Have in Mind the Humility of Christ :: Philippians 2:5-11

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[Introduction]

The Palm Sunday parade for our Lord Jesus is one of the more vibrant scenes in the Bible, and it gets people excited. Today we see and hear Jesus coming. And THAT’s exciting. Like the Greeks who went up for worship in our Gospel reading, we also long to see Jesus (Jn 12:21). 

Now picture this: the streets of Jerusalem are packed with people, ten times more than normal, all for one of the most important celebrations of the year, Passover. Many of those people had heard about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead (Jn 12:1). As Jesus entered the city, all but a handful of them began singing ... Hosanna to the Son of David ... that is, Save us, please, Jesus! 

While Roman leaders typically entered Jerusalem from the north on war horses to display their pride and power, Jesus has come riding a donkey from the east in humility. By identifying Jesus as the Son of David, the people are acknowledging that he is in fact the Messiah ... the Prophet like Moses. And by paving the way with their garments and freshly cut palms, people are declaring victory as Jesus Rides on, Rides on in Majesty (LSB 441). 

1. With this in mind: we practically go through the same motions every year, don’t we? 

Every year, we look forward to busting out the palms and waving them in a parade. We long to sing songs of joy and to wear bright clothing. We want to celebrate! 

But is that what today is all about ... a celebration? 

If we aren’t careful, we can easily lose sight of why we are here. We can easily get swept up in the celebratory joy that we completely miss the point of why The Man ... Jesus ... is mounted on the donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey (Zec 9:9). Then we might miss the point of why he has come ... and what he has come to save us from.

So this morning I want you to have three questions in mind. 

  • Are we just cheering for the version of Jesus that we’ve created in our own image?

  • Are we worshiping the King for who He really is and why he has come? 

  • And then ...What should we keep in mind moving forward?

2. Have this in mind: Jesus is not the man most people in our world think he is. 

There is in our world today a significant temptation to create a Jesus in our own image. The result is the world has created all kinds of false Christs. They have turned him into nothing more than a great miracle worker and the ultimate role model who teaches us to do what Jesus would do. They have transformed him into a good man with a good word about good living ... a therapist who makes us feel better about ourselves. 

The world creates all kinds of heresies about Jesus that help us feel better about ourselves. But his primary purpose for coming to us is not to maximize our self-esteem by lowering himself ... or to allow us to ignore our sin, chalking it up as some kind of mistake. 

Instead, as our Lord says in John 12[:27], Jesus entered Jerusalem with a troubled soul. Luke tells us he wept over Jerusalem as he approached it, knowing that the people would reject the peace he offers ... literally the forgiveness of sins that he brings to the world. If [only] you knew on this day, even you, the things that bring peace, Jesus said. But now they are hidden from your eyes (Lk 19:42). 

3. So now, have this in mind: manmade peace is fleeting.

Salvation does not come about because you decide to love God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your mind and all your strength. Nor does it come about because you start loving your neighbor as yourself as if you are creating your own peace. Salvation doesn’t come about when you think you can make a decision for Jesus, thinking this will give you peace. That’s a prideful mind, not a humble one toward Him who died and rose again.

Instead, have this in mind: Jesus shows us that the Law is so perfect that ... 

We will not follow the straight and narrow ... we will miss the mark. 

We will not keep the law ... our iniquity destroys our peace. 

And we will jump the curb headlong into full-blown transgression, or we could say rebellion. 

This is why he came and why he wept. 

On this sixth Sunday in Lent, Jesus wept not only out of compassion for our suffering but also over the destructive, fatal consequences of our hard-heartedness that rejects him as God. Born of [virgin], born under the Law, to redeem those under the Law, so that we might receive adoption as sons (Gal 4:4-6) ... he came to lead us into repentance and to preach peace that comes only through the Gospel. He came to cleanse us by his blood. And he does all of that through his birth, his life, his death, his rest, his resurrection, his ascension into heaven, and his promise to come again to give you eternal life. 

4.` And now, moving forward, you can ... Have this in mind among yourselves, 

which also is in Christ Jesus, who, already existing in the form of God, did not regard equality to God something to be grasped, but he emptied himself, having taken the form of a slave, having himself born in the likeness of men, and having been found in the shape of a man, he humbled himself, having become obedient until death, even the death of a cross (vv 5-8). Jesus was crucified for you. He didn’t wait for you to confess your sins. He humbled himself. He bore your stripes. He bled and suffered and died on a cross for you, and was buried. 

And now you can hear even more Gospel ... God has therefore hyperexalted him and graced in him the name that is above every name, so that in the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in the heavens and upon the earth, and under the earth, and every tongue will confess the Lord is Jesus Christ into the glory of God the Father (vv 9-11). In preaching this Word of the Resurrection to us, Paul is teaching us from one of his prison epistles to embrace the same humility ... to actually be Christians ... forgiving and being forgiven. 

How many times should we do this? Not just seven times, but forever and ever because that’s what Christians do. As Paul writes in the prison epistle Ephesians, Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you (4:31-32).

You can do this on account of your Baptism into Christ. You can do this on account of the Absolution of Christ. You can do this as we come together to receive our communion with Christ. God uses these means of grace so that we have the mind of Christ, who lives in us. He uses these because we can’t achieve peace on our own ... the forgiveness of sins along with the life and salvation to come with it. And he uses these to prepare us to do his good works, which he prepared in advance for us to do (Eph 2:10). He gives us the mind of Christ.

Though we were dead in our sins, Christ made us alive in him through the baptism he poured out upon us. He has washed us with water and the word and the blood, and these three agree (1 Jn 5:7-8). And this now saves us, not as a removal of filth from the body but as a pledge to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Pt 3:21). 

Continue returning to your baptism. Then you can join us in his communion because these words: Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins, show us that in the sacrament the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given to us through these words. 

[Conclusion]

Those who have the mind of Christ know that humiliation leads to exaltation. We know that though we suffer slights and unkind criticisms ... though we receive abuse and cruel treatment ... though we are required to submit to those who are incompetent and cruel ... we have the mind of Christ and can now humble ourselves under God, knowing that he will exalt us in the end. We know that the exalted Lord Jesus Christ will constantly intercede for us. With this in mind, we rest confident ... in Jesus’ name. 

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