Palm Sunday, 2015
Shiloh Lutheran Church
Following Jesus leads us to live in ways that don’t make sense to the world. As we seek to live in obedience to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, we find ourselves valuing things that the world thinks are worthless, ordering our lives according to priorities that are exactly opposite those of the world. Donald Kraybill wrote a book on the Kingdom of God entitled The Upside Down Kingdom. Here’s something he says in the book: “The Gospels portray the kingdom of God as inverted or upside down in comparison with both ancient Palestine and modern ways.... Kingdom players follow new rules. They listen to another coach. Kingdom values challenge patterns of social life taken for granted in modern culture. Kingdom habits don’t mesh smoothly with dominant cultural trends. They may, in fact, look foolish” (p. 19).
This passage in Philippians calls us to act in ways that run counter to everything we do by nature. Paul tells us here that following Jesus involves laying aside our desire to be first, our tendency to grasp for what we want; it involves considering the needs of others, especially others in the body of Christ. By nature, as fallen people, we are self-centered. Advertisers encourage us to focus on ourselves. We deserve a break. We deserve the best. If we don’t grasp for what we want, someone else will get it. We only go through life once, so we need to reach for everything we can.
This is the culture in which we find ourselves, a culture that tells us over and over again that it’s both good and right for us to be absorbed with ourselves, that to do anything else is sheer foolishness. But in the midst of this self-absorbed environment, Jesus calls us to lay aside our desire to be first. He calls us to care for others, to sacrifice ourselves for the good of the Body. He calls us to “fly upside down,” to live by the values of the “Upside Down Kingdom.”
The Philippians were in some difficulty. Near the end of chapter one, Paul makes it clear that they were suffering persecution: “For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him” (v. 29). But they were also beginning to have conflict within the church. Paul is at pains throughout this letter to address all the saints, and he wants to be sure that they are standing “firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel” (1:27). In chapter two he has this strong exhortation about unity, and in chapter four he pleads with Euodia and Sytyche “to agree with each other in the Lord” (4:2). The situation wasn’t yet out of control: Paul was able to pray joyfully for them (1:4), and the tone of this whole letter is very warm. But they were in danger. They were under pressure from the surrounding society, and they were beginning to grate on each other.
I’ve sometimes heard Christians speak romantically about the effects of persecution on the Church. I’ve heard people describing some of the spiritual problems plaguing Christianity in America say “what the church in America really needs is a time of persecution.” It’s true that, by the miracle of God’s grace, Christians have often borne powerful testimony during times of persecution. Tertullian, the North African church father, was right when he said the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church. But that’s not the whole story. Persecution puts tremendous pressure on God’s people, and one of the by-products of this pressure has often been disunity. One of the major controversies in the early centuries of the Church was over how to deal with those who turned away during a time of persecution and later wanted to return to the Church. Those who’d suffered and lost loved ones wanted them banned. After all, they’d denied Christ to save their own lives at a time when others were willingly facing death in His name. But, at the same time, many recognized the need to show grace and forgiveness. So it’s true that God’s people have been enabled to bear a powerful witness during times of persecution. But it hasn’t been easy, and the difficulty of bearing up under the pressure of opposition has often led to tension and disunity in the church. This seems to have been the case at Philippi.
The chapter division here interrupts Paul’s thought. There’s a strong connection with what Paul has been saying in chapter one. Most translations begin 2:1 with the word “therefore” (or some variation). For example, the NASB has: “If therefore there is any encouragement in Christ....” The Greek text has the particle oun, which is normally translated “therefore.” For some reason the NIV leaves this particle untranslated, but the flow of Paul’s thought seems clearer in the other translations (some of the commentators criticize the NIV at this point). Paul is drawing a conclusion from this earlier discussion, so the thought goes like this: “For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him.... Therefore... make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.”
The first thing Paul does here, in verses 1-2, is to exhort them to make unity a priority on the basis of their common experience in Jesus Christ. Here’s how Peterson translates this in The Message: “If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care....” It’s interesting that he doesn’t begin with the assumption that they all think the same way. Churches all too often find their identity by stressing the things that set them apart from other churches. In 1976, I visited a church in Norfolk, Virginia, that had these words on the sign out front: Independent, Fundamental, Premillennial, Pretribulational. “Independent” stressed that they were not a part of a denomination, but independent churches of this type have certain things in common, in the same way that denominational churches do. “Fundamental” identified them with the conservative response to the fundamentalist/modernist controversy of the 1920's, and the other two labels advertised their beliefs about eschatology. Once we got inside, we found that they also identified themselves by a commitment to the King James Bible as the only acceptable English translation, along with a long list of other defining features. This is what bound them together as a body, and anyone in the church who had serious doubts in any of these areas would very quickly become an outsider. The thing that bound them together, the basis for their unity, was agreement with a very large set of standards.
What is the thing that binds us together as God’s people? It’s true that there are certain things we believe, but the primary thing, the thing that’s the basis for our unity, is that we are one in Jesus Christ. The Philippians have been united with Christ, they’ve known the comfort of His love, they’ve experienced the reality of fellowship in the Spirit. They’ve experienced these things as part of their “common life in Christ” (NEB). They may have little in common as individuals; we know the early church was made up of slaves, slave owners, Roman citizens and Roman subjects, Jews and Gentiles. These weren’t people who normally spent time together. These people, for the most part, saw each other as adversaries. But in Jesus Christ they became part of one body, and on the basis of this common bond, Paul urges them: “make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.”
This raises a question: if we are bound together in this way in Jesus Christ, what causes divisions? And how do we cultivate the sort of unity Paul describes here? We may recognize our common bond in Christ, but what are we to do about it? Paul answers both of these questions in vv. 3-4. The major causes of divisiveness in the church are 1) selfish ambition; 2) Obsession with our personal prestige; and 3) Concentration on ourselves (William Barclay, pp. 31-32). And the way to cultivate unity in the church is to follow Paul’s instructions here in these verses. These three things -- selfish ambition, obsession with personal prestige, and concentration on ourselves -- often go together and they inevitably lead to dissension. John’s third epistle has an example of someone like this. John had written earlier, instructing the church to welcome itinerant preachers and show hospitality to them. He says: “I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us. So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us. Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church” (vv. 9-10). He’s full of selfish ambition, vain conceit, and obsession with only his own interests. He “loves to be first.” I think we’ll one day be shocked to learn how many church splits have been caused by people like Diotrephes, who justify their actions with theological and biblical language, but who are really just grasping after first place.
Chronically divisive people like Diotrephes really belong under the subject of church discipline. Paul instructed Titus to “Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him. You may be sure that such a man is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned” (Titus 3:10-11). But we all struggle with the kind of selfishness in verses 3 & 4. What can we do? The first step is negative: we refuse to continue cultivating a self-centered spirit. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.” Every time we feel compelled to act out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, we stop ourselves. And we refuse to continue being preoccupied with only what we want. When we find ourselves dwelling on our own desires, growing anxious and resentful because of things that are standing in the way, we stop, and refuse to continue cultivating this attitude.
But we won’t get very far if we stop here. In fact, we really don’t want to dwell too much on the negative side of the process, as that will only make things worse. We need to be alert enough to notice our own selfishness, but then we need to repent of it, lay it aside and cultivate the opposite, positive qualities. Getting rid of selfish ambition and vain conceit is not our primary goal; our purpose is to cultivate a humility that values others and seeks the best for them. Our purpose is not to forget about our own interests, but to lay aside our own desires long enough to care for the needs of others. So we don’t stay with the negative. We face and deal with our self-centeredness, but then we go on to cultivate humility and concern for others.
But Paul is not interested in setting up an abstract ethical ideal. Those who reduce Christianity to an ethical system really miss the whole point of the New Testament. We cultivate these qualities Paul describes in the context of a relationship with Jesus Christ. He is the perfect example of self-denial and self-sacrifice. “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.” We want to be first, we want our own way. But Jesus “did not demand and cling to his rights as God” (NLT). Adam and Eve grasped after equality with God. And we follow them when we grasp after the best for ourselves. Jesus “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” (The Message). He laid aside His own rights as God; and having done that, He continued to humble Himself, submitting to death as a common criminal. He didn’t take care of His own interests, but He laid aside His interests for our sake. This passage in Philippians is a more extended version of what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 8:9: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”
And because of this, God has exalted Him. Jesus refused to cling to His equality with God, and because of this God has given Him a name that is above every name. He humbled Himself, and God exalted Him. We’re afraid that if we don’t fight for our own interests we’ll lose in the end. We’re afraid others will get ahead of us. But when we think like this we’re leaving God out of the picture. We’re part of an upside down kingdom. Things don’t work here in the same way that they do in the world. The surest way to lose the things that matter most is to selfishly grasp them for our own benefit. The world’s way, seeking the best for ourselves, watching out for number one, leads to death. “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:25-26).
The eternal Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity, who had every right to claim first place, laid aside His privileges for our sake. Following Him, being His disciples, means laying aside our desire to be first. We don’t have the right to claim first place anyway. He laid aside what was rightfully His; we grasp after what is not ours, that which we could only have by displacing God Himself. George Whitefield was the leader of the Evangelical Revival of the 18th Century. He introduced John and Charles Wesley to the idea of open air preaching, and had established religious societies all over England. When he traveled to the American colonies for a preaching tour, he left John Wesley in charge of his societies. Wesley was a capable leader, and the two men were close friends. They had theological differences though. Wesley was an Arminian, which means that he put more emphasis on the necessity of a human response to God; and Whitefield was a Calvinist, putting a stronger emphasis on the absolute sovereignty of God, that He is in control of all that happens. (There’s a lot more to it than this, but this is enough for our purposes today). By the time Whitefield returned to England, four years later, the Methodist movement had developed into two parts: Calvinistic Methodism, following Whitefield; and Arminian Methodism, following the Wesleys.
During Whitefield’s absence from England, there had been a growing rivalry between the two branches of Methodism, and Whitefield’s followers expected him to give leadership to their faction. They expected him to take a stand for the truth, to defend the correct position. But he didn’t want any part in the schism. He “was determined to have no part in the prevailing competitive spirit, but rather to do everything in his power to quench it” (George Whitefield, vol. 2, p. 249). He gave up his position as leader of a movement and determined that he would serve both branches of Methodism, becoming, in his own words, “simply the servant of all” (p. 251). Here’s what he wrote shortly afterwards: “I have disengaged myself from the immediate care of the Societies, and am now still more at liberty to preach the Gospel of the blessed God. I have no party to be at the head of, and through God’s grace I will have none: but as much as in me lies, will strengthen the hands of all of every denomination that preach Jesus Christ in sincerity” (p. 246).
George Whitefield is comparatively unknown today, because he was willing, for the good of the Church, to say “may the name of George Whitefield perish.” He followed the One who “being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant....”
How do we become like that? Cultivating thoughts of our own worthlessness clearly leads us in the wrong direction. It just makes us more self-absorbed. The way to grow in humility is to know more of who God is. Early in his ministry, Paul said “I am the least of the apostles” (1 Cor. 15:9). Later on he calls himself “the least of all God’s people” (Ephesians 3:8). And, near the end of his life he says this: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners -- of whom I am the worst” (1 Timothy 1:15). The more he knew of God, the more he became aware of his own sinfulness and unworthiness. The way to grow in humility is to seek God and spend time in His presence. The way to become less self-absorbed is to become more absorbed with God. “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).
People like Paul and George Whitefield became the way they were because they were imitators of Jesus Christ, who laid aside His right to be first and emptied Himself for our sake. That’s what we’re celebrating on Palm Sunday as we enter into Holy Week. Take time this week to meditate on Jesus’ self-emptying and the suffering He endured to reconcile us to God, in anticipation of celebrating the resurrection next Sunday.
