Passion/Palm Sunday – 2025c
Old Testament – Isaiah 50:4a-9
New Testament – Philippians 2:5-11
“Drop It!”
INTRODUCTION: A little over a decade ago, David Bobb wrote a book called Humility: An Unlikely Biography of America’s Greatest Virtue.
Tracing the role humility played in the life of several of America's more prominent figures and leaders, Bobb’s book includes chapters on James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglas, as well as Abigail Adams.
There is also a chapter on George Washington, one of our nation’s most seminal figures. According to Bobb, there was a push among some people following the Revolutionary War that sought to have Washington appointed as a king.
While the Americans forces won a decisive battle at Yorktown in October of 1781, essentially bringing the war to an end, it would be two years before the Treaty of Paris would be signed in 1783 officially marking the close of the war.
But during that two year period, some of the soldiers still under Washington’s command increasingly felt he should be appointed King of the new upstart nation. In fact, in May of 1782 a colonel named Lewis Nicola even wrote a letter to Washington proposing that very idea.
But instead, Washington wrote back to Colonel Nicola that he had no interest in pursuing such a suggestion: “Let me [implore] you then,” wrote Washington to Nicola, “if you have any regard for your Country, concern for yourself or posterity, or respect for me, to banish these thoughts from your mind, and never communicate, as from yourself, or any one else, a sentiment of a like nature.”
And while there is no guarantee Washington could have made himself king, given his popularity he surely would have had a decent shot at doing so. And yet, he chose to forgo such a possibility.
ONE: Of course, long before George Washington was defusing the idea being floated by some that he should be king, the Apostle Paul was saying Jesus Christ did something very similar, only on a much grander and wider scale.
Yep, writing to the Philippians, Paul makes it pretty clear that Christ also gave up quite a bit of power and prestige as well. In fact, according to Paul, Jesus actually gave up all the rights and privileges that were his as one in the form of God.
Reciting words from what many people think was probably an early hymn of some kind, Paul puts it this way: “...though [Jesus] was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being found in human form, he humbled himself…”
Well, how’s that for a mind-blowing notion? For according to Paul, Jesus gave up all the rights, authority, honor, and perks of being God to become, well, human.
There is a story that a man once came to the Buddha with an offering of flowers grasped in each of his hands. Looking at the man, the Buddha says, “Drop it!”
Well, after a moment of reflection, the man decides he’s being asked to drop some of the flowers. So he releases the flowers he’s holding in his left hand letting them fall to the ground.
But still the Buddha says to him, “Drop it!” Well, this time the man drops the flowers in his right hand and now stands empty handed before the Buddha. And still, the same reply, “Drop it!”
“What is it I am supposed to drop?” asks the exasperated man. “Not the flowers,” said the Buddha, “but the one who brought them.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, one of the central goals of Buddhism is to lose the self, it’s to drop one's ego, so to speak, which in turn allows someone to be compassionate and caring. After all, has anyone ever met an egomaniac that is also loving and merciful? I sure haven’t!
Well, something similar happened on that cross, according to Paul. Jesus poured himself out, he dropped himself, for us and for the world. He could have claimed equality with God, but instead gave all that up in suffering love.
TWO: Well, on this Sunday before Easter, on this Sunday when we annually remember and reflect upon Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem, no wonder that ancient hymn from Philippians is one of our prescribed texts for the day.
After all, as most of you can probably recall, Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem perched atop that donkey sort of ends up becoming a living parable of Paul’s famous words from Philippians, right?
We hear those words about Jesus emptying himself, taking the form of a slave, and humbling himself, and suddenly his entrance into Jerusalem on a beast of burden makes perfect sense.
After all, most rulers and other high ranking people tended to enter Jerusalem perched on giant horses decked out in fancy attire and regalia. But that’s hardly how Jesus enters, is it? Perched on a borrowed donkey just a few years old, Jesus’ entrance was a burlesque scene. If some scholars are correct, Jesus was intentionally spoofing the way rulers and other powerful people typically entered Jerusalem.
Sitting on a donkey barely old enough to carry him, Jesus’ feet would have been dangling just inches above the ground - if not actually scraping it at times. Yep, if Jesus didn’t stub his toes once or twice during his entrance into Jerusalem, well, that would have been its own little miracle.
And then let’s not forget Jesus' courtiers and attendants. While other rulers and potentates entered Jerusalem followed by highly educated scribes, well-spoken advisers, other functionaries, along with bound and defeated forces often trailing behind them for good measure. Jesus entered with a pretty sorry collection of social misfits dragging along.
“Jesus was a king, but no ordinary one,” writes one man. He was “the king of fishermen, tax collectors, Samaritans, harlots, blind men, demoniacs, and cripples.”
But those lyrics from that Christ-hymn from Philippians helps put the entire odd scene in context, right? We hear about Jesus as God incarnate becoming humble and emptying himself, and it becomes hard for us to imagine him entering Jerusalem in any other way than sitting on a donkey.
THREE: Of course, let us not forget the reason Paul gets to even quoting that Christ-hymn in the first place.
He starts talking about the need for us to have the same mind that was in Jesus Christ and then as a way to show us what such a mind might look like he recites those lyrics from that famous song. Apparently then, to have the same mind of Christ means to strive in our own ways to live giving and humble lives as well.
So Paul’s talk about Jesus emptying himself and becoming humble is more than just theological banter about who he was and what he did for us. No, for Paul such talk is also intended to provide us all with a framework for shaping and molding our own lives as followers of Jesus Christ.
One day a teacher giving a lecture on modern inventions asked a classroom full of elementary kids, “Can any of you name something of great importance that did not exist fifty years ago?” After a moment, one bright lad eagerly raised his hand and said, “Me!” Well, truth be told most of us probably walk around with that basic sentiment firmly lodged in our heads, right? (I know I certainly can!)
Maybe that explains why one man likes to describe followers of Jesus, which he refers to as cross-bearers, this way:
“Cross bearers forfeit the game of power before the first inning...Cross bearers are dropouts in the school of self-promotion. They do not pick up their crosses as means for personal fulfillment, career advancement, or self-expression; rather, they ‘deny themselves’ and pick up their crosses, like their Lord, because of the needs of other people.”
How’s that line about humility go? “People with humility do not think less of themselves,” goes the bit, “they just think about themselves less.”
FOUR: Several years ago the University of Minnesota was conducting a study on twins that led to a remarkable discovery.
Following 402 pairs of twins who had been separated at birth, the study often found some striking similarities amongst the various sets of twins, even though they had been reared apart from each other.
One celebrated pair of identical twins was Jim Lewis and Jim Springer, whose lives almost seemed to be mirror copies of each other. Both of them, for example, had law enforcement training and had worked part-time as deputy-sheriffs in their respective hometowns, which were just 70 miles apart.
They both had been married two times to women with the same names. In their first marriages, both were married to women named Linda, while in the second marriage they were both married to someone named Betty.
They both had a dog named Toy when growing up, and they each named their first child James Allan - though Jim Lewis only used one “l” in his son’s first name and Jim Springer used two.
They both had another adopted brother named Larry, and they even regularly vacationed in Saint Petersburg, FL in the same three block radius.
Well, is it any wonder that researchers also learned the two men had nearly identical IQs, personality types, fingerprints, handwriting, and even electrocardiograms? Or as Jim Springer put it when discussing the results of the tests he had taken with his brother, “All the tests we took looked like one person had taken the same tests twice.”
CONCLUSION: Well, not a bad way to think about our journeys as disciples of Christ, I think.
Because if Paul is correct, the mind that is in Christ, will one day be the same mind that is in us. The image of Christ, will actually be the image others also see when looking at us.
And by image Paul doesn’t mean Jesus’ physical appearance, of course. Instead, by image he means Christ’s thoughts will be our thoughts, his ways our ways, and his character our character.
We too, in other words, will live lives of grace, mercy, charity, forgiveness, and hospitality just like Christ did. So much so, it will look like the same person has taken the same battery of tests twice.
Well, how’s that for a crazy, wonderful, beautiful, enthralling idea?
O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are God’s judgments and how inscrutable God’s ways! For from God and through God and to God are all things. To God be glory forever. Amen.