us. In the new heavens and the new earth, those who humbled themselves before God and followed Jesus in this world will finally assume the position God intended for humanity. We will reign over creation. We’ll be sons of God, the lords of creation. In some sense, it’s already true. God has seated us with Christ in heaven (Ephesians 2:6), and he calls us sons of God (John 1:12). When God establishes his eternal kingdom on earth, the full implications of our position and name will be realized. “And they will  reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:5). This part of the human journey takes us to a throne, where the journey begins in the new heavens and the new earth.

            Don’t worry about your position. Don’t worry about your name. Apply yourself to knowing and following Jesus. There is stored up for you treasure in heaven that isn’t worthy to be compared to the pebbles of status, position and power we’re inclined to store up for ourselves here. In due time, God will take care of your position and your name. In God’s courtroom, you’ll be vindicated and exalted.

            When that happens, it will be “to the glory of God the Father.” When all creation sees you blessing it by ruling wisely over it along with the other followers of Jesus, it will see what God is really like. It will see what the Father has done for his precious child. It will see the Father’s child basking in the glow of his love. It will see his child doing exactly what he or she is supposed to do. To God be the glory.

 

The image of Christ

 

            This is the journey that shapes our lives, that conforms us to the image of Christ. The shape of our lives becomes “cruciform.” We are conformed to the image of Christ that we might be a blessing to others. We were made for this, and when the creature fulfills the Creator’s design, the creature is satisfied. The hard road is the beautifil road.

            It’s easy to see how such a journey would create and preserve unity in the church and therefby advance the gospel. If one does not use one’s status, power and privileges to one’s own advantage and instead yields to the needs of others, the community of Jesus can’t help but be strengthened. In the process, we make God real to the world and we show the world what he is really like.

            “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time” (2 Peter 5:6).

 

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            It’s messy, but you enter the mess. You enter the mess of a life. You enter the mess in your fellowship. You enter the mess in your church. You enter the mess in your world. And you bring with you the healing, forgiving, reconciling love of Jesus. You may get pierced and crushed and wounded, but you’re in good company. Isaiah writes of Jesus: “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). We make the wounds of Jesus effective for healing in the spheres we enter when we too risk being wounded by love.

            Many of us are afraid we don’t have it in us. We’re afraid that we don’t love very much. Let me assure you: If you have given your life to Christ, he lives within you. You have it in you because you have Christ in you. There is a powerful love resident within you that is aching to get out. You may just need to give yourself a chance. You may need to give Jesus a chance.

            Some may protest, “But you don’t understand. I’m a clutz. I don’t know how to love. All I ever do is make a mess. How can I enter the mess?”

            There’s a great scene in the movie “A River Runs Through It.” Norman and his brother Paul take a very troubled man fishing as part of Norman’s effort to befriend him. In reality, Paul is just as troubled, but in a different way. Norman feels frustrated in his efforts to help the man. The subplot is that Norman has spent many years trying to steer his brother in a better direction and been equally frustrated. Norman, in exasperation, complains to Paul, “How do you help someone like that?” In a rare moment of vulnerability, Paul says, “Well, maybe he likes someone trying to help him.” It’s Paul’s way of thanking his big brother for trying to help him.

            We all stumble and bumble our way through and wonder how in even God’s name can we ever be effective. It isn’t often clear what we should do and how we should do it. So what? Do you think it was a smooth and artful stroll for Jesus from the Praetorium, along the Via Dolorosa, up to Calvary? Perhaps someone you know, perhaps your fellowship, perhaps your church, perhaps your world would like it if you tried to help. Give love a chance. It — you! — will make a difference.

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