Philippians 2.5-11 + Matthew 21.1-9
Palm Sunday, the Sixth Sunday in Lent
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Jesus approaches Jerusalem on a colt, the foal of a donkey. By riding a beast of burden into the David’s city, He fulfills the words of the prophet Zechariah. And although the multitudes receive Him as they should—with rejoicing, with garments and palms forging a royal highway, and shouts of, “Hosanna—that is, Save us please—Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, it is still a moment of lowliness. In fact, His entire earthly life had been one of humility and lowliness. He told one would-be disciple in Matthew 8:20, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” He was regularly rejected on account of His teaching. Those who were spiritually poor—who acknowledged they had no work or worthiness good enough to offer to God—heard Him and flocked to Him. But those who thought of themselves as spiritually worthy of God in themselves, those rejected Him because the self-righteous need no Savior or Teacher but themselves. Christ even described Himself as “gentle and lowly in heart” in Matthew 11:29. Christ’s entire ministry, indeed, His entire earthly life, was typified by humility and lowliness.
St. Paul, in today’s Epistle lesson, writes of this great mystery and holds it up for us as something to emulate. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” What mind did Jesus have, meaning, how did Jesus think about Himself? His mind was humility. Christ, “being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.” Christ was in the form of God and did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, meaning that Christ was divine. He was, as we confess each Sunday, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God. He is equal to the Father because He is begotten of the Father from all eternity. If there was anyone who could claim equality with God the Father and not be overstepping His place, it is Christ Jesus. He did not consider it robbery to be equal with God because He could not steal what is rightly His.
And yet, this one who is in the form of God and equal to God, “made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant,” or better translated, slave, “and came in the likeness of men.” The only-begotten Son of God from all eternity assumes human flesh. He becomes man and humbles Himself so that He might experience the limitations of mortal men. He who gave Moses the Law on Mt. Sinai becomes man to live under the Law He gave Israel which no man was able to fulfill. He emptied Himself of His divine prerogative, using His divine power sparingly in the miracles for the sake of His neighbors whom He loved as He loved Himself. Though He is God in human flesh, He does not parade Himself around and demand the honor due to Him.
Rather, He made Himsel of no reputation. Literally, He “emptied Himself” of all divine prerogative so that He might become “obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” Crucifixion is the most shameful, disgraceful, and painful death that wicked men could concoct for another man. But Christ is obedient to His Father’s will to the point of such a death, and He is obedient from the heart, not grudgingly doing His Father’s will, but willfully, deliberately, and lovingly. He does so to atone for the sins of the world.
The only One who is equal to God empties Himself and dies to redeem those who, in their sin, try to be equal with God. In paradise, the serpent tempted Eve to disobey God’s command with these words, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Ge 3:4-5). Since the moment Adam and Eve sinned and made sinners of themselves and all their posterity, this has been the sinner’s goal: to be like God. Sinners want to be equal to God so that their will can be done. People want to be “like God” so that their word and thoughts can determine what they should believe, how they should live, and to whom they should listen. Sinners want to be equal to God so that they can declare themselves worthy of good things so that they do not have to wait upon another for their good things in this life. Whether people chase the highest good from science, government, technology, reputation, or the gratification of their own desires, it is all comes from the same root: Sinners want to be equal with God so that they may be their own God, living righteously by their own word and their own ways.
But the devil is a liar, in fact, He is the father of lying. Seeking equality with God by disobeying God didn’t make Adam and Eve equal with Him. It made them slaves of sin. Jesus says, “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin” (Jn 8:34). Adam and Eve brought death upon themselves and all their descendants, as St. Paul writes in Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death.” The great lie, told to Adam and Eve continues to this very day: equality with God is attainable. It will make you free. The great lie is that you can worship how you see fit, in ways of which God surely would approve, though not how God commands in His Word. The great lie is that your will is better than God’s, or at least equal to it, so it should be done. The great lie is that you don’t need to pray because you can work things for good by yourself. But all of this is enslavement to self and sin. Equality with God is not within our grasp. Creatures can never be equal to their Creator. Trying to be “like God” only ends in slavery to sin, death, and the power of the devil. This is where most people are in our world today, trusting in anything other than the true God for good things in this life and the life to come.
But here is Christ, coming into Jerusalem, fulfilling what was written centuries before, “Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Mt 21:5). Here is Christ, presenting Himself as the sacrifice for the sins of all mankind, going forth to the cross willingly, deliberately, and lovingly. Here is Christ, allowing Himself to be arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, even though He could effortlessly call twelve legions of angels to His side. Here is Christ, standing in Pilate’s Praetorium, refusing to defend Himself, being “obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” Doing no will except His Father’s.
He does all this humbly, meekly, and in all lowliness, so that He might earn redemption for the world. The One who is actually equal to God allows Himself to be crucified to pay for the sins of those who are not equal to God but attempt to be. His obedience to the Father’s will in Garden of Gethsemane pays for Adam and Eve’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden. His innocent death atones for our sins by which we truly deserve death, both in this life and eternally. The One who actually IS God Himself, offers Himself on the altar of the cross to save those who delude themselves and think of themselves as their own gods so that they can do their own will. His blood pays for all our sins and the sins of all mankind, so that everyone who trusts His death has the forgiveness of their sins, and everyone who trusts His perfect righteousness has it as their own. When this forgiveness and righteousness is received by faith, it frees you from the lie that you can be like God.
And it presents you with the example of Christ, the one who is equal with God, but made emptied Himself for us and our salvation. St. Paul began the epistle lesson, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” The mind we’re to have—the way we are to think about ourselves, others, and God—is the mind that Christ had while on earth: humble, gentle, and lowly. The mind of Christ is not pride, arrogance, or self-importance, but humility which serves others in love, so that we look out not only for our own interests, but also for the interests of others (Phil 2:4). Nor is the mind of Christ prideful toward God, imagining that it knows better than He does or what He has revealed in His word. The mind of Christ is humble submission to God’s will and word, because the mind of Christ knows that God the Father works all things for the good of those who love Him. The mind of Christ does not seek equality with God—though He Himself has that from all eternity—but seeks to be obedient in all things to His Father’s will. The Christ who entered Jerusalem on this day so humbly still comes to us in humility and gentleness, offering us the fruits of His suffering and death: the forgiveness of all our sins and everlasting life. By giving us these gifts, He renews our minds so that we have the mind which was also in Him during His earthly life. For that, let us give Him thanks as praise as did the crowd outside Jerusalem. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Amen.
May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
