Philippians
2:1-13; Matthew 21:23-32
Children who are
struggling to make their own rules often tell their siblings and sometimes
their parents, “You’re not the boss of me!” This saying is cute, when children
say it. This seems to be what the chief priests and elders were saying to Jesus
in the temple. And they didn’t say it to be cute.
It’s important to know
where in Matthew this event happens. It’s after Jesus’ triumphal entry into
Jerusalem, which we celebrate as Palm Sunday. In other words, it’s just a few
days before he dies. He has entered into Jerusalem with a parade celebrating
his coming as a king into the capital city. He has overturned the tables of the
scam artists known as money-changers.
By now in his life, the
Jewish leaders are very suspicious of him. They have been watching Jesus for
three years, and they know he objects to much of what they have been saying and
doing. Jesus threatens their authority.
They want to know: by
whose authority does he preach and heal? How dare he preach and teach contrary
to the tradition?! How dare he imply that they are wrong?! So, this time, they
directly confront him. They have to be careful, because the crowds are fans of
Jesus and they don’t want to upset the crowds too much. Yet, they need to make
the crowds aware that Jesus is wrong.
In traditional
rabbinical fashion, they ask a question. They want Jesus to tell them which
previous Torah scholar has said similar things. For the leaders, authority
comes from scripture and its established interpretations. They don’t want
anyone to make up new interpretations of scripture. They like things the way
they are, and they feel threatened by Jesus’ new-fangled ideas.
The leaders ask Jesus a
question, and in typical Jesus fashion, Jesus answers the question with another
question. He lays the trap, and the leaders have no honorable way out of it.
“Was John’s baptism of human or divine origin?” he asks them. If they say it
was of human origin, the crowd will be angry. If they say it was of divine
origin, then Jesus will ask why he was killed by Herod. So, the leaders give no
answer, and Jesus refuses to answer their question about authority.
… We have no trouble
saying that Jesus did what he did because he had God’s authority. Yet, we don’t
always know what that means. We can look at the text from Philippians for some
clues.
Most of this passage is
an ancient hymn about Jesus. It was probably written within the first twenty
years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. In this Christ Hymn, we learn that
Jesus came from God, emptied himself of all divinity in order to become human.
He gave up his human life on the cross because he agreed that God was the “boss
of him.” Because of this obedience, Jesus has returned to the glory of the
divine, and in response to his divinity, we should bow before him and proclaim
him Lord of our lives.
I have been thinking
this week about what it meant for Jesus to leave heaven and become human. I
want you to think of the most beautiful, wonderful place you can imagine. It
might be a beach, a mountain, a forest, or your own backyard. It might be a
room in your house, or in your childhood house, or Grandma’s home. It might be
an event, like getting a new baby, or a new puppy or kitten. Beautiful places
are usually filled with love and joy, which is why they are our beautiful
places.
Our beautiful places
usually offer us the overpowering feeling of joy, divine love, forgiveness, and
acceptance. If we could, we might want to stay there forever. It was this kind
of place that Jesus left, intentionally, for us. Jesus gave up being God. He
gave up the powers he had in heaven. He gave up living in heaven, in that
beautiful place. He took on human form, accepting the limitations of being
human. He performed miracles of healing and multiplying bread and so forth
because God heard his prayers. He allowed himself to be abused, bullied,
beaten, and crucified.
Jesus became human, but he
came with divine authority. When the leaders challenged him, Jesus could have
said, I and the Father are one, and I have divine authority in all I do. But he
didn’t need to answer their question. With whose authority does Jesus do what
he does? With God’s authority.
… The Apostle Paul urges
the Philippians to have the same mind as Christ – the same self-giving mind of
the one who left the glories of heaven to be born with the limitations of a human
body.
In order for us to have
the same mind as Christ, we need to get ourselves out of the center of our
lives. Sometimes it is quite a shock to discover that we have been far away
from the mind of Christ.
Here is a story about
changing our lives to giving Jesus authority over our lives and to having the
same mind as Christ. The story comes from our Monday morning study materials,
so it will be familiar to some of you.
Imagine picking up the
morning paper and discovering that you had died the day before! That
happened years ago as a newspaper erroneously reported the death of a famous
man. The error gave the man the interesting opportunity to read what people
would say about him after he had died.
So he began to
read. He read past the bold caption that said, “Dynamite king dies,” to
the text itself. He was taken aback to find that he was described as “a
merchant of death,” for he was the inventor of dynamite and had amassed a great
fortune from it.
The description in the
newspaper sparked a change. Did he really want to be remembered this
way? In that moment, he experienced a healing power greater than the
destructive force of dynamite. He changed his life direction and devoted
his energy and money to works of peace and human betterment. Today, he is
best remembered as the founder of the Nobel Peace Prize – Alfred Nobel – all
because he had the grace-filled experience to see himself as others saw him and
the freedom to set his life in a different direction.
Do we let Jesus have the
authority over how we spend our time? Do we let him have authority over how we
use our God-given gifts? Do we let him have authority over our checkbooks? Do we allow Jesus to have authority over how
we handle our relationships? Does the self-sacrificing mind of Christ enter
into our personal relationships? Does it figure into how we treat one another
in our church lives? Spend some time this week pondering who is at the center
of your life – yourself, or Jesus?
Please pray with me.
Lord Jesus, we love that you love us. We are beyond grateful that you gave up
the glories of heaven to take on human form and human limitations for us. Teach
us to be more like you. Amen
