Philippians 2:5-11
Matthew 21:1-11
If you knew there was something which had to be done
- that not doing it was not an
option, that it was a matter of life and death for people you never knew and
may never know, and those you do know will flee at the first sign of trouble
and leave you standing alone - would you still do it?
This is essentially the challenge St. Paul posed to
the Philippians when he wrote them to "let the same mind be in you that was
in Christ Jesus" (Phil 2:5),
even though he was not exactly posing to them such a philosophical abstract as
"would you under certain
circumstances" as much as he was declaring "you must under all circumstances".
The imperative, however, is not so much about doing as a matter of law but rather allowing to be done as a matter of
willfulness - and not strictly human will but in submitting to the reality that:
"It
is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for His
good pleasure" (Phil 2:13).
I think we always intend good things from what we seek to accomplish, but I also
think the "mindfulness" with which we work is usually (and ironically)
the very handicap that slows the work and mission of the Church because we each
have minds and ideas of our own. Yet St.
Paul challenges us to get past that narrow mindfulness we call our own by
submitting to the Divine Will that can work from within us if we willfully push beyond self; "standing firm in one
spirit, striving side by side with one mind" (Phil 1:27); that is, the mind of Christ.
Exactly what is this "mind", and how is it
expressed? It is not a matter of simply
agreeing or compromising for the sake of peace which can only mean someone has
to give in, someone has to "lose" - and not many of us are ok with
this! It is rather a matter of all willing to "give
in" to the reality that we may be wrong in positions we currently
hold. It means taking a second look at
our human willfulness and stubbornness for the sake of the Glory of our
Lord. Being "objective" rather than
"subjective".
This ideal was expressed by Christ Jesus Himself, as
St. Paul writes, when He "emptied Himself" (Phil 2:7,8). It is the mindfulness that has Divine intentions rather than personal (albeit
noble) motives toward the Gospel that is alive in all who are alive in Christ
Jesus, the One who set His face toward Jerusalem KNOWING what was to become of
Him in a matter of days and willfully
"emptying
Himself" of His own will, His own thoughts, His own opinions, and
His own desires. And knowing all He
surely did know in the circumstances of betrayal and abandonment of current and future disciples, Jesus
nevertheless went through with it - knowing without doubt He would very soon be
standing alone.
Palm Sunday is always a challenge because the entry
into Jerusalem is usually billed as a "triumph". I suppose long-term when all the dust is
settled and knowing how the Story ultimately ends, it would be easy to consider
it a "triumph". Doing this,
however, ignores certain realities not least of which is this Journey was for
Jesus the Journey we of the Church face even today - and will face until the
Final Trumpet sounds. It is that very Journey
which compels us and beckons us. There
is no alternate route. We may enter only through the "sheep
gate".
Yet lacking the common "mindfulness" which
can come only from the Holy Spirit, we each set our own course according to
what seems good to us under our own circumstances. We always have the best of
intentions, but then life gets in the way to the point of distraction. We forget, even momentarily, that what we do
on any given day is not intended for discipleship but for personal survival.
Oh, we are mindful that Jesus saves. We are mindful of that great mystery that the
Blood of Christ has set us free from sin and death, but we are often mindful of
this great mystery very nearly to the total exclusion of what took place prior
to this.
Like Christmas, we are mindful of something which
took place some 2000 years ago - but we are not so mindful that to this day our
Lord has a claim and a purpose for which He "emptied Himself",
the same purpose for which the Church exists even today, the same holy purpose
for which the people of the Living God - that is, the Church - must empty ourselves;
that is, put our own agendas and opinions and desires aside to submit to the
will of God ... without trying to manipulate Divine Will according to our own
preconceived mold.
We can even embrace the Glory of Jesus' entry into
Jerusalem knowing He was doing what He had to do, but we can do this without
actually engaging in the reality of what was taking place then - and what must
take place today - being counter-cultural,
being "in the world but not of the world". I have heard it said (and I think I have even
said it myself) that Jesus did what He did so we would not have to. While this is a true statement in the very
narrow sense, the sentiment misses the mark when we put so much on Jesus that
we are unwilling to put upon ourselves.
The prophet Isaiah writes, "The Lord God has given me
the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a
word" (Isaiah 50:4). This is not what we generally think of when
we think of the prophets who came to Israel and to Judah to warn them of impending judgment. The prophets are hard to read because there
is just a little too much gloom and doom for our tastes, too much judgment for
Christians who believe themselves to have escaped the Judgment by the Blood of
the Lamb - choosing to be defined by an event
rather than by a willfully chosen life of holiness.
When we reject the words of the prophets and reach
instead for the Lamb's blood, we stop "paving the road" altogether
because whatever it may have been that we intended in the beginning of our
journey of discipleship has, we believe, been largely achieved once we were
"saved". We stop asking
questions, we stop looking for answers and choose to look for
"loopholes", and we settle for whatever it may be that gives us comfort
strictly for ourselves, and expect it to be the same for everyone else -
according to our own terms. In this we
have no mind of Christ.
As the adage goes, however, "a road paved with
good intentions still leads to hell".
Like a road lined with cloaks and palm leaves, we may mean well in the
beginning and we would certainly be eager to welcome the Son of David into our
midst ... until the fur starts flying and the danger Messiah was willing to
face for us soon becomes our own danger which we can walk clean away from with
hardly a scratch. This, I think, has
largely become our idea of discipleship.
The Journey we face in the coming Holy Week - if we
are to take the Scripture readings seriously - is not going to be pleasant. We simply cannot leap from Palm Sunday to
Easter Sunday and pretend we are walking with Jesus. If we are to really understand what Jesus
endured for salvation's sake, we must - WE MUST - endure the Journey with Him, not watching safely
from the sidelines. Only then will we
pave the road not with "good" intentions but with GODLY purpose. This is Christ Jesus our Lord. This is the mission of the Church. Amen.
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