Apr 5, 2020  SERMON ARCHIVE

Grace to you and peace, from God our heavenly Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, AMEN

The text for our meditation today is one verse from our Epistle Lesson, Philippians 2:5-11. There we read these words: "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus."

Thus far the text.

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus."

You know dear friends, this text from St. Paul’s letter to the congregation at Philippi declares a stark, astonishing truth. Jesus Christ was and is no ordinary man: He is the eternal Son of God, enthroned in the heavens from forever. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, limitless in might and deserving of all worship and glory.

To call Jesus "God" is not to rob the Father of His glory—it’s not wrong to say He is equal to the Father, because Jesus is fully God.

And what did Jesus Christ do? He became incarnate—He became man. But it wasn’t just for a joyride: the Son of God did not become a human being to slum for a while and see what it’s like to mingle with the hoi polloi; and He didn’t become flesh as a rich young prince to be worshiped by His creation.

He made Himself of no reputation: He was born in a stable to poor Mary, hardly an auspicious beginning. He was born humbly, in human flesh, because He had come to be a servant. To be a slave. To be one so lowly that His life was forfeit for the sake of those He served, and serves.

This is not just empty talk: you see the Savior going about His servant work in the Gospel lesson for today. He rode into Jerusalem to the shouts of "Hosanna!;" imagine the eternal Son of God reduced to riding a borrowed donkey.

Then, He humbled Himself even more. Betrayed by Judas, He allowed Himself to be arrested and dragged before the high priest. He silently accepted the false accusations and abuse, and He spoke only to voice the truth that He was the Christ, the Son of God.

For this, He was beaten and spat upon, but He did not strike back. He endured the sham trial before the cowardly Pilate and once again is accused of all sorts of sins; and again, He didn’t lash out, He didn’t give His accusers the punishment they had coming. He remained the Servant, doing His Father’s will, obedient to the point of death—even death on the cross, the lowest form of execution reserved only for the worst of criminals and most disobedient of slaves.

Why? Because both the Father and the Son desired to serve you, to save you from your sin.

Dear brothers and sisters, do not forget that this humiliation and suffering and death are on account of your sins and transgressions. Jesus died your death in your place, in service to you, so that you might be forgiven and have eternal life. So the Savior Son of God served to the point of death on the cross, submitting to His Father’s will for your salvation.

And what did the Father do? He served His Son. God raised Him from the dead and highly exalted Him. He gave His Son the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow—in heaven, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Why will every knee bow and every tongue confess? Because Jesus is the Servant who has saved all people by His service and death. Because those who believe in Him becomes servants by His grace, and they will rejoice to serve and worship Him. Because those who insist on rejecting Him will eventually be brought low; their haughty knees which serve only themselves will be bent as they acknowledge their sin on the last day.

So the Son served the Father by becoming the slave of all who are obedient unto death. Then the Father served the Son by highly exalting Him. And how does the text end? Jesus is exalted to the glory of God the Father! He remains the Servant, because God is by nature a servant; and rather than horde the glory for Himself, He directs it back toward His Father in heaven.

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." This does not mean that you are to regard yourself as the sinless Son of God, nor does it mean that you are to humble yourself to crucifixion.

Rather, it means you are to have a mind of service. God created man in His image. He created Adam and Eve to serve one another. He created you to serve, even as He is by nature a servant. It’s sin that has destroyed that image, that prevents us from serving one another as we should.

To "let this mind be in you" is to be a humble servant. That is why the two verses immediately before our text read like this: "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others."

Created by God who delights to serve, you have been created to serve.

That’s how marriage works; or how it’s supposed to, anyway. When a man and a woman take those vows, they are promising to serve the other—to put the needs of the others before their own. As I tell couples preparing for marriage, you know your marriage is on solid ground when your worst fight is, "No, honey, this time we’re going to do it your way." But that’s never the worst fight in marriage.

There’s tension over how to spend the money or how to spend the time. There’s the temptation to dump as many chores and responsibilities on the other in order to free up your own time. It’s far too easy to say, "I know you’d like this, but I’m planning on that instead." The greatest threat to marriage is putting your own interests above those of your spouse.

It’s the same with parents and kids. Parenting takes a load of serving, and parents are often distracted from the task—sometimes by responsibilities, but often for personal pleasure and leisure. How many of you have heard this as you planned to have children, "Don’t let your kids get in the way of your life." How sad. How selfish.

But how easy it is for any parent to say to a child, "Don’t bother me," for no good reason. And how easy it is for kids to be selfish, too—to bother for no good reason, other than boredom; to complain about the chores; or to say, "I know that Mom and Dad want me to do this, but I want to do that. So either I’m going to do it behind their back, or I’m going to make their lives miserable for saying no."

And what of your neighbor in need? The one next door who needs assistance, or the friend enduring a difficult time? What if it is a person from another congregation, or perhaps the whole congregation itself that needs care and attention, and forgiveness.

It’s so, so easy to become inward-looking, to reason, "I would help if I could, but I surely have too much to do right now." It might be true; or given the prosperous, relatively easy lives we have, it might well be the deception of your sinful flesh, creating stress in your life to prevent you from bearing the burdens of others.

Whether it’s family or friends or work or church, your sinful nature will always have you saying, "I want things to work my way. I really don’t want to help so much, and I want the credit for the help that I do. Others should do more and give more so that I can do and give less. God has placed me here to do this, but I’m going to do that instead."

Admit it my friends, by nature, you really are rotten servants. You can see, can’t you, the benefits of serving one another, for that is how love is strengthened. You can see, can’t you, the danger of selfishness and pride and arrogance, often measured in relationships destroyed.

But isn’t it true that, ...even though it’s only sensible to serve others, ...and even though it’s thoroughly biblical to serve others— ...and in fact even though serving is the mind of Christ, you’re still absolutely terrible at serving. And is that why the Law, boiled down to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind" and "Love your neighbor as yourself," accuses each of you. It shows you how terribly sinful you really are. It shows you how holy and righteous you’re not.

Because of that, you should have only despair in your life. No hope, no joy, no love... except for the Son of God, the suffering Savior-Servant.

Look with wonder and thankfulness at the Lord in His passion, because there He truly suffered in order to serve you. In order to save you. When Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, He was praying for you. He was your High Priest, preparing to offer Himself as the Sacrifice for sin. He didn’t want that cup of suffering; but for you He prayed to His Father, "Not My will, but Thy will be done."

Even today, exalted by His Father, what does He do? He prays for you, intercedes for you: "Father, these are your redeemed, and I have bought them with My blood. Hear their prayers and save them."

When Jesus stood silently before the High Priest and, later, Pilate, He silently accepted all the accusations and the blame in service to you. The accusations were false, the sins were not His. But the sins are yours: and so He took them. He took the blame and did not defend Himself, because He was taking all of your sins to the cross—to serve you.

And so the Son thus declared, "No, Father, do not judge these people for their sins. Judge Me for them instead." And that is what the cross is about. That is what this next week is all about. Yes, we all have to stay apart from one another. We all have to be, in effect, alone during Holy Week.

Remember, though, In service to you, the Savior suffered far more than physical torment and death. He suffered His Father’s judgment for your sins and for the sins of the world. He suffered hell there for you. "Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down His life for His friends," He once told His disciples, and there is no greater love or service than His cross in your place.

Do not miss, by the way, that the Father was serving you at the cross, too: for rather than judge you for your sin, He gave His Son in your place. For you. That is your Savior—the Son of God who made Himself of no reputation and became obedient to death on the cross for you. By His death, you have life. By His grace, you are now set free to serve others—you are set free from sin to serve as God created you to.

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." Even as you serve others now, you’ll still sin selfishly every day. Your mind, still tempted and goaded by sin, will not be the mind of Christ.

But you have hope, the certainty of salvation. You have the mind of Christ, because Christ has joined Himself to you. He has spoken His Word of grace, renewing your Baptism and declaring you to be His child. When we can all be together again, He will give you His body and blood to assure you that He is with you always, always. To remind you that you are forgiven for all of your sins.

Christ Is Risen.