Philippians Part 5: Our Master Story in Christ

August 9, 2020 Series: Philippians

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, 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.


When I was a kid, I grew up in the woods. I am not that old, but my generation were the ones that had the childhood of generation Xers, with the introduction of the media of the millennial generation during high school, hence why they call my awkward generation Xennials. My childhood did not consist of tablets, cell phones, texting or social media or Facebook or anything of the sorts. We had a single television in our home, and basic cable of 12 stations, bunny ear antennas with aluminum foil.

The woods became the primary place in which I lived my childhood. My parents still live in the home, and our property consisted of around 2-3 acres, while my neighbors in the back had many dozens of acres, complete with a few acre cow pasture, that later turned into a horse pasture that sometimes contained turkeys as well. The tall thin Georgia pines kept out most of the sunlight on our property, and a small creek had carved its way through the woods over the years, and became an endless source of play time for my brother and I. Sometimes a storm would blow through and knock down a few trees, and they’d land over the creek, and this would only create endless stories of knights versus dragons, or GI Joes versus the enemy, running endlessly across the bridge to draw in battle against our foes. Sticks served as swords, and anything else we could find served as guns.

I mention my childhood and the woods that we played in because I try, most years, to drive my own family down to Georgia and allow my own children to romp and stomp through the same woods that I did. I want them to be with their grandparents, and to experience the bliss of long days spent wandering in the thick woods that their own father roamed, and who knows – maybe even my own grandchildren will do the same on the same grounds amongst the same trees.

However, when I take my children there now, I see something that was not true when I was a child. It is a bit overgrown now. My parents, now without little children in their home, aside for a few days a week watching my brother’s kids, who are still very young, the woods for almost twenty years now have been absent of my brother and I’s little feet. Before we visit each year, my father does the hard work of trimming back and cutting down many of the weeds that are grown all beside the creek, opening it up for my kids to wander around by the creek.

When I was a kid, our feet ran through the area so much that weeds never had a chance to thrive. I only remember it being a mostly bare dirt floor beside the creek, with the occasional weed here or there. On the way down, our feet over the course of time had stomped down a path through the downward sloping yard that had a few roots here or there from surrounding cedar trees that served as downward steps. However, green weeds were rarely seen. When they popped their head through the soil, the soles of our shoes would ensure that it would not see the light of day.

Today, it is a different story. As my brother’s children grow older, and as they live close by, perhaps they will create new paths open to that dirt floor by wearing out the weeds, exposing that red Georgia clay that lies beneath the overgrown once again. We will revisit this path metaphor at the end of our time today.

______ PAUSE _______

In many ways I’ve feel that I’ve preached this sermon four times, since week one of our sermon series. I’ve used this famous passage as our interpretive tool to understand all of this letter. The reason why I mention the run down paths through the Georgia woods of my childhood, which are now a bit overgrown, is that with almost despair and sadness, I must say that the public reputation of Christianity is becoming farther and farther from what we see in Philippians.

Jesus forged a new path when he became a man, when he was obedience to the point of death, even death on a cross – a new path for humanity to walk. This humble and lowly path that he has invited us to tread has become overgrown with the weeds of strength, of power, and not of weakness. It has become overgrown with weeds of us versus them mentalities, of judgmentalism, of the allowing of much pride and arrogance to seep in – things not of Christ.

There is, I believe, many reasons for this, reasons that I do not have the time to get into. But I do want to point this out to some of you who, if you’re a thinking person, may be confused a little at the intensity of my words. I say with full confidence that this passage in Philippians 2 is the very reason why Jesus calls people to be his disciples. If we were to traverse the path that he forged through his incarnation, through his becoming a human being, as we will go in depths with this morning, we will find a glimpse of human flourishing. Healing. Injustice will be brought to justice, compassion will be found, oppression will cease, the power of God will be at work – and it will begin in the Church.

Here me out: the point of our faith and allegiance to Christ is not to go to heaven. When we speak of Christian salvation, or being saved, we’ve developed an understanding of it that ends in heaven – the avoidance of hell. Of course hell is very real, the judgment of God is indeed coming, and eternal destinies are indeed at stake. I do not reject any of that.

What I do reject is a salvation-centric approach to the Good News. Because, as Christians, if we only have heaven in mind when we think of our faith, of evangelism, of our own salvation, Philippians 2 doesn’t make much sense, because what we see is Jesus leaving heaven to come to earth in order that he may suffer for you and I. Don’t forget that God created this world beautiful and good, and he wants to redeem humanity one person at a time with the intention that pockets of redeemed people in Christ, local expressions of the worldwide Church, like Immanuel, may live now differently, may live now in an upside down manner, as we will visit in depth this morning.

I am going to argue this morning that like Jesus once did, the Christian Church needs to also get our minds out of heaven, and allow room in our hearts for this life and this world now. Perhaps we need to remove this escapsim mentality of leaving this icky and dark world to burn, and like Jesus look at this world and know that it needs the Good News of Jesus now. Jesus GAVE UP heaven for a time in order that he may see his precious humanity redeemed, saved from their sin – in order that one day, when Heaven meets Earth on his second coming, he will once and for all make all things new.

The job of the Church is not to rescue people from this world so they can go to heaven after saying a prayer. No. Like Jesus, let’s not look at the benefits of heaven as the only reason why we cling to Christ. Surely its better to be there, as Paul admitted in this book. However, Jesus intentionally has carved out a path for Christians to live in this world, in this life now, because he wants you to be ambassadors for him in this world now. He doesn’t want you to escape it and in the meantime, stay in hiding. When he wants you in heaven he’ll bring your life to a close in his good timing.

I want you to think of this story that we are about to read again as a path. A path that Jesus is begging for the soles of your feet to tread. Sadly in many ways it has become overgrown. If I can be so bold as to say, what we are about to read this morning is the reason why Jesus has called you to himself. This is the life and patterns of those in his Kingdom – this is the alternate path of living that he is inviting you, right now, to join him on.

So here is a little bit of a road map for our remaining time together:

1) We will work verse by verse through the text, looking at the specific ways in which Paul told the story of Jesus becoming a man, and also his death and exaltation, and how he was directly confronting the faulty Roman worldview, the Roman paths that they had carved – and how he was redirecting them to the paths of life in Christ.

2) Then we are going to take it home to us, now, and see how it will look if the Church were to fully embrace this invitation of Christ to join him on this upside down path. Let’s dive in:

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.


In writing to this ancient Philippian Christians living in a Roman colony, this is another plea for unity, and the plea is founded in Paul’s reminding them that they are in Christ. If they were in Christ, if they share in love and in the Spirit, if they have any compassion or sympathy among them due to their devotion to and in Christ, Paul asks them to complete his joy by being of the same mind – sharing the same love – togetherness. We saw last week how there were divisions among them, and we discussed in depth how that division was probably due to the sharp divisions of social hierarchies that the Romans accepted as the pathways of life, divisions of status, and the accepting of the leveraging of their individual statuses to gain honor for themselves, even if it was done at the expense of those who were of lower statuses – the Roman worldview, the Roman paths of life. Suddenly in Christ a group of Romans of various statuses were now thrown together in a community – Christ had leveled the playing field, if you will, and it took some time for them to get used to a Roman citizen worshiping next to a non-citizen slave or a non-citizen freed slave, and they had division when suffering for Christ had come their way.

Paul goes deeper, though. He gives some of the nuts and bolts concerning their attitude and approach to one another. He asked them to do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit – speaking directly to the accepted way of life from the Romans in the preservation of status and expansion of their personal honor – and rather in humility to consider others as more important than themselves. Paul continued to dismantle and expose the Roman pathways of life further – let each of you not only look after your own interests, but also to the interests of others. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, but we are all one in Christ. Like a surgeon, Paul is dissecting the fraudulent Roman understanding of people, and allowing Christ, the true Human, the Son of Man (which the phrase literally means, the Human Being) to redefine this life we are given. Sticking to imagery that would have made sense to those in the Roman worldview, he continues on:

 

Let the same mind be in you that was 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.


I can join the voices in arguing that the past one hundred years western biblical scholars and systematic theoloigians have really approached this passage from the wrong perspective. They have sliced it in a thousand pieces, trying to understand the nuances of just how it worked when Jesus, the God man, took on flesh. Did he cast aside his divinity? Well he couldn’t have done that. What did he give up to become a man? What does Paul mean that he didn’t consider being in the form of God something to be grasped? And how do we understand all of this and maintain Christian orthodoxy in doctrine?

I think these are the wrong questions. With a glance at the Roman culture of the day, it becomes very clear that Paul is borrowing imagery that these Christians would have understood, that we need to enter into if we are to understand this text. So let’s put on our Roman hats for a moment:

“Though he was in the form of God” is a kind of unique Greek word that is a reference to his appearance that would have represented his status as God – basically, clothing and the reputation that comes from others seeing it. His garments. The higher you were in status in Rome, your form, or appearance, would have shown this. It would have been a way to live braggidocisly to your fellow Romans to reveal to them where you were on the Roman social ladder, and how much honor they should give you.

Jesus was in the form of God. He was clothed on high in heaven as God himself – is there a greater status to have? Forget about being Emperor of Rome. He was the God of the universe! Though his is who he is, he did not say to himself, “how can I use this status as God for my own personal benefit?” - like the Romans were taught to do. Rather, he “unclothed his status,” if you will, and took on the garments that would belong to a servant, or dulous – the greek word for slave. Paul’s imagery here is that God HIMSELF willfully cast aside his reputation and honor as being known as God – not casting aside his actual divinity – but rather casting aside the glory and potential privileges that was due to him because of his divinity. This was a move unthinkable to the Romans! It’s like saying the Emperor of Rome left his palace, took of his imperial garments, and dressed like the slave from the conquered peoples being sold in the marketplace down the street, where if he were standing right next to them, you couldn’t even tell that he was the Emperor.

No one in Rome would willingly climb down the social ladder. And in this way, to return to our path metaphor, Jesus was creating new pathways for our human existence, new pathways for Life. Jesus’ ambition led him down, not upwards. It led him to become what was lowest in society in order that he may save all. And even moreso, he didn’t just take the form of the slave, but became obedient to death on a cross – making this passage perhaps more shocking and more absurd than we realize.

I want to read something to you that will illuminate historically just how fascinating this is, and just how insane this would have sounded to his original audience. One of the greatest apologetics for our faith is this: if a new religion was to be made up in ancient Rome, the idea of God taking the status of a slave and dying on a cross would have been one of the most difficult messages to convince others to accept in the times of the Romans. It would have been literally the most unattractive message that would easily be the most unpopular message around.

This passage I am about read is from the famous Roman orator Cicero, a contemporary of Paul. He was a lawyer, and here we hear him as the prosecution for a senator named Verres who, while he was formerly a mayor of Sicily, had a Roman citizen named Gavius crucified. Just listen to his words, and think of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Christian story:


And so… in the middle of the forum in Messana, a Roman citizen was flogged. And the whole time, while he suffered, while the whip cracked, no groan no cry of any kind was heard from the tortured man except “I am a Roman Citizen.” In reminding Verres of his citizen ship, he thought that he would escape the beating, but when he kept crying out and demanding the rights of citizenship, Verres ordered his staff to make for this poor tormented man a cross. That’s right, a cross! Gentlemen of the jury, this was the only cross ever set up in the part of Messana that overlooks the straits. Verres chose this spot, with its view of Italy, deliberately so that Gavius, as he died in pain and agony, might recognize that the narrow straits marked the boundary between slavery and freedom, and so Italy might see her own son hanging there, suffering the most horrible punishment ever inflicted on slaves. To put a Roman citizen in chains is a wrong. To flog him is a crime. To execute him is almost parricide (or the killing of a family member). And what shall I call crucifixion? So abominable a deed can find no word adequate enough to describe it. Oh Verres, it was not some unknown man whom you tortured and crucified in that place, but the universally acknowledged correlation between freedom and Roman citizenship.


Verres did the unthinkable. He crucified a Roman Citizen. In doing so, he committed the crime that could rob the whole of Roman citizens the privilege and freedom that they had from being treated like a slave.

Christianity arose and said, God entered into human flesh, took on the garments of the lowest of society, and submitted himself to the cross, a death worthy of slaves. This was a major stumbling block to Romans. Yet these are the pathways of Christ laid out for them, and for us. This is how healing is brought to us – God stooped down to take on flesh, to identify with us, to take on our sin that was not ours, and he died on the cross, identifying with even the lowliest of peoples.

UNDERSTANDING THIS NEW PATHWAY

In this pathway, Jesus opened up the way for all Romans to be able to identify with him, and also for all people, all Americans in all social statuses to identify with. Are you a noble, a citizen, an Roman Senator, are you on some of the highest rungs of society? In American terms, do you hold positions of power? Have you accomplished great feats and are famous for doing so? Have you generated wealth for yourself, are you considered upper class or wealthy, are you famous on Twitter or Instagram with millions of followers?

Well, Jesus was God, clothed with divinity in the heavens. And he didn’t consider any of it worthy to be exploited for his own gain. He knows what its like to be on top. Being there isn’t bad. It isn’t a sin. God allows certain people to be there. But Jesus carved out the pathway of the attitude of: “even though I am on top, I am not to exploit this position of power for my own personal gain at the expense of others. Rather, I am to use my high social position to serve others.” Might I add that even the middle class of America is the richest of the world? Even the middle class are Kings and Queens of this world in the wealth and possessions and ease and comfort of life found. Is this to be only yours for your own benefit? Or how can your status be used for the service of others, like Christ?

What about the rest? Are you poor and lowly in society, on the bottom rungs, if you will? Jesus took on the garments of the lowly, and died a death worthy only of a slave, the despised and rejected of Roman society. He knows what it is like to have everything, and to be poor. He knows what it is like to be in glory, and to be humiliated. Maybe some of you right now in this room can identity. Maybe you lie as the poor in society, having very little. Maybe you’ve experienced the humility of having to accept meal vouchers in the lunch line at school, knowing that some of your friends would see it and know you couldn’t afford it. Or even maybe of recent, waiting in lines for free food, hoping you can have your fridge filled for this week.

Maybe you know what its like to have government health care and be treated by certain doctors as second class citizens – something my wife and I have experienced time and time again, not receiving near adequate care from the professionals who are supposed to give it, and in some cases even suffering more because of it.

This pathway of Christ can identify with all of us. He has forever leveled the playing field, revealing to all of humanity that none of these things effectively save us or cause us to be lost. We are all sinners in need of grace, and Jesus has thus entered into every one of these status to unite all things in him. Do you see how this happens? Do you see how in creating a community of human beings, filled with the Spirit with Jesus at the center, creates on this earth a group of humans who are no longer divided by social status, riches or poverty, achievements or failures, white skin or brown skin and ethnic identity, how Christ has forged a path that says “yes! I can identify with all of you. And I died for all of you, and in uniting you together in one body right now through faith in me, all of these things can be healed, and you all are to consider each other as more important than yourself and to care for one another, ensuring that all of the things that divides the world apart are cast aside, and are now rather seen as opportunities for serving and loving one another rather than dividing you apart.”

Do you see this? Far from an escapsim mentality, this should be the result of a community of people who believe in the Good News of Jesus. And the effect of such a community of Christians living life together within the larger community around them will result in a testimony to the work of Christ in our lives now – a testimony of invitation that says, “come and know our Jesus! See the forgiveness of the burdens of sin that he offers, and see the community of healing that he has created with this New People from all walks of life, who consider each other as more important than themselves, who are not afraid to care for each others burden, the community where the rich are dining with the poor, the community where all skin colors are as one family, worshiping their Lord and loving one another! Come and see where politics and pandemics have not actually divided a group of people, but rather have united them!” Is this not what our nations needs right now