The Servant King

Palm Sunday Sermon

Gloria Swanson was one of Hollywood’s top actresses from the 1920’s to the 1950’s. She was quite ambitious. Early in her career, Swanson was quoted as saying, “I have gone through enough of being a nobody. I have decided that when I am a star I will be every inch and every moment the star! Everybody from the studio gate man to the highest executive will know it.” And Swanson made sure of that. Before returning from a trip to France, she sent a telegram to her film studio informing them that she expected a grand welcome when she arrived in California. To quote the telegram: “Arriving with the Marquis tomorrow morning. Stop. Please arrange ovation.” The studio knew enough not to argue with their star. An ovation was duly arranged.

Jesus does not have to arrange his own ovation when he enters Jerusalem. Word about him have been spreading through the countryside. Healer, teacher, leader: he was becoming quite a celebrity as holy week begins; too much celebrity to suit the entrenched bureaucracy. And so, even as the crowd waves its palm branches and shouts its Hosannas, the shadow of the cross looms in the background: In the bright sunlight of adoration but still on the edge of night.

Jesus is not fooled by the crowd’s adoration. He knows that public opinion is a fickle thing. One day you are a hero, the next you are out of office. You’ve got to give the public what it wants, an image consultant surely would have instructed Jesus to ride a mighty stallion into Jerusalem that day instead of a humble donkey.

The people don’t understand. They shout “Hosanna”. They yearn for a deliverer that would fight off the Roman invaders and send them packing. Jesus is a king but not the king they are expecting.

Jesus knows where he is headed. He does not welcome it: Rejection, pain and death is not the cup he would have chosen for himself but he will be obedient to his Father even if this means death. This death is necessary for our salvation:

Listen to the Message paraphrase of the Philippians text today:
“Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death - and the worst kind of death at that – a crucifixion. Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth – even those long ago dead and buried – will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all (the NIV reads that Jesus Christ is Lord), to the glorious honor of God the Father. (vv. 2:6-11)

Philippians 2:5-11 is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. It offers what may very well be one of the oldest Christological reflections (understanding of Christ) in the entire New Testament. Because of the poetic splendor of these verses, there is considerable suggestion that these texts made up an early Christian hymn, which Paul skillfully incorporates into his letter. If this is indeed the case, the theology behind this hymn represents not only Paul’s own thoughts, but also the Christological convictions of the first generation of believers.

Paul had founded the Philippian church early on during a missionary journey around A.D. 50. Paul was persecuted while in Philippi and the Christians of the church there are now also facing a significant opposition so Paul’s letter to them is a call to persistence in faith. They also experience some internal dissention. He writes to them now about 10 years after their start while he awaits trial in Rome. He challenges them to stand firm in one spirit and to strive side by side with “one mind” for the faith of the gospel (v. 1:27). He tells them that humility is essential for those who have the “mind” that was in Jesus Christ (v. 5). Philippians 2:1-13 is a reflection on humility and the example of Christ, beginning with some words of advice (vv. 1-4) and then transitioning into a poetic reflection on the shocking self-emptying of the Lord (vv. 5-11.)

The thoughts expressed in Philippians 2 will be picked up years later in what we call the Nicene Creed which was adopted by the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325 and modified in A.D 381 in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed.

Before his days on earth, Christ enjoyed complete equality with the Father (John 17:24)
Jesus is unalterably in the form of God, but he laid it willingly down for our sake. He emptied himself of his divinity to take upon himself his humanity. This is not role-playing as some would have us believe.

Even in human form, his essential nature remained unchanged; he was still God (John 5:18). Yet so that he might take away the sins of the world, he voluntarily laid aside the privileges and glory of his heavenly authority (v. 8). He surrendered the splendor of his position to identify with sinful humanity.

Christ’s action has been described as the laying aside during the incarnation of the independent use of his divine attributes. He performed miracles but always under the direction of the Father and the Holy Spirit. Jesus was so committed to his Father’s plan that he obeyed even to the point of death (Heb. 5:8)

Paul does not specifically spell it here out but there is an obvious parallel between Adam and Jesus, who was known as the second Adam. The comparison juxtaposes the disobedience of the human Adam, who grasped at a divine status that was not his to take, with the obedience of a truly divine Christ, who gladly relinquished divinity for the sake of saving fallen humanity.

“Taking the form of a slave/servant” and “being made/born in human likeness” are both ways of identifying Jesus as fully human. The “slave” or “servant” image certainly calls to mind the Suffering Servant of Isaiah chapters 42-53 – a servant who also willingly undergoes suffering and humiliation for the sake of others. But the “slavery” this emptied Christ takes on could also be a reference to the weight of human sinfulness under which all men and women are born.

While I was pondering Jesus’ sacrifice this week, I thought of a wonderful Charles Wesley Hymn titled, “And Can it Be That I Should Gain” (UMH 363). Turn to your hymnal and sing these poignant words with me:

1. And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior's blood!
Died he for me? who caused his pain!
For me? who him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be
that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be
that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

2. He left his Father's throne above
(so free, so infinite his grace!),
emptied himself of all but love,
and bled for Adam's helpless race.
'Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for O my God, it found out me!

I took a class in seminary which touched me and touches me still. I mentioned this before. It was a class on “suffering and the atonement.” We talked about what we think happened on the cross. It really remains a mystery after all. But one of the theories which deeply resonates with me is Peter Abelard’s (Dialectician philosopher and theologian born 1079. Died 1142) Moral Influence Theory. This is what we have been singing about this morning. Rather than a payment to or victory over the Devil, or a satisfaction of a debt owed to God, Abelard sees Jesus’ life and death as a demonstration of God’s love that moves sinners to repent and love God.

When you and I understand (even in glimpses, imperfectly) that we are loved beyond words, something happens to our heart: It begins to melt. We find ourselves wanting to love God and people back. In ways I don’t fully understand, we find ourselves drawn to this Jesus and wanting to follow him.

Do you remember last week’s sermon on John 12:1-8, when Mary anoints Jesus’ feet with expensive perfumed ointment? In that story we get to see Jesus’ humanity. He had to have been scared and troubled by what laid ahead. He was so close to Jerusalem and he knew what awaited him there. He needed and welcomed Mary’s extravagant act of love and devotion for him. She loved him deeply and responded to the love she had received. Maybe Jesus had healed her somewhere, sometime along the way, during one of his visits to Bethany. That is an incredible story.

Our text today is an incredible story too. Imagine: Christianity is a new religion and God is depicted as a slave who emptied and humbled himself!

The whole New Testament is incredible: It depicts a man who is born in a barn, in a obscure corner of a Roman-ruled province; We see a man who is tempted in the wilderness; a man who needs love and comfort like the rest of us; a man who struggles and prays a heart breaking prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane; a man who ends up suffering pain beyond comprehension and dying nailed to a cross because he loves us more than his life…

And this is God!?

I am telling you, this is one of the reasons which tipped my heart toward Jesus. We have a God who loves us beyond words to the point of coming in the flesh, to live and die to save us. This is one of the reasons I know God is real. Who in their right mind would depict a God on the cross if it were not true? It does not seem to me that this would be the best way to get followers. A God who dies on the cross!? Why not talk instead of a god who is all mighty, ruling from above, untouched by our lives below. This is nuts! Yet 1 Corinthians 1:18 says it this way: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

Paul used this beautiful hymn to the Philippian church (but also to us): So that our hearts would be touched and transformed; So that the same attitude of humility and selflessness would be in us too. Believers cannot duplicate the precise ministry of Jesus but they can display the same attitude.

Paul exhorts his readers and listeners to have the same attitude as Christ. What does that mean?
I often spend time during the week with pastors. Most are male. Invariably we talk about sports or cars. I am also married to a car enthusiast. So I hear car stories and the following is one I heard:

A man had posted an article he had written on the Internet about an old car he once had. In his words, this car was ratty and ragged, driven when he was a poor college student. He was having trouble with something he couldn’t readily identify, so he took it to the repair shop. The mechanic looked at it a couple of minutes and said, “What you really need is the radiator cap solution.”
“Oh” said the young automobile owner, trying not to sound too confused. “Do you mean the radiator cap isn’t holding enough pressure?”

“That’s part of the problem” said the mechanic. “You need to lift the radiator cap and drive another car under it. Then the next day you can replace the radiator cap, and it should solve your problem.”

In order to have the mind and heart of Christ, that is what we would have to do – replace not just our attitudes and opinions, but lift these attitudes and opinions and drive a whole new person under them, then throw the old attitudes and opinons out and replace them with new ones.

When we let Jesus in our hearts, we can be transformed in that way. We become new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). We become more like Jesus and with the Spirit’s help we can get to the point of saying to God, “Not my will but your will be done.”

Have you checked for attitudes lately? Are they Christ-like?