PALM SUNDAY 2020
Good morning to all of you. Today is Palm Sunday. The day I always looked forward to hearing Jeanine Wagner sing “Ride on King Jesus.” But, today is also called Passion Sunday because it is the beginning of Holy Week where we read again of Jesus meeting in the Upper Room with the disciples, the agony in the garden, the betrayal by Judas, the denial of Peter, the crucifixion and the burial.
If we were in church today, we would be taking home palm fronds as a reminder of the procession of Jesus into the city on the back of a donkey. We would be reminded, however, of how quickly the shouts of Hosanna changed to cries for his crucifixion. And since we have not yet arrived at Easter Sunday, the day of celebration of life over all kinds of death, the preacher in me calls our attention back to the struggle to be faithful to the calling of Christ.
So, today, I am going to ask you to get out your own bibles, after I am finished, and take a break from the 24 hour news cycle and read about Palm Sunday in Matthew 21:1-11 and then turn further and read chapters 26 and 27. Those two chapters will cover the rest of the events we call Passion Sunday.
Because I am not going to take time to read them does not mean I don’t want to reflect on any of that. However, I would prefer to do it through the lens of the Epistle lesson for this morning from Paul’s letter to the Philippians. That I will read for you, it is found in chapter 2 and I would like to begin in verse one and read through verse eleven. Paul writes:
2If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5Let the same mind be in you that was* in Christ Jesus,
6 who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
7 but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
8 he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
9 Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
This, of course, is only a part of this letter. Philippi was a church that Paul had been to twice. You may recall from the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 16, that Paul had a vision: “There stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, “Come on over to Macedonia and help us.” Philippi was one of the first places they arrived when they set sail for Macedonia.
While there he gained a good leader for the Christian community with the conversion of Lydia, a worshiper of God according to scripture, a dealer in purple which made her a fairly wealthy lady that would benefit the cause of the early house church in Philippi. However, he also got himself in trouble because he demanded an evil spirit to come out of a young girl who was being used by others to tell fortunes. With the release of the spirit came an end to her usefulness and income for her owners and they complained to the authorities that their income was being threatened and then, as now, it seems that financial matters take precedence over most other things, so Paul and Silas were thrown in prison and later were released and told to leave town.
As I said, he had also made a second visit to these people, so you can imagine that this would leave a fondness for the people of Philippi.
So, later in his life while in prison in Rome awaiting trial, Paul wrote many prison letters and one of these was to the Philippians. The purpose of the letter was to offer thanks for the help sent to him while in prison, and toward the end of the letter there was a word of exhortation for two ladies in the small church to try to get along with each other. He says, “I urge Euodia (ee-OO-D-AA) and I urge Syntyche (Sin-ta-key) to be of the same mind as the Lord.”
So, let’s take a closer look at the words: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” That invitation is an invitation to make a conscious decision that we are going to live out our lives modeling the life of Christ, because we will have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus.
What mind was that? The passage says that Christ “…. though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death–even death on a cross.”
That is quite an undertaking. The difficult part of this unfolding story was that in the end it did not fit the expectations of the people. The words of post-Easter accounts make the point very clear. They wanted him to fit their hopes and dreams for a Messiah. They were not interested in what He had in mind. In fact, their hopes and dreams were so entrenched in their thinking that it colored in their minds much of what He had to say. They were unable to hear it clearly, because they were always working on another agenda, one that fit their own thinking.
A good example would be the time Peter jumped in with his own way of thinking when he told Jesus he was wrong when he said he would be put to death.
You see, the expectation of many in Jesus’ day was not met because Jesus had made a decision about the two roads that diverged before him on the Mount of Olives that day; and he chose the road less traveled, the path of self-emptying obedience, the way of sacrificial love, and that has made all the difference. And that decision makes all the difference for us.
Let’s face it: “Self-emptying obedience” is not a hot commodity these days. Our culture is much more oriented to the way of self-interest, self-affirmation, self-control. We learned our cultural anthem at Burger King, “Have it your way!” Look out for number one! The normative way in our culture is the way of self-interest, the way that measures everything based on what is in it for us. But the way of the cross is the way of self-emptying obedience, the way of self-sacrificing love. Jesus offered the invitation himself: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life, will lose it, but whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”
The way to which Jesus invites us is nothing less than the way he chose to go. “Let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus.” It is the way of the cross.
What does it mean for us to have the same mind in you that is in Christ Jesus? What does it say about others and how we relate to them? What does it say about priorities that we have in our lives? What does it say about our commitment to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?
You do realize, don’t you, that it is a choice.
In our passage this morning, Paul is talking to the Christians in Philippi. He has great hope and desire for them to be a loving church that makes a difference in their city and surrounding area.
Phil 2:1-2: if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
Notice Paul’s desire is that the believers will live in unity and love sharing a common purpose—glorifying God and sharing the hope of Jesus Christ with all people.
Phil 2:3-4: 3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
Paul describes how this unity and love should look… don’t be selfish. Don’t be arrogant. Always look for ways to love and serve other people.
So, Paul tells us that, as believers, Christ Jesus ought to be our role model. Let “Your attitude be the same as that of Christ Jesus.”
If you are like me, this is the point where you go, “uh, oh.” But we need not say, “uh, oh.” What we should be saying is alright. This is what I want. This is how I want to live my life! This is what it’s all about. And it is.
He looks after the interests of others. This is the attitude of Christ. And this should be our attitude as well!
Is it any wonder that, amid his struggle for justice, Mahatma Gandhi having been so excited by the teachings of Jesus was terribly disappointed when He met those of us who call ourselves Christ’s followers?
“I like your Christ,” Gandhi said, “I do not like your Christians.”
When you read the passages, I invited you to read from Matthew in chapters 26 and 27 you will find in various places some people in the story followed Jesus from a distance. We can’t really fault them because we too are prone sometimes to forget the decision of the cross when Christ took a different road. And, it was Paul who reminds the Church that we should have the mind of the Christ in us.
In these troubled times we find many people who are practicing that invitation to have the mind of Christ in them. They are tirelessly caring for others at risk to their own lives, they are helping their neighbors with safe distancing sharing music, dance, and other ways of showing the mind of Christ. They are keeping in touch by a media some are not familiar with but are quickly learning how to us.
I hope the mind of Christ might become the way of thinking for all of us in these days, in our homes, in our churches, in our communities, in our government leaders. How do you think things would be different if we all followed the admonition of Paul, “let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus our Lord?”
I would like for you to join me this week in practicing the final invitation of Paul to the Philippians. In chapter 4 and verse 8 he begins: “Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever his honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me and the God of peace will be with you.”
Let us see how life, even in these times can be redeemed by having the mind of Christ in us and that we can be comforted by the words of the Christ who speaks to our storms the words—peace be still.
Stay safe, look out for each other and let’s get together again next week to celebrate Easter Sunday.
Go in peace, and may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you, may the Lord lift his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen