From humiliation to exaltation
Commentary
In the modern church, this Sunday has a dual designation: Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday. Seemingly contradictory, one emphasis is upon Jesus' triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem. The other emphasis is upon the suffering and degradation that Jesus experiences at the hands of the religious and secular authorities. You can easily sense the paradoxical dimension in each of the readings for this day.
The Oxford Dictionary defines a paradox as a "seemingly absurd statement." I would prefer to think of a paradox as a combination of two contradictory statements, neither of which makes sense without the other. This Sunday's readings offer the preacher an excellent opportunity to present both the paradoxical nature of the cross and the Christian life.
All of the readings speak of foolishness, weakness, suffering, and death, but here is the paradox -- out of all these things have come their exact opposites. Out of what seemed like the folly of Jesus flinging his life down in the faith that love and not force will win human hearts, we catch a glimpse of the eternal wisdom of God. Out of the seeming weakness of Jesus before his accusers and tormentors, we catch a glimpse of the power that can change human lives from bad to good. Out of the suffering of Jesus, God brings comfort, making the cross the one place in the world where the sinful find forgiveness, the sorrowful solace, and the hard-pressed courage. Out of the death of Jesus, God brings life, a life that reaches beyond our human existence to all eternity.
The paradoxical nature of our faith is revealed in each of the lessons. The passage from Isaiah is the third of the servant songs. In many ways it is a psalm of trust that moves the servant from lamentation to trust, and from suffering to vindication. The prophet has been called to speak to a people who are weary. It has not been an easy role to play. The prophet has suffered pain and indignity, but lives in the confidence that in God's kingdom, the humble are unexpectedly exalted.
Paul's great hymn in Philippians 2 presents the same paradoxical dimension of our faith as Paul describes the descent and ascent of the Redeemer. The preacher needs to be careful not to moralize these words into a formula for success that reads: Humble yourself now and eventually you will be number one. Christ emptied self, served, and died without any promise of reward. The grave of Christ was a cave, not a tunnel! But that is precisely what God has exalted and vindicated: self-denying service with no claim of return and no eye upon reward.
The gospel readings illustrate the words in the creed, "suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried." They also afford us an excellent opportunity to see the strange paradox of the Christian life. As we share our Lord's humiliation, so we shall share his glory.
OUTLINE I
The road less traveled
Isaiah 50:4-9a
A. v. 4: This poem is about a prophet's lonely struggle to survive and to preserve his integrity in a hostile world. Carrying a word from the Lord to a people who are weary and worn-out with life's burdens has not been easy. Like Jesus, the servant must bring a word of life to those who see only death and despair. But God knows what it is like to be weary. God has a word that will sustain.
B. vv. 5-7: The prophet, however, quickly discovers that one must often take the "road less traveled" of service and self-giving in bringing his message from the Lord. He has suffered pain and indignity at the hands of incredulous and unreceptive listeners. Like Jesus who suffered humiliation and even death, the prophet moves forward in the knowledge that only as we bear the cross can we wear the crown.
C. vv. 8-9a: What keeps the prophet going is confidence in the truth of his message, and the nearness of God. Like the psalmist who believed he could endure even the valley of the shadow of death, the prophet counts on the nearness of God to bring vindication out of what otherwise appears to be a hopeless task. The prophet has no guarantees that everything will work out to his satisfaction. He has only the trust that the sovereign Lord will somehow vindicate his ministry to his people.
OUTLINE II
From Golgotha to glory
Philippians 2:5-11
A. vv. 5-6: Clearly, there are three movements in Paul's mind as he thinks about the redeeming work of Jesus Christ. There is the pre-existent Christ who was with God prior to his incarnation on the earth. Because in Jesus of Nazareth men and women have experienced God, the early Christians used pre-existence as one way of saying that in the very human, crucified Nazarene, they had encountered a reality beyond time, place, and history. The church has always proclaimed this paradox about Jesus Christ.
B. vv. 7-8: But this great hymn goes on to state that Jesus does not hold on to his pre-existent state. There is a self-emptying that allows Jesus in his existence in this world to come under all the conditions of the human lot, becoming a servant, obedient even to death. While Christ's obedience is to God, very likely Paul is also thinking of the forces and powers that determine human life in this world. A fully human Christ has to confront the rulers of this world, and set free those whose lives have been in subjection.
C. vv. 9-11: At verse 9 the subject of the hymn changes. Up to this point it is Christ who decides, who acts, relinquishing the claims of God, and who becomes human in his serving, obeying, and dying. Now it is God who acts in the exaltation of Christ. Christ becomes Lord over every power in the created order. We have moved from Golgotha to glory!
OUTLINE III
The paradox of the cross
Mark 14:1--15:47
A. Mark 15:1-47: The crucifixion of Jesus Christ was the paradox par excellence, the greatest turning of the tables, the vastest confounding of human expectation of all times. In many ways the followers of Jesus in every age are like a walking paradox, because they embody both foolishness and wisdom, weakness and strength, suffering and comfort, life and death.
In the Christian life, there is an interchange between foolishness and wisdom. We are called to become fools for the sake of Christ -- men and women who renounce the rewards and securities that the world offers, and instead throw down their lives in faith that love, and not force, will win the hearts of proud and selfish human beings. Think of Paul, Wesley, Kagawa, and Schweitzer who reveal in their lives the wisdom of God.
In the Christian life, there is an interchange between weakness and strength. Sometimes we have to be helpless in order for God's power to work in our lives. The triumphant testimony of many Christians who have reproduced in their lives the paradox of the cross is that in their weakness, they achieve their true strength and greatest use to God.
In the Christian life, there is an interchange between suffering and comfort. The great sufferers are rarely the great complainers. Those who share Christ's sufferings seem to rise above the normal negative reaction to adversity. They know a serenity that comes from God.
In the Christian life, there is the interchange between death and life. The strangest paradox of all is that in dying to self, we are born to eternal life.
The Oxford Dictionary defines a paradox as a "seemingly absurd statement." I would prefer to think of a paradox as a combination of two contradictory statements, neither of which makes sense without the other. This Sunday's readings offer the preacher an excellent opportunity to present both the paradoxical nature of the cross and the Christian life.
All of the readings speak of foolishness, weakness, suffering, and death, but here is the paradox -- out of all these things have come their exact opposites. Out of what seemed like the folly of Jesus flinging his life down in the faith that love and not force will win human hearts, we catch a glimpse of the eternal wisdom of God. Out of the seeming weakness of Jesus before his accusers and tormentors, we catch a glimpse of the power that can change human lives from bad to good. Out of the suffering of Jesus, God brings comfort, making the cross the one place in the world where the sinful find forgiveness, the sorrowful solace, and the hard-pressed courage. Out of the death of Jesus, God brings life, a life that reaches beyond our human existence to all eternity.
The paradoxical nature of our faith is revealed in each of the lessons. The passage from Isaiah is the third of the servant songs. In many ways it is a psalm of trust that moves the servant from lamentation to trust, and from suffering to vindication. The prophet has been called to speak to a people who are weary. It has not been an easy role to play. The prophet has suffered pain and indignity, but lives in the confidence that in God's kingdom, the humble are unexpectedly exalted.
Paul's great hymn in Philippians 2 presents the same paradoxical dimension of our faith as Paul describes the descent and ascent of the Redeemer. The preacher needs to be careful not to moralize these words into a formula for success that reads: Humble yourself now and eventually you will be number one. Christ emptied self, served, and died without any promise of reward. The grave of Christ was a cave, not a tunnel! But that is precisely what God has exalted and vindicated: self-denying service with no claim of return and no eye upon reward.
The gospel readings illustrate the words in the creed, "suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried." They also afford us an excellent opportunity to see the strange paradox of the Christian life. As we share our Lord's humiliation, so we shall share his glory.
OUTLINE I
The road less traveled
Isaiah 50:4-9a
A. v. 4: This poem is about a prophet's lonely struggle to survive and to preserve his integrity in a hostile world. Carrying a word from the Lord to a people who are weary and worn-out with life's burdens has not been easy. Like Jesus, the servant must bring a word of life to those who see only death and despair. But God knows what it is like to be weary. God has a word that will sustain.
B. vv. 5-7: The prophet, however, quickly discovers that one must often take the "road less traveled" of service and self-giving in bringing his message from the Lord. He has suffered pain and indignity at the hands of incredulous and unreceptive listeners. Like Jesus who suffered humiliation and even death, the prophet moves forward in the knowledge that only as we bear the cross can we wear the crown.
C. vv. 8-9a: What keeps the prophet going is confidence in the truth of his message, and the nearness of God. Like the psalmist who believed he could endure even the valley of the shadow of death, the prophet counts on the nearness of God to bring vindication out of what otherwise appears to be a hopeless task. The prophet has no guarantees that everything will work out to his satisfaction. He has only the trust that the sovereign Lord will somehow vindicate his ministry to his people.
OUTLINE II
From Golgotha to glory
Philippians 2:5-11
A. vv. 5-6: Clearly, there are three movements in Paul's mind as he thinks about the redeeming work of Jesus Christ. There is the pre-existent Christ who was with God prior to his incarnation on the earth. Because in Jesus of Nazareth men and women have experienced God, the early Christians used pre-existence as one way of saying that in the very human, crucified Nazarene, they had encountered a reality beyond time, place, and history. The church has always proclaimed this paradox about Jesus Christ.
B. vv. 7-8: But this great hymn goes on to state that Jesus does not hold on to his pre-existent state. There is a self-emptying that allows Jesus in his existence in this world to come under all the conditions of the human lot, becoming a servant, obedient even to death. While Christ's obedience is to God, very likely Paul is also thinking of the forces and powers that determine human life in this world. A fully human Christ has to confront the rulers of this world, and set free those whose lives have been in subjection.
C. vv. 9-11: At verse 9 the subject of the hymn changes. Up to this point it is Christ who decides, who acts, relinquishing the claims of God, and who becomes human in his serving, obeying, and dying. Now it is God who acts in the exaltation of Christ. Christ becomes Lord over every power in the created order. We have moved from Golgotha to glory!
OUTLINE III
The paradox of the cross
Mark 14:1--15:47
A. Mark 15:1-47: The crucifixion of Jesus Christ was the paradox par excellence, the greatest turning of the tables, the vastest confounding of human expectation of all times. In many ways the followers of Jesus in every age are like a walking paradox, because they embody both foolishness and wisdom, weakness and strength, suffering and comfort, life and death.
In the Christian life, there is an interchange between foolishness and wisdom. We are called to become fools for the sake of Christ -- men and women who renounce the rewards and securities that the world offers, and instead throw down their lives in faith that love, and not force, will win the hearts of proud and selfish human beings. Think of Paul, Wesley, Kagawa, and Schweitzer who reveal in their lives the wisdom of God.
In the Christian life, there is an interchange between weakness and strength. Sometimes we have to be helpless in order for God's power to work in our lives. The triumphant testimony of many Christians who have reproduced in their lives the paradox of the cross is that in their weakness, they achieve their true strength and greatest use to God.
In the Christian life, there is an interchange between suffering and comfort. The great sufferers are rarely the great complainers. Those who share Christ's sufferings seem to rise above the normal negative reaction to adversity. They know a serenity that comes from God.
In the Christian life, there is the interchange between death and life. The strangest paradox of all is that in dying to self, we are born to eternal life.
