A Palm Sunday Mindset

 

http://vimeo.com/4048196

 

He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. (St. Matthew 10:39)

 

 

          Humility, the old saying goes, is wasted on the humble.

          Well, there must not be a lot of such waste these days in America. You and I are obsessed with stardom! A recent Nielsen research poll revealed that four of the 10 most-watched programs on television for that week contained the words “idol” or “stars” in their titles. (And that’s not counting shows with names including “celebrity” or “survivor.”)

          It is no surprise that the events of Palm Sunday – King Jesus’ humble ride into Jerusalem, commencing Holy Week – don’t seem normal to you and me. We, who will stop at nothing to elevate ourselves and to accrue acclaim, have no idea of the content of Jesus’ Palm Sunday mindset.

          But if you would attain real Glory, you must think as Jesus thought. You must entrust yourself to the Lord who created and redeemed you – following wherever He leads.

 

          What is a “Palm Sunday mindset?” It is, first, resting securely in who you are before the Lord.

          St. Paul writes that you and I are to have the mind of Christ Jesus in us, who was “in the form of God,” yet “thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” Your mindset makes all the difference!

When the apostle writes of Christ being “in the form of God,” he does not mean that Jesus merely appeared to be divine but was not in his very being divine. Paul instead refers to Christ’s outward appearance in majesty based on his true divine essence. “Being in the form of God” means Jesus eternally possesses the splendor and glory due to the triune God alone. As the Son of Man, he shares in the eternal glory of the Ancient of Days; as the eternal Word, he is true God of true God. Jesus is, and is well aware that he was, equal in substance, power and glory with God the Father.

          Yet Paul makes a stunning statement: Jesus “thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” This is the most-suitable translation of the verb, because it rightly emphasizes the fact that Jesus knew he was not “getting away with something” in Heaven by being at the right hand of the Father. This is, in fact, his rightful place!

          Recently you and I have witnessed in the news the pathetic attempt of a politician to hold onto his high-ranking position despite clear ethical violations. Why did this man fight so fiercely to retain his post? Because he plainly understood he had no right to be there, despite his facade of self-assurance.

          In a world of impostors – and don’t you and I play various parts in an attempt to impress people? – Jesus Christ is not an impostor. He was assured of, and secure in, his eternal divinity and his role within the Trinity. This assurance freed him for total service to the Father, as Professor Douglas Kelly has so well observed.

          Certainly you are not divine. And today’s exposition is not a give-yourself-a-hug pep talk. But if you are to have a Palm Sunday mindset, which is the mindset that glorifies God and must characterize believers, then you must understand who you are as created in the image of God and redeemed by Christ to bear that image more fully every day.

          There is nothing wrong with striving to improve yourself; in fact, that’s Biblical. You always are to be growing in grace. But this world, with its “idol frenzy,” teaches you to do what you cannot: make a name for yourself. Create your own self-worth. Become somebody based on how much money you make or how skinny you are.

          If you take to heart the testimony of God found in Genesis and in the epistle of St. James, you will realize that your inherent dignity comes from being created in God’s image, with a will and with a mind and with a moral capacity (all of which were damaged severely by the Fall, so that you cannot even choose to worship God rightly unless He first chooses you in Christ). And if you trust in Jesus as your Redeemer, you are enabled to reflect the very image of God increasingly every day. Instead of making a name for yourself, you are freed to glorify the Name that is superior to all names.

          This work endures forever.

 

          Paul tells us that a Palm Sunday mindset, secondly, obeys the Father wherever He leads you.

          For Jesus, that meant going to Hell.

          The apostle writes literally in Greek that Jesus “emptied himself,” but again, the Authorized Version offers a more-felicitous translation: Jesus “made himself of no reputation.” In Christ’s case, the focus falls more on what he took on himself rather than what he gave up. The apostle doesn’t mean that Jesus became non-divine or lost any of his attributes; he rather intends that the eternal Son of God took human nature upon himself so that the two natures, human and divine, might be present in the one Person. He never stopped being very God of very God. But the eternal Son did set aside his divine glory for a time, so that his human body veiled his majesty.

          Three times Paul elaborates on what Christ’s “making himself of no reputation” involved: becoming a true human (yet without sin), and indeed a slave. The Lord of Glory came into this sin-shattered world and, as a man, endured hunger, fatigue, forsakenness, grief and, finally, Hell. This is because he humbled himself and became obedient, literally taking up his Cross and following his Father – all the way to the Cross. As a man, Christ became obedient unto death, but not just any death. As we studied last week, death on a cross was the most-shameful, most-accursed manner in which a Jew could die. One who died on a cross was considered as being under God’s curse, doomed to wrath forever. This is actually what Jesus endured for you and me as he bore our guilt on the tree and the Father poured out his holy wrath against your sins and mine.

          The Son, then, went from highest Heaven to the lowest depths of Hell, because he was obedient to his Father without fail.

          Such obedience, so evident in Jesus’ humble entry into Jerusalem, springs from a Palm Sunday mindset that follows the Father wherever He leads in His perfect will. This is why you and I have to entrust ourselves to the Father’s will, remembering that our worth is found in Him, and His is the Name we are to exalt in every moment of life.

          Why is it that someone would give up a high-paying, high-profile executive job in a major city and become a missionary to Asia? That’s not a very convenient thing to do, and surely not a “career track” most people would endorse. Just think of what that person would be forfeiting! And in our age of ease, where technology seems to be making life more and more convenient, such an exchange isn’t very comfortable.

          But that’s the fruit of a Palm Sunday mindset – a way of thinking that prizes the Father’s honor and benediction above anything this world has to offer.

 

          Third, a Palm Sunday mindset always issues forth in genuine Glory.

          Jesus’ assurance before the Father and humility to follow the Father’s will even to the Cross did not leave him at the Cross. Or in the tomb. Christ’s humiliation resulted directly in his exaltation, for Paul says Jesus has been given the Name that is superior to every name. The Savior is the Victor! He who left Heaven for the dregs of Hell has been highly exalted to the place of cosmic preeminence. He who was ridiculed by foolish men has been given the Name – the reputation, the standing, the place – that is above every other. And he who followed his Father at every moment will receive the homage of the knee and tongue of every human who ever has lived: many in defeat, many in glad adoration.

          Note the subtleties within this humiliation-exaltation connection: every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Not merely “Christ,” which is certainly true for our Savior, who is God’s Anointed; but “Jesus Christ,” his full human name. The One Who walked among us, ate, drank, wept, hurt, atoned – this is the One Who now reigns over the universe as Lord of Lords.

          You and I do not attain to the rank of Christ, of course, by our obedience to the Father. He alone saves sinners by his perfect intercession. And it is Jesus Christ alone who has earned Glory for you and me. It is a glorious truth, however, that you and I will reign with him one day, and we can expect some reward for what we have done in his Name.

          But the greatest glory of all is reigning with our Lord as you and I hear those sweet words: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

 

          The triumphal entry of our Savior into Jerusalem encapsulates everything that Jesus is – and that you and I are not.

          He came in humility, on a mission of self-denial that demonstrated love beyond our capacity to understand. His was not a life of celebrity or of ease.

          Yet you and I join in the stories about “idols” and “stars” and “making life easier.” And here is Jesus, promising that if you kept your life, you would lose it – but if you lost your life for his sake, you would gain it.

A Palm Sunday mindset starts with you asking yourself this question: do I believe Jesus, or do I trust the world?