Apr
kenosis
Isaiah 50:4-9a, Philippians 2:5-11, Matthew 26:14- 27:66, Psalm 31:9-16
Jesus was executed in the same manner as that reserved only for violent criminals, or Roman citizens who had committed high treason against the State of Rome, or the lowest-class thief such as those on his left and right. It was the most hideous of fates.
The Apostle Paul, as Saul of Tarsus had contributed his efforts to just such executions. As a non-believer in Jesus Christ, Saul had mercilessly hunted down and persecuted his 1st century peers who were suspected as being followers of Jesus Christ. Thankfully, Paul came to believe – to believe so much so that he became the best known and perhaps most prolific writer in the Bible. He wrote the words that we heard this morning in our second lesson. These are the words in his letter to the people of Philippi. These beautiful and powerful words are encompassed in what we refer to as the Christ Hymn – verses 5-11 from the second chapter of Paul’s letter to the Philippians. We read these words every year on Palm Sunday – the Sunday of the Passion.
We read a portion of these words as well when we arrive at the 3rd Station of our pilgrimage through the Stations of the Cross. The 2nd Station depicts Jesus taking up his cross as described for us in the Gospel accounts. In the 3rd Station, Jesus falls under the weight of that cross for the first time. Our Gospel account doesn’t tell us specifically that Jesus fell, but it is a reasonable speculation, and so we infer that Jesus fell under the weight of the Cross-as he was forced to carry his own cross toward Golgotha. It is at this 3rd Station that our assigned scripture text is a portion of the Christ Hymn: “Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.”
Why is it so important to hear these words on this particular day when we have, once again, witnessed the horrors of the Cross – the Cross, which is the symbol and the foundation of our faith – in all of its complexity and perplexity. Why do we read these same words on our individual journey to the Cross as we reflect on Jesus falling under the burden of the Cross – the Cross loaded down with the evil and death of the world?
In these words, Paul explains and assures us that Jesus had available to him the divinity of God. And, as the divine Son of God, Jesus could have taken full advantage of his divine nature and escaped to the spiritual realm.
And, even as a purely human being, Jesus could have, at any time, walked away from his mission, disappeared in the Galilean countryside, to be remembered only for a while as a misguided troublemaker.
But, escaping and hiding out would not fulfill God’s purpose of redeeming the world; God’s purpose of demonstrating his ever-present, unconditional, eternal love for us; God’s purpose of vanquishing sin and death for all creation for all eternity.
Thus, Jesus emptied himself of his divinity, taking the form a slave that he might be born in human likeness; and, fully human, Jesus humbled himself in total obedience to God, even to the point of death – death on a cross.
Paul is telling us that Jesus, though equal to God, chose not to exploit that equality. Adam and Eve, in the paradise of the Garden of Eden, had sought equality with God by eating the forbidden fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. In the account from chapter 3 of Genesis, we read the words of the serpent, ”God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God.” Thus Eve and Adam ate of the forbidden fruit precipitating their fall from Paradise – the fall of all God’s creation from Paradise; their sin is our sin. Death came into the world.
Sin and death came into the world through humankind; it would be necessary for humankind to be redeemed by another human. Thus, God came into the world in the human form of Jesus Christ for the purpose of our redemption – for the purpose of showing us our capability of living in love, true humiliy, and total obedience to God and in harmony with one another.
All for love, Jesus humbled himself and became obedient to God, even to the point of death. In carrying that Cross loaded with our sin, Jesus had no more physical strength than any other human male of his day. Jesus was not insulated from the bite of the whip upon his flesh, the sting of the gravelly path as it dug into his face when he fell, or the degradation of the taunts and hisses of the crowd that surely cheered and mocked him all the more when he fell.
Jesus could have walked away, but escaping and hiding out would not fulfill God’s purpose of redeeming the world. Jesus emptied himself and became wholly obedient to God’s will. God came into the world in the human person of Jesus Christ for the purpose of our redemption – for the purpose of showing us our capability of living in love, true humility, and total obedience to God and in harmony with one another.
Jesus didn’t hide; Jesus didn’t walk away – as he could have; Jesus bore the Cross weighted down with our sins; Jesus took the form of a slave in human likeness; he died on that cross and was buried. And, he rose victorious over that cross of evil and death.
We don’t have any easy answers to the evil and death in this world that seem to overwhelm us – evil dictators who massacre innocent children, government officials who flex their muscles and indulge so much energy in political stalemating rather than in efforts to find common ground for the good of the people, families broken by addiction and abuse – the list goes on and on.
The answers will come only when we empty ourselves, taking the form of a slave, submitting ourselves totally to God’s will – planting seeds one by one – seeds of true humility and total obedience to God.
