He Made Himself Nothing, Part Two

Philippians 2:5-11

Intro: show the “Me Monster” clip.

“Beware the “me monster.” That’s a good warning for all of us, but of course we know that the me monster is much more than talking about ourselves too much. It’s just another way of saying what Paul said. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.” As I said last week, my biggest problem in life is that I am having a deeply romantic love affair with myself. But this self-love is a problem because I am my own worst enemy. My me monster is like a caged animal trying to get out and run free. But rather than just put the me monster into an iron cage, God wants us to kill the me monster living inside us. And the best way to kill this monster is to adopt the attitude of Jesus, which Paul so skillfully and poetically declares in verses five through eleven.

^5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: ^6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,^7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ^8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became 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 confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Figure 1

Remember that Paul began this section with the pre-existence of Jesus Christ, which is the first of three parts—Christ’s pre-existence, Christ’s humility and Christ’s exaltation (see figure 1). The first part is his pre-existence.  Christ was in the nature of God and equal to God. Christmas is not merely an adorable little baby, but it is a matter of putting the deity of Christ back into Christmas. But Jesus did not need to cling to this power. If you want to understand grasping power, then we have to look no further than Illinois governor Rod Blagovich. This man will no doubt spend a few years in prison and further discredit the corrupt reputation of Illinois and Chicago politics. His grasping for power and influence got him into trouble in the first place by trying to sell a US Senate seat and now that he has been caught, he continues to cling to power and refuses to resign.

But Jesus did not need to cling to this power, but instead, made himself nothing. He emptied himself by becoming a man. He emptied himself by taking on the nature of a servant, of a slave. This is the incarnation, this is the Christmas story in all of it wonder and beauty. Do you want a magical Christmas moment? Forget about sleigh rides jolly old Saint Nick. A magical Christmas moment can only be had by meditating on the wonder of Christ’s humility. Chris Eisermann introduced me to a wonderful song called How Many Kings. Listen to these lyrics.

Cause how many kings, stepped down from their thrones?
How many lords have abandoned their homes?
How many greats have become the least for me?
How many Gods have poured out their hearts
To romance a world that has torn all apart?
How many fathers gave up their sons for me?

The humility of the incarnation is a stumblingblock to many because they cannot understand how  God can become a man, but still be fully God. Kings do not step down from their thrones. Lords do not abandon their homes. It just isn’t done. One commentator said this about the incarnation. His equality with God found its truest expression when “he emptied himself.”[i] In other words, when God became a man, this humility looked more like God than anything else. Understood properly, the incarnation is not a stumbling block away from God, but rather the greatest indicator that Jesus was and is God. His humility increased his greatness.

But we know that Christ’s humility did not stop with his incarnation. He humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross. Paul made a clear emphasis here. It was not enough that Christ humbled himself, but he also humbled himself unto death. But it was not enough that he humbled himself to the point of death, but even death on a cross! It is very rare to see an exclamation point in Scripture, but the NIV adds one in this verse to make sure that we catch the strong emphasis on the cross.

Part of the problem is that there is very little shock value when we think about the cross. This section in Philippians is a famous Scripture, many call it an early Christian hymn. And as a hymn, there is certainly a poetic nature to the passage. You and I read this passage as poetry, but the Philippians would have read it as a scandal.  It truly was a scandal. In 1Cor. 1, Paul wrote, “We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block (sκάνδαλον) to Jews.” The word stumbling block is the word scandalon, from where we get our word “scandal”. Death by crucifixion was scandalous.  One person described it this way. “In polite Roman society the word cross was an obscenity, not to be uttered in conversation.”[ii] The cross was a form of execution reserved for the lowest of the low. It was saved for the vilest criminals and lowest dregs of society. What is the common phrase used to describe drug addicts: they won’t seek help until they have reached “rock bottom.” The cross was rock bottom, it was as low as you could go and that is exactly where Christ took himself.

You did notice that, did you not? The humility of the incarnation and the humility of the crucifixion was something that Christ did to himself. This can be a bit confusing to some, because when you actually get to the story in the gospels, it appears that all of the bad things are being done to Jesus. Temple guards arrested him. Roman soldiers flogged him. Governors interrogated him. The crowd jeered at him. Technically speaking, he did not arrest himself, flog himself, interrogate himself or jeer at himself. All of those things were done to him. Yet, here we are told that all of these things were part of Christ humbling himself.

There is a popular misconception about Christ that is captured in the short video called The Bridge. This video is in the top ten videos of all time on Godtube. If you haven’t seen the video, you may know the story. I first heard it almost thirty years ago when I was working as a camp counselor. (show video)

If you think this is a tear-jerker, the full six minute version will almost certainly bring a tear to your eye. This is an emotional and gut-wrenching little story, but unfortunately it is mostly wrong! The one thing that it does do is capture the grief of the father. Did God the Father grieve when Christ went to the cross? Interestingly, I could not think of any Scriptures that would prove this conclusively, though you may be able to prove me wrong, but it is a fair assumption that God the Father grieved. The story obviously captures the notion of a substitutionary sacrifice. The young boy died so that the people on the train would live. But beyond that, the story is quite a bit of heresy wrapped in sloppy emotion. The biggest problem is the idea that the whole thing was an accident that came as a surprise to both the father and the son. While few Christians would go so far as to say that the cross was an accident, many hold the false notion that the idea of redemption came after the fall of mankind in the garden. God created Adam and Eve perfect and without sin. When they chose their own sin over God’s way, God was forced to make a “Plan B.” When they ate the forbidden fruit, suddenly God knew he was going to have to help his creation in a more drastic manner. If they would not follow him in the Garden of Eden, then he would have to go to the Garden of Gethsemane.

The problem with this popular notion is that there was not the slightest hint of surprise and the cross was certainly no accident. We all know that Christmas leads to Easter. But more than that, the humility of the cross was inherent in the humility of the incarnation. Jesus became a man so that he could go to the cross. But the seeds of the cross go further back than that. Remember how Paul began this passage with Christ as the divine, pre-existent Creator? That is how far back we have to go to find the incarnation and crucifixion. The redemption of mankind was no mere accident or afterthought. The redemption of mankind was inherent in creation itself. Paul says so one book before this, in Ephesians chapter one. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. Therefore, for all of eternity, the triune Godhead has been contemplating and planning the creation, the incarnation and the crucifixion. There was never a time when this was not in the mind and purpose of God. So you see, in that sense, Christmas has always existed! Christmas was inaugurated in 4 BC. But it was conceived from eternity past. Christmas has always been and will always be. When did Christ cease being God in human flesh? It’s a trick question, isn’t it, because he never ceased being a man. He is still God incarnate. Christ was always and forever be the God-man.

If Christmas has always been, then what was the ultimate motivation for Christ’s double humility? Certainly a chief motivation was love, but in this chapter we see a seldom taught motivation—obedience.  Christ humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! But here is another mystery of Christmas. How can God be obedient? Children can be obedient to their parents, students can be obedient to their teachers and employees can be obedient to their bosses, but how can Christ be obedient? One person explained it this way. “Only a divine being can accept death as obedience; for ordinary human beings it is a necessity, to which they are appointed by their humanity.”[iii] We will die whether or not we are obedient to Christ, but Christ died strictly out of obedience to his Father.

Christ was “obedient unto death,” as the King James puts it. You do not have to be obedient in the sense of obedience which necessitates your death, like a true martyr, but obedience unto, or until your last breath.  We cannot obey in exactly the same way that Christ obeyed, but we can model it by a lifelong, trajectory of obedience that continues and grows until your final breath in this life. We can obey until death. This kind of obedience is a dying unto ourselves every day until our actual death. Therefore, our death is not the end of our lives or the necessity of martyrdom, but a daily death to self in obedience.

The final step in this journey is the exaltation of Christ (see figure 1). Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. While there is no explicit mention of Christ’s resurrection or ascension, both are implied in the passage.

This almost certainly taken from Isaiah 45:23, which reads, Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear. The Lord also said in Isa 42:8, I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another. God is always perfectly zealous for his own honor and glory. Satan is the number one pretender to his throne and there have been countless others who have tried to usurp God. All of these have failed and will fail and each serves to remind us of the truth of these verse from Isaiah. Every knee will bow before the Lord and every tongue will confess his Lordship. But this is the exact place to which Christ is lifted up. Christ could not possibly be exalted to this place of highest honor unless he was fully God.

Here we see another interesting interaction among the members of the Godhead. Christ walks in submission and obedience to the will of the Father, but then the Father exalts Christ to the highest place of honor. Exalting Christ as Lord in no way is competition with the Father, just the opposite in fact. When Christ is exalted, God the Father is glorified. In one way, Christ’s exaltation is like the political commercials on TV that we were so tired of hearing. How do they always end? “I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message.” The exaltation is a bit like God saying, “I am God the Father, and I approve this message.” The Father did this at Jesus baptism. He spoke from heaven saying, “This is my son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased.” God the Father made a similar statement at Jesus’ transfiguration. “This is my son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased. Listen to him.” Now, we can almost hear verses nine through eleven in the first person.

I have exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, all to my glory.

Has Christ been exalted to this place of honor? Yes. Has his full glory been restored? Yes. Has every knee bowed down to him and every tongue confessed that Jesus is Lord. No, not yet. Not every knee and not every tongue. But this is a sure and certain promise for the future. All of God’s children and all of God’s enemies will bow the knee before him. It is essential that we remember this for two reasons. First, no matter how life may appear to be crumbling around us, God is on the throne and one day all will acknowledge him. Remember the statement created by the opponents of President Bush Sr? “It’s the economy, stupid.” Even during our current economic crisis, the problem is not the economy. The problem is not terrorism, or abortion, or global warming or evolution or any other issue in the so-called culture war. The only real problem is that people do not bow their knee to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Which brings us to the true application of Christmas. Your tongue may offer a confession about Jesus, but is your heart bowed to his Lordship? The me monster will live on unless your knee is daily bowed to Christ. In fact, this is the only weapon that will kill a me monster.

Rich Maurer

December 14, 2008