“Have a Christ Jesus State of Mind”
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. [Amen.]
“Ride on, ride on in majesty!
Hark! All the tribes hosanna cry.
O Savior meek, pursue Thy road,
With palms and scattered garments strowed.
“Ride on, ride on in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die.
O Christ, Thy triumphs now begin
O’er captive death and conquered sin.”
(Lutheran Service Book, © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO.
441:1-2)
Epistle
Reading...................................................................
Philippians 2:5-11 (esp. 5)
5Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, … .
Prologue: Well, after 5½ long laborious weeks we have finally
arrived at Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week that leads to the annual
formal celebration of our Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection. Lee Maxwell
in The Altar Guild Manual explains that “Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday
(also called the Sunday of the Passion), which recalls Jesus’ triumphal
entry into Jerusalem. The three following days, Monday …, Tuesday …, and
Wednesday of Holy Week, look at the events which led up to the crucifixion.
Maundy Thursday (also called Holy Thursday) commemorates the institution of
the Lord’s Supper as a ‘memorial’ of Christ’s Passion. On Good Friday (also
called Holy Friday) we recall the climactic event in the life of our Lord on
earth, the crucifixion. During Holy Week the focus is on the suffering and
death of our Savior and the importance that it has for us and for our
salvation.” (Lee A. Maxwell in The Altar Guild Manual. Copyright © 1996
Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO. Page 20.)
He further tells us that “Holy Week is the most dramatic and
significant week of the church year. It begins with Jesus entering
Jerusalem in a triumphal procession. As the days progress, however, triumph
turns into tragedy. The crowds still listen to Jesus, but the religious
leaders set in motion their plot to kill him. Jesus and his disciples
withdraw to celebrate his last Passover, which is at the same time the
inauguration of the new covenant meal of the Lord’s Supper. Then come
betrayal and abandonment. The climax of Holy Week is the death of our
Savior on Golgotha and his burial in the garden tomb. From a human
standpoint that should be the end of the story—a tragic story ending in
deepest woe. However, it is not. The third day is yet to come.” (Ibid.
Page 81.)
You see, throughout the events of Holy Week we witness something
very special about Jesus that He displayed throughout His three-year
ministry, namely, the quality of humility. Even as Immanuel instructed in
His preaching and teaching, so also Saint Paul in today’s Epistle Reading
reminds us of Christ’s humility and encourages us to likewise …
“Have a Christ Jesus State of Mind.”
This final installment of information about Lent reveals that “The
modern observance of Lent, however, balances the penitential theme with the
baptismal theme. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday with a call to repentance … .
But on the Sundays in Lent which follow, the emphasis is more on reflection
on Baptism and renewal in faith and life. [Therefore,] … Lent ‘is a time
for the discipline of learning and growing in faith, for repentance and for
prayer, even for fasting to practice self-control and to heighten one’s
awareness of Christ.’” (Ibid. Page 80.) What is arguably (and even
ironically) the most spectacular “awareness of Christ” is that …
I. Jesus Humbled Himself. (6-8)
… 6who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a
thing to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the form of a
servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on
a cross.
Hmmm, the question that pierces our hearts and minds today is,
“Was our Lord’s entrance into Jerusalem on the never-before-sat-upon donkey
amidst shouts of ‘Hosanna!’ and [from today’s Gospel Reading] ‘Blessed is
the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in
the highest!’ (St Luke 19:38 ESV) an act of exaltation or humiliation … or
both?” On the one hand, His disciples and the parade-watchers hailed Him as
the exalted king … the descendent of King David himself. On the other hand,
He rode in on a lowly beast of burden … a donkey … the beginning of His trek
to His self-sacrificial crucifixion death on Calvary’s cross as the one
about whom John the Baptizer declared, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes
away the sin of the world!” (St John 1:29 ESV) Indeed, this was an occasion
when “as man [Jesus] did not always or fully use His divine powers” even
though “as man He now fully and always uses His divine powers.” (Luther’s
Small Catechism with Explanation. Copyright © 1986, 1991, 2005 Concordia
Publishing House, St. Louis, MO. Pages 130 & 137.)
Recall with me that many of us grew up knowing [tomorrow / today]
as “Palm Sunday.” Although that designation still stands, as I read earlier
it has now become known also as “Sunday of the Passion.” Although the
primary emphasis is still Christ’s exalted entrance into Jerusalem, because
many people will not attend the special divine services on Maundy Thursday,
Good Friday, and Holy Saturday some pastors have chosen to at least read the
Biblical record of what happened on those days this weekend.
Maybe there’s some legitimacy to that considering that the vast
majority of people will then hear those important accounts leading up to our
Savior’s resurrection from the dead. But Pastor Marks and I trust that you
won’t be numbered among those who neglect to attend the special worship
services scheduled here for this coming Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and
Holy Saturday. Therefore, we’re reserving the reading of those accounts for
later this week and this weekend celebrating the Palm Sunday event.
In so doing, we’re focusing on the fact that Jesus Himself humbled
Himself as Saint Paul declared in today’s sermon text. You see, Jesus
Himself provides the pinnacle of paradoxes. He who taught and preached
humility didn’t merely teach and preach it; He also gave the greatest
example of such. After all, “Christ deemed to be equal with God [that is],
His divine glory, not as an object to be seized for Himself with power, but
something rather that He would win for Himself through suffering and death.
“He did not deem His equality with God to be a [stolen quality], which
He wanted to exploit or make a display of … .
“He was not self-seeking in the possession of His divine majesty.
“[Rather,] … Christ surrendered Himself to all the weaknesses and wants
of a fallen human being.
“… Christ, the God-man, at all times possessed the whole divine
majesty, but in the state of humiliation He refrained from its free use, as
He voluntarily entered into the likeness of men.” (Dr. George Stoeckhardt in
Lectures on The Epistle to the Philippians. Copyright © 1967 H. W. Degner,
Printed by Graphic Publishing Co., Inc., Lake Mills, IA. Pages 32-33 & 35.)
So, what does all that mean for us? It means quite simply that
“Christ’s example is to be imitated by [us] in three ways. First, as Christ
did not use His divine glory for His self-[glorification], so [we remain
always] ready to relinquish [our] rights and Christian liberties out of love
towards [our] neighbor. Secondly, as Christ submitted to become just like
other men, so [we remain always] ready to accommodate [ourselves] to the
peculiarities of [our] fellowmen, as far as [we] can do this in Christian
love without offending against God’s Word. Thirdly, as Christ became
obedient, even to the death of the cross, so [we remain always] ready to
suffer wrong in obedience to God.” (Ibid. Page 36.)
The story is told that “As a student in Magdeburg, Germany, Martin
Luther was shocked at seeing a member of a religious order carrying a sack
and begging in the streets. Because of the discipline to which the man had
subjected himself, he was a thin, wasted figure—nothing more than ‘animated
bones,’ as someone said.
“What was remarkable about this man was that he had been Prince William
of Anhalt, a German state. He voluntarily exchanged his luxurious life as a
nobleman for a miserable existence.” (Rudolph F. Norden in Each Day with
Jesus: Daily Devotions through the Year. Copyright © 1994 Concordia
Publishing House, St. Louis, MO. Page 97.)
That was certainly ironic, but the greatest irony of all, however,
is that after Christ humbled Himself …
II. God Exalted Jesus. (9-11)
9Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is
above every name, 10so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in
heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
In his letter to the Colossians, Saint Paul declared that Jesus
“is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” (Col
1:15 ESV) That’s a statement of exaltation. But exaltation is not
something that Jesus took upon Himself. After all, He has been in existence
from the depths of eternity as Saint John wrote, “In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the
beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was
not anything made that was made.” (St John 1:1-3 ESV)
So it was that when Christ’s purpose of atoning for mankind’s sins
by His holy life, innocent suffering, and crucifixion death was finished, “…
Jesus’ humiliation ceased forever.
“When Jesus’ mission was completed, ‘God exalted him to the highest
place.’ God himself thereby crowned the work that Jesus had done and
declared it perfect and complete. In his state of humiliation, Jesus, the
God-man, laid aside the full and complete use of his divine powers, covering
them with the beggar’s cloak of lowly obedience. In his state of
exaltation, the beggar’s cloak, the slave’s form, has been dropped, and
Jesus no longer treats with restraint the fact that he is God.
“Yes, Jesus is still the God-man, but he is no longer subject to the
weakness and the frailty of fallen humanity. No longer does he use his
divine qualities and powers in only a limited or restricted way. Now he
fully exercises his majesty as the exalted God-man to rule over everything
in heaven and on earth. The God-man, who once humbled himself to the lowest
depths to save our race, is now exalted to the loftiest heights as the King
of kings and Lord of lords.” (Harlyn J. Kuschel in People’s Bible
Commentary: Phillipians, Colossians, Philemon. Copyright © 1992 Concordia
Publishing House, St. Louis, MO. Pages 49f.)
The author of the Lutheran Hour Ministries Daily Devotion on June
13, 2011, wrote that “a federal judge agreed with a parent who said hearing
any religious expression during his son’s graduating ceremony would cause
‘irreparable harm.’
“The judge agreed so strongly that he ruled the word ‘amen’ could not
be used. He ordered the words ‘invocation’ and ‘benediction’ be replaced
with ‘opening remarks’ and ‘closing remarks.’ He ordered the word ‘prayer’
not be used in the ceremony. Then the judge said anyone who broke his
rulings would be accused of ‘contempt of court.’
“Not only was the judge’s ruling an insult to religion, it was a
violation of free speech. You see, Angela Hildenbrand had planned on giving
a prayer as part of her valedictorian speech.
“I started to wonder what date they would put on the program. The
dates in our Western calendar are based on Jesus’ birth. David Lanius, a
brilliant man at Lutheran Hour Ministries headquarters, wondered what they
will do when they come to a biblical name like Matthew, Mark, Luke, John,
Simon, Stephen. Do they just leave the name blank and yell, ‘Come on down!’?
“Then I got to wondering why I never heard of this parent before. Did
he not object to his son hearing the name of ‘Jesus’ being used in an
inappropriate way at the movies and on television? Did he sue the movie
studios for the harm they did to his son, or is it just the Christian Church
he was after?
“Apparently, and as of this writing, a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals,
along with the Texas attorney general has seen that judge’s decision
reversed.
He continued, “I’m glad they did.
“That’s because I agree with St. Paul who said the Name of Jesus is
above that of any other. Indeed, it is so sacred its very mention ought to
cause all of creation to bow in respect; it is so holy every tongue ought to
confess Jesus’ Lordship.
“And if anyone were to ask—as that Texas parent ought to be asking—‘What
makes the Name of Jesus so important?’ Scripture provides the answer.
Jesus’ Name is sacred because He is God’s Son who was sacrificed so that all
who believe on Him will not perish. Jesus’ Name is holy because all who are
brought to faith in Him are forgiven and given the promise of eternal life.”
(LHM Daily Devotions Ref: LHM0017752A-0018222#. 1997-2009 Lutheran Hour
Ministries, St. Louis, MO. All rights reserved.)
In conclusion, therefore, today’s Collect states “You sent Your
Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, to take upon Himself our flesh and to suffer
death upon the cross. Mercifully grant that we may follow the example of
His great humility and patience and be made partakers of His resurrection …
.” What that’s praying for is that we …
“Have a Christ Jesus State of Mind.”
That state of mind is one which values and exemplifies the
humility with which ...
I. Jesus Humbled Himself. (6-8) That humility led Him to declare about
Himself that “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give
his life as a ransom for many.” (St Matt 20:28 & St Mark 10:45 ESV) In
fact, today’s Gradual says about Him that “He sent redemption to his people;
he has commanded his covenant forever.” (Ps 111:9 ESV) After living the
holy life for us, suffering brutal punishment for us, enduring inhumane
death for us, and defeating sin, Satan, and death itself for us with His
majestic resurrection from the dead …
II. God Exalted Jesus. (9-11) That exaltation was already stated many
centuries earlier as contained in today’s Old Testament Reading, “See now
that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make
alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my
hand.” (Deut 32:39 ESV) Today’s Introit also declares His exaltation with
words composed by King David, “Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted
up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King
of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle! Lift up
your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of
glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the
King of glory!” (Ps 24:7-10 ESV)
Both Christ’s humiliation and exaltation are communicated in God’s
Holy Word, Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and Holy Communion, all of which
give us the certainty of forgiveness of sins, salvation, and eternal life.
May we keep those precious gifts in our hearts and minds as we make our
annual trek through Holy Week and beyond, always having and living a Christ
Jesus state of mind.
God grant it all for the sake of Jesus Christ, His humble Son, our
holy Savior. [Amen.]
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
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