Side by side
Intro
there is such a thing as acting out of character – I have a friend, Graeme, known to most as an exceptionally kind, generous, warm kind of guy, he’s a big man, one of those gentle giants. I say known to most like that, for the simple reason that most have not seen him on the golf course. He is a golfing buddy of mine, we have played hundreds of rounds together. We used to go away for a 3 day golf-fest, 90 holes of a good walk spoiled. It was on the 11th hole of the second round on the last day, it was a par 3, a 1 foot put for par that would restore some dignity to an otherwise miserable round. He missed. The grunt of accumulated anger and frustration could be heard at the club house. Then he went silent, which was even more scary, he took a long look at his putter, and cracked it on his knee, and smashed what was left of it into his bag. There followed 7 holes of trying not to catch his eye. Of course, that’s not the real Graeme, the real Graeme is a lovely guy; that’s just the sort of thing golf can do to a person. He was acting out of character.
Jesus is astonishingly humble – is this out of character?
our text is one of the great high points in the NT – Phil 2 – let me read it to you again:
5 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. 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.
• Philippi was a prestigious town, named after the father of Alexander the Great, Philip of Macedon – I wonder if I’ll ever get to be say, Andrew the slight better than average, or Andrew of Ashfield – anyway, Philippi was the leading city of its area, and its people were used to being respected, and deferred to, bit like Tamworth, really; but unlike Tamworth , they regarded themselves as somewhat superior, and not at all lowly. And the apostle writes to them to urge them to be frankly more Christian, in particular not out of snobbish superiority ignore him, their chained up, criminal starving, feeble apostle. And the way he does it is to
1. Being in the form of God
The first thing to notice is where Christ Jesus started from – it was from being in the form of God, or what is the same thing in the next phrase, being equal with God. Our word ‘form’ here can be a bit misleading, because we sometimes contrast form and substance, as though when you have the form you don’t have the substance. Pepsi is like Coke, it has the form of Coke, but it’s not the real thing, right. But the point here is the opposite – Christ Jesus was in the form of God in that his form, his character, his shape if you like, was exactly the same as God’s form, God’s character, God’s shape. And above all, that is glory, as he prayed to his Father just before being crucified “glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed”. Jesus was in the form of God, equal with God, in that he was the full glory of God.
And the point of this is to contrast the height from which he came with the depths to which he descended, and this descent is described in two phases. First he emptied himself, which is then spelt out in the two descriptions which follow – he took the form of a slave, and was born in human likeness. This one who shared the glory of God, who was equal with God, in the very form of God, made all that count for nothing, gave up all the rights and privileges to which that status entitled him and instead became a slave, one with no rights and no claims. Even more than that, the emptying in taking the form of a slave meant for Christ Jesus becoming a human, being born like all other people and living life like any other person. The one who is God became a human. He became a living, breathing, even snoring and belching human being, with all the limitations and complications that that involves.
But not only did he empty himself, taking the form of a slave, being born as a human, he also humbled himself. And whereas the first phase spoke of Jesus’ becoming human, his incarnation, this second phase refers to his obedience to death, that is his crucifixion. He humbled himself, becoming obedient, obedient as a slave would, obedient to death, even death on a cross. In being born as a human, he did that most human like thing – he died. It’s not death and taxes that are the two certainties in life; there really is only one; death is the most powerful human certainty, and as a human, as the human, he took up that most human of all places, death.
And what is it that drove him in all this – It’s clear that Jesus is the player in this descent – the actions are all done by him, accentuating the voluntary and initiative taking nature of it from him. Where did that come from – you see it in v. 6 – it came from his mind, his fixed attitude humility. Self emptying, taking to himself the place of the slave, self humbling, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross, that is what it meant for him to be equal with God.
2. Therefore
Which leads directly to the second half of the passage, which is linked to the first half by that powerful word, ‘therefore’. Therefore, precisely because Jesus did this, treated his equality with God like this, understood what it was to be in the form of God in this way, therefore, God highly exalted him.
How did God exalt him? He gave him a name, not just any name, but the name that is above every name, which is a way of referring to the name of God – it’s God’s name that is above every name, because it’s God who is above every one else. And what is that? We know what God’s name is – it is The Lord, that is the name Jesus is given.
• let me ask you, do you know God like this? Or is God for you a great big, never get his hands dirty, so pure doesn’t get mucked in the mess of life, distant monarch. For if you don’t know God like this, then don’t know God. Not by the way, a soppy, indulgent, he’ll leave you alone if you leave him alone, either. No, this is the God of the cross, a humble, even humiliated inserter of himself in our situation.
2. Therefore
• what does it mean to know the God of the cross? The first thing it means is that you are never too low for God – sometimes think that there are places you can sink to in life, places of sadness or failure, or sin and moral ugliness, that are just too far gone for God; that he doesn’t mess himself up with getting involved in places like that, or with people like you. That’s not true, Christ has descended to the pit, the very pit of hell. There is no place too low for God to go, for the sake of rescuing his people.
• but second, Christ is here put forward as a model, a paradigm of what your life and my life are to look like. Here was one who was in the very form of God, equal with God, and what that meant for him was a particular mind, a way of thinking, an approach to who he was and the status that he enjoyed; and that mindset was to not count that equality with God as something to be exploited, to not count it as something to be used for self indulgence or self aggrandisement, but rather for self emptying and self giving.
You see, there really are only two basic ways you can use whatever status or opportunity that is yours, whatever resources that are at your disposal, your energy, your abilities, your money, your influence, your time, your power. On the one hand, you can use them essentially for yourself, investing in your own happiness, ploughing back whatever you can into your own future, or even just doing nothing, lazy or bored or disinterested and simply frittering away what God has given you. Or you can count them as things not to be exploited, as things to be used in the pursuit of self, but as your qualification for looking out for the interests of others.
• make sure you get what the apostle is saying – you are never more like God than when you are dying to your own interests, when you know what you want, what would be best for you, how you might preserve your dignity and time and space, how you might maintain your assets and your balance, and deliberately choose to not go down that path, and instead to go down a wholly different path, a path which makes little sense unless at the heart of God is this kind of action.
• take an honest look at the pattern of your life – how like God are you. Does it reflect the imprint of the God of the cross.
• what would happen if we all lived more like this? Sometimes it means grand sacrifices, of time, as you care for a loved one, of money as you invest in project for God’s glory, of patience as you forgive someone who has badly hurt you. But more often it’s a thousand small things. If the mind of Jesus, the God of the cross, was more in us, we would:
hurt people with our stridency less, taking particular care to understand the pursue their interests.
I suspect say sorry to people more, that is to humble yourself – what is the ratio of times you know you’ve done something wrong to the times you’ve apologized for it. Sometimes we con ourselves by saying that it was too small, and to apologise would make more of it than it deserves, and maybe even some of those time we’re right. But more often it’s an excuse to let us off the hook of awkward conversations
we will be more connected to people – it is almost always self protection that keeps us distant from people, we protect ourselves from feeling their hurts, because it hurts; feeling their frustrations, because it’s frustrating. If we looked after their interests, then the chances are that we will be more tired, more busy, and maybe even have a less tidy house, because you’re more interested in people than things.
And we would be more unified – listen to how the Apostle puts it, ch 1, v. 27
27 Only, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel, 28 and are in no way intimidated by your opponents.
Or again
1 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.
This is not complex, is it. No great investigation needed to comprehend it; it’s not difficult to understand, but my goodness, it’s difficult to do. Everything in us screams out, I know best, I have my needs, I deserve to have it done my way. But this is the great mark of the church that knows God – it stands side by side, with one mind
• and when you feel weary of it all, and think you can’t do it any more, look to Jesus, who precisely because he was in the very form of God, did not consider that equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself, and took the form of a slave, and humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. And in looking to Jesus, you will find inspiration for another day of humble, obedient, self-sacrificing love.
• let’s pray
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