Monday Reverb – 25March2024

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SERMON

Love’s Holy Sacrifice

Philippians 2:5-11 (NRSVUE)

Though it is Palm Sunday today, I want to begin by telling you a Christmas story.  You may have heard it before.  It’s called “The Gift of the Magi,” written by Willaim Sydney Porter, whose pen name was O. Henry in 1905. The story goes like this:

On Christmas Eve, Della Young needed to buy a gift for her beloved husband Jim, but she only had $1.87 (or about $62 in today’s economy).  She had beautiful, long brown hair that she was very proud of, but because she needed the money for Jim’s gift, she went to a nearby hairdresser who cut her beautiful hair off and bought it for $20 (or about $700 in our day).  Sporting a new pixie haircut, Della spent the afternoon looking for the perfect gift for Jim.  He had an heirloom watch from his grandfather that he treasured, but she noticed its leather band was worn, and he had to keep it in his pocket, so he didn’t lose it.  She found a gold watch chain, one that looked like it was made for Jim’s watch.  It cost $21, and she went home to prepare their meal with 87 cents in her pocket.

When Jim arrived home, he stared at her, surprised to see her short hair.  Della quickly explained how she wanted to give him a special gift and that she sacrificed her hair to buy the watch chain.  Jim pulled a package from inside his coat and gave it to Della.  Inside it were two beautiful, bejeweled hair combs that she had often admired in the shop window but knew they could never afford. “How did you ever afford them, Jim?” she asked.

“I sold my watch, Della,” Jim said, and the story ends with this: “Each sold the most valuable thing they owned to buy a gift for the other … Of all who give gifts, these two were the most wise.”

Though this is a story that takes place at Christmas, it is also very fitting for Holy Week because it is a story of love’s sacrifice.  Theologian and author Frederick Buechner (pronounced BEEK-ner) has written, “To sacrifice something is to make it holy by giving it away for love.”

Though Palm Sunday often focuses on the crowd’s adulation of Jesus and his fulfillment of prophecy, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt, today we’re reading about Jesus’ mindset as he approached Holy Week.  Make no mistake: Jesus was not a victim.  He chose to sacrifice himself, not to appease an angry Father God, but to show us that his choice was the truest expression of Divine Love and a radical identification with our humanity.

Let’s read Philippians 2:5-11 …

⁵ In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:  ⁶ Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.   
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross!   

⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.   

We’ll examine four important nuances about the text that help us better understand the holy nature of love’s sacrifice.

1.  Christ in us

The passage begins with “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”  This translation sounds as if Christ’s mindset is something we must work on.  What’s interesting is that the verb “was” doesn’t appear in the Greek, so we could also consider the possibility that the verb could be “you have,” acknowledging Christ’s mind that is already in us:

Let the same mind be in you that [you have] in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 2:5 NRSVUE)

This mindset is already a part of the body of Christ, and it gives us pause to think about how it informs our relationships, both in the church and with the world.  The self-emptying attitude of Jesus is not something we must “work up,” but is part of living within the Christ consciousness already present in us.

2.  No grasping

Traditionally, verses 6-7 have been used to encourage believers to practice humility.

Who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped,but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, assuming human likeness. (Philippians 2:6-7 NRSVUE)

But what if these verses are telling us more about how Jesus was revealing the Father’s heart for humanity than they are telling us what we should be doing or how we should be feeling?

The Greek word harpagmos is translated in v.6 as “something to be grasped.”  But modern interpretations of the word harpagmos say that rather than acting like a noun, it is a gerund, which is a verb turned into a noun by adding the ending -ing.  So rather than “something to be grasped,” it might be more accurate this way:

who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God to consist of grasping (Philippians 2:6)

Author Sally A. Brown from Princeton Seminary notes the subtle nuance of the change:

Philippians 2, far from being a touching portrait of a self-effacing Jesus, speaks of Jesus’ radical embodiment of divine redemptive and restorative power as the power of self-outpoured service to the other.  The alternate translation also has the advantage of helping us resolve the troublesome tension between the affirmation in verse 6 that Jesus is somehow ‘in the form of God’ and yet somehow at the same time refusing to act ‘godlike.’

Jesus didn’t hold on to his divine rights, and as we saw in the opening story, neither Della nor Jim held on to the material things they treasured.  It was love that spurred the sacrifice of the lesser treasure.

3.  Sacrifice as an expression of love

Despite taking on our humanity, Jesus remained God, and in doing so, his life and death did not reflect a dismissal of his Divine nature.  Instead, Jesus’ humility, obedience, and willingness to sacrifice show us the best and most truthful expression of God and God’s love.  Verse 8 talks about Jesus and his surrender to humanity’s hate,  absorbing our selfishness and the pain of our separation from God.  This is echoed in today’s other Revised Common Lectionary scripture readings:

For I hear the whispering of many — terror all around! — as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life. (Psalm 31:13, NRSVUE)

I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting. (Isaiah 50:6, NIV)

On this Palm Sunday, we are reminded that the same crowd who gladly cheered, “Hosanna!” also were the ones who shouted, “Crucify him!” a few days later.  We have experienced those same emotions that caused the crowd to turn on Jesus and misunderstand him.  We are quite capable of the same mercurial mindset because we know what grief, loss, disappointment, injustice, and anger feel like.

By studying Jesus’ betrayal, we can see how “Christ in [us], the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27) can help us live with the uncertainties and suffering that are part of a human life.  We know something the Palm Sunday crowd didn’t know: when we suffer, God is not far from us.  Jesus’ sacrifice and suffering show that God is willing to suffer with us. We are never alone.

4.  A new name

Verses 9-11 contain God’s response to Jesus’ holy sacrifice for love.

Therefore God exalted him even more highly and gave him the name that is above every other name, so that at the name given to Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11 NRSVUE)

Verse 9 talks about Jesus being “renamed,” given “the name that is above every other name,” so that all the earth and its inhabitants would understand how Jesus’ perseverance through suffering expressed the love of God.  Reading through the Old Testament we see examples of a new name being given to a man upon entering a new state of life.  For example, Abram became Abraham when he entered the covenant with God (Genesis 17:5), and Jacob became Israel after a night of wrestling a spirit being (perhaps God?) and refusing to let go unless he was blessed (Genesis 32:28).  One possibility for Jesus’ new name was “Lord,” because it meant he was “the Master and Owner of all life.”

Holy Week begins with the celebration of “Hosanna!” and quickly turns to the darkness of betrayal.  We understand that Jesus’ unwillingness to grasp his divinity and instead, reaching out for us through the incarnation, conveys the depth of love the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have for all creation, including human beings.  Through Philippians 2:5-11, we see that Christ is not just a suffering servant or a victor: he is both.  Holy Week is our opportunity to see the full expression of God’s love through Jesus.

As we consider the opening O. Henry story about Della and Jim, we understand that the gifts they bought were not really the truest gift they gave each other.  The real gift was an understanding of how much they loved each other, proven by their willingness to sacrifice their most prized possession.  In similar fashion, God through Jesus communicates the connection with and depth of love for creation through the mind of Christ.

Call to Action: As you begin Holy Week, consider how often you might engage in “grasping” for what you think you deserve.  Be aware of your ego’s drive to compete, be acknowledged, or praised.  Instead, think about how you might communicate love to others through a humble sacrifice of time or resources, living the mind of Christ that is in you.