March 20, 2005
Palm Sunday
Philippians 2: 5-11
“He Humbled Himself”
1. This is Palm Sunday and also the beginning of Holy Week. A time when we pause to consider the life, but mostly the death by crucifixion of Jesus – whom we in the Christian faith call the “Savior of the World.” And this sermon is about the meaning of the crucifixion. But, first I want to say a word about Professor Paul Holmer.
On two occasions, I had an opportunity to hear the late Dr. Paul Holmer preach. Once over 35 years ago at Hope University Lutheran Church in Minneapolis and then again about 15 years ago at Fairmount Ave. Methodist Church in St. Paul where our pastor was Mark Horst – a student of Dr. Holmer. Paul Holmer was a native Minnesotan and he taught philosophy of religion at the University of Minnesota, Gustavus Adophous College, and then for many years at Yale University. He was first and foremost an expert on Kierkegaard and was primarily interested in trying to be being clear about what one is or isn’t saying about God and other matters. Most, of the time, he felt we are way too vague on the one hand and way too intellectual on the other. He was really trying to emphasize that attempting to define God is a bit like asking: what is the meaning of life? Ultimately it is unanswerable.
The problem is that what often happens when we talk about God is that highly intelligent people use a lot of big words as if they know what they are talking about. While at the same time less well-educated people also throw a lot of big words around and they don’t know what they are talking about, either. Now if you understand what I just said – then you might be starting to understand Kierkegaard! For the truth is that regardless of our intelligence we cannot know God entirely and therefore we shouldn’t talk and act like we do. So, what it comes down to with thinkers like Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein and Paul Holmer is to to understand that they often used philosophy not to construct complicated systems of thought but rather to determine the real limits on what we know and cannot know about God.
To illustrate this, let me tell you about a famous story, which is told about a debate, which was held at the University of Chicago between Charles Hartshorne and Paul Holmer. Hartshorne was a metaphysician in the tradition of Alfred North Whitehead and proceeded to take more than an hour to construct an elaborate ontological argument for the existence of God. Finally Paul Holmer got up. He paused a long time and then very slowly said: “God is great and God is good. And we thank him for our food.” And then he sat down!
In the classroom, Holmer could also be equally blunt and a bit sarcastic at times if he felt that students were getting too academic and talking too much about things they didn’t understand. One time a particularly bright student submitted a book length paper that was impressively erudite – to which Holmer responded: “So What?”
2. In other words, sometimes too much thinking about God can be just as bad as too little.
For instance: It was the great medieval mystic and spiritual director, Meister Eckhart who stated that "the idea of God can become the final obstacle to God."
And a more contemporary theologian Sam Kean writes that “God is not an object to be known or a problem to be solved by human intelligence, but it is the ground within which we live, move and have our being."
In fact, many of the great religious mystics have always known that in matters of religious experience we often go beyond what the rational mind can fathom or describe for “The paradox of authentic mysticism is that something as ordinary as the first blue flower of spring growing out of the snow suddenly opens a vista to eternity. In the twinkling of an eye our perspective shifts and we see that the ordinary is miraculous."
3. Well, that is actually how I feel when it comes to trying to understand what the whole business about Jesus crucifixion is all about. How, I ask, do we understand something that really goes beyond our understanding? How do we do it?
Countless books have been written, brilliant sermons preached, and all kinds of ideas put forth and still there is no single agreement on what the cross of Christ ultimately stands for ….
There is not even agreement on exactly why Jesus decided to go to Jerusalem in the first place. Did he go there knowing that he might be killed and that it was a risk he was willing to take to get his point across … or did he go intending to be killed because he understood it to be God’s will that he was supposed to die for all the sins of mankind? It’s a fine line to draw – and yet much of what we might think or do is affected by where we draw the line.
Many people, I suppose, are more or less comfortable with the conventional view which says that somehow Jesus knew – or came to know that he was the Messiah … and that he would have to die … a sacrificial offering of himself … to atone for the sins of the world. Of course, it’s only a short jump from there to the whole idea of the “blood atonement” which jumps out at us from hymns like Robert Lowry’s “Nothing but the Blood” – # 362. Lowry, a Baptist ministry, wrote many popular 19th hymns including “Shall We Gather at the River” and “Marching to Zion” (which are in our hymnal as well). But in “Nothing but the Blood” Lowry spells out the standard atonement theory in these words:
What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of
Of Jesus. .. Or precious is the flow that makes
Me bright as snow; no other fount I know but
The Blood of Jesus.
While nowadays some people still draw comfort from this concept – for many others it often seems a bit gruesome and unhelpful. I have actually seen more than a few people faint at the sight of blood!
4. Well, speaking of the “blood atonement” --- as you may remember this time last year, Mel Gibson’s film version of the crucifixion was the big rage. Like many other Gibson films, it focused almost entirely on the gory aspects … which shocked and excited some people … and caused others to be turned off … and now it is just another film on the shelf with all the other Jesus movies.
So, really, how do you do a movie about Jesus, anyway? Especially, when, despite all attempts to “get it right,” any movie will necessarily reflect the director’s own particular view of things. It’s kind of like what Holmer was saying about how trying to define beyond a certain point God is “impossible.”
As far as things go, my favorite movie about Jesus is the “Gospel According to St. Mathew,” which was done in black and white by the Italian filmmaker Pasolini way back in l964. I actually saw it in college and it left a lasting effect on me. It was not a Hollywood film. In it Jesus is not very good looking and everybody is very poor. And every word Jesus says is exactly straight from the Gospel of Mathew – absolutely no editing. The only problem is – Jesus is not real happy. Most of the time, in fact, he is not happy at all …and quite often he is rather confrontational. So, it is also a rather shocking film but in a different way than Mel Gibson not because of the blood and gore … but because the way it portrays Jesus is not quite how most of us we would like to see Him. I guess I thought the movie was rather thought provoking mainly because in our society where we are so hung up on being popular and famous that we so often like to sentimentalize Jesus.
5. What I am trying to get at here is that if we are to understand what happened … in His crucifixion … and otherwise. We need the think critically but also to feel deeply about who and what Jesus was all about. We need to be open to the reality of a very human Jesus … who knew that by going down to Jerusalem he was risking his life … (after all any fool would know that going to the Temple during the Passover was a dangerous thing to do … especially if you were opposed to the practices of the Temple … and that by speaking out you would be liable to be arrested).
And we must realize that if you were Jesus, you would certainly have known that if you played it safe and stayed out in the rural villages and didn’t challenge the authorities … you would get along okay … but, on the other hand, no one would care or know what you were all about … and your message would be forgotten. So, what was there left for Jesus to do if He really believed in what He was all about -- but to put himself in harms way? Is that so hard to believe when Martin Luther, Ghandi, Martin Luther King, and countless others have risked their lives for what they believed in?
But, was God behind it all …? As the Gospels seem to indicate … (and the church has always proclaimed) or was it Jesus idea? Well we know that Jesus was a very spiritual person … who often prayed long and hard … and who certainly believed that God was directing him in what he was doing. But, was that enough to cause him to do what he did? Quite possibly … but beyond that it is really a matter of faith.
6. But, regardless of Jesus’ personal motivation, the bigger question is to ask, “What was the point of it all?” Why did Jesus really have to die? And how is it that by his dieing -- somehow all our sins are forgiven? Was it all part of God’s plan? Was Jesus really sent into the world to “atone” for all our sins?
Now, we are really getting down to it …aren’t we …?
A. Is the crucifixion the central point of Jesus’ life … the main purpose of his being born on earth?
B. Or is what happened to him … a direct result of what he taught and did? And because his actions and teaching about the Kingdom of God threatened the status quo and so the powerful religious and political leaders had no choice but to try to get rid of him?
Is the important thing about Jesus … how he lived or how he died? Or, is it both?
Well, we are not going to resolve that question right here and now but I intend give you some things to think about … so here we go…
7. Now contrary to what you may think or have been taught there are actually three main reasons or ideas about the crucifixion of Jesus that have come down to us over the centuries. And all of them are based on Scripture and on careful theological understanding and all are important to our understanding … or perhaps we might say -- equally important:
A. First of all there is the Substitutionary Atonement Theory.
At the beginning of Gibson’s movie were these words from Isaiah 53:5
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our inequities;
Upon him was the chastisement that made us whole
And with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray
We have turned everyone to his own way
And the Lord has laid on him, the iniquity of us all.
No doubt about it, for many people, this great but mysterious passage about the “suffering servant” from the prophet Isaiah has become the cornerstone for the so-called atonement or blood atonement of Jesus Christ.
In short, it goes like this: we all have sinned; so because we are not worthy, someone must atone or pay the price for the sins of all …someone without sin. Now this idea has deep roots in Jewish religion and it comes from the ancient idea of the preparation of the sacrificial lamb. It goes way back to Leviticus 23:12 when on the Passover it says “you shall offer a male lamb without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord.”
This practice was still in effect in Jesus’ own lifetime and was still celebrated at the Passover when Jesus went down to Jerusalem … and you can see that it is only a short distance from there to these words in the Gospel of John, verse 1:29, when John the Baptist first sees Jesus at the Jordan River and says … Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
Does all this sound familiar? Of course! This is what you were most likely taught in Confirmation … this is still the standard belief today of most Protestants and Catholics (especially Mel Gibson) … and this is most certainly the trump card for all evangelists from Billy Graham on down … Jesus died for your sins …
We’ve all heard it a million times … and it is one of the essential answer to why Jesus died … because it answers, hopefully, one of the big the questions we have, namely. Does God forgive us? The answer, of course, is YES!
However, the truth is that most people are not aware that this idea did not become predominate in the Christian church until after the 11th century when it was developed in detail largely through the writing of St. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury.
In fact, if you read the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed, while they mention forgiveness of sins, it is not the central idea. The creeds actually were much more concerned with the nature of Christ and the Resurrection and things like that. And, the truth is that while the word “atonement” appears 87 times in the Bible, it is only mentioned twice in the New Testament and not once in the four Gospels. Isn’t that interesting? So, it turns out that this whole idea about Jesus dieing for our sins, which so preoccupied the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages (and especially Martin Luther) was not particularly foremost on the minds of the early church or even Paul the Apostle. It seems that the early Christians were evidently not as worked up about sin and guilt as they were about other things – as we shall see in a moment.
B. Now, the Second idea is sometimes called the Moral Example. This idea has less to do with sin and guilt. And more to do with suffering and pain.
As some of you know, about five years ago, the wife of a good friend of mine who is a pastor was driving home from school and a teenage boy ran into the back of her car. The accident caused severe back injuries to her muscles and nerves. Today, and for the rest of her life, despite repeated surgeries, she will live in continuous chronic pain. Yet, she committed no sin … she was not guilty … if anything it was the kid who was driving the car who is guilty and needs forgiveness.
And Mary Johnson is just one of many. For we all know of people whose children are stricken with fatal diseases like the well-known Rabbi Harold Kushner who wrote Why Bad Things Happen to Good People. Or we know of people like the controversial Episcopal Bishop John Spong who grew up with an alcoholic father or consider for a moment the many innocent victims of the war in Iraq or the even the Tsunami earthquake in Indonesia.
In other words … there are times in life… when sin is not the issue … times when “bad things happen to good people.” It is in times like these that what we want to know is not “are we forgiven for our sins?” but rather “Does God Care?”
And just how does the death of Christ on the cross relate to the whole question of unmerited suffering? Let me share with you the response of the German Lutheran Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer (writing from his prison cell in Nazi Germany where he was later put to death for opposing Hitler).
Bonhoeffer wrote: When Jesus died he was demonstrating that the God who was his father entered into our life and loved us even unto the point of death. The death of Jesus is the ultimate symbol of the suffering of God in the life of the World.
This idea that God suffers, too, was first formulated by a Catholic monk, Peter Abelard in France – also in the 11th century. Abelard taught that Jesus’ death on the cross demonstrated the greatness of the love of God, a love that should move us away from sin and to love God in return.
Hence, we now have the moral example of Jesus whereby through His suffering and death God reveals how much he cares about us …which in turn moves us to care about God … even if we are suffering ourselves.
And actually this idea actually fits in more closely with the message of Paul to the church in Philippi which we read today.
For, in it, Paul is primarily interested in portraying Jesus as one who was obedient to God and who did not put himself above others but humbled himself – becoming human just like each of us. An example, therefore, of how we too are to be … and Paul places before us this example as the revelation of God:
5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death–even death on a cross!
This, then is the answer to the second question … Does God Care? The answer is YES! And so, Christ’s death on the Cross isn’t just about sin. It’s about the suffering love of God. Does that make sense?
C. The last theory or concept is about God’s so-called Victory over Death and all its various forces, powers, and principalities. Now, because, as Christians in America, we do not live in an oppressed country or are not minority as were the first Christians in a world dominated by Caesar and the Roman Empire, it is somewhat hard for us to grasp this idea. So let me tell you the same story I told last year (because it is a good one).
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the famous Russian author, was imprisoned in the Soviet Hard labor camps. In reality he had done nothing wrong. He was not a sinner. He had only criticized the powerful and ruthless dictator Joseph Stalin. For this he was imprisoned. He had lost his family and had been told by doctors that he had terminal cancer. One day he thought, “There is no use going on. I’m soon going to die anyway.” Ignoring the guards, he dropped his shovel, sat down, and rested his head in his hands.
Suddenly, he felt a presence next to him and looked up and saw an old man he had never seen before, and would never see again. The man took a stick and drew a cross in the sand in front of Solzhenitsyn. It reminded him that there is a power in the world that is greater than any empire or government, a Power that could bring new life to his situation. He picked up his shovel and went back work. A year later Solzhenitsyn was unexpectedly released from prison and went to live in the United States for a while and received the Nobel Prize in literature.
I can go on …and give many other examples, but suffice it to say … that where the sacrificial atonement of Christ for the sin of the world leaves off, the story of the Resurrection and the outpouring of God’s spirit in at Pentecost are the revelation that sin and death are not the final answer. The Resurrection and Pentecost are to show that there is a powerful force for good at work in the world … which we call the Holy Spirit.
So what is the Methodist position on all this? Well, as you might expect, it isn’t entirely clear. For although much of the Wesley’s preaching and writing subscribes to the traditional theory of atonement for sin … we do find these words in Charles Wesley’s Lenten hymn “It is Finished – the Messiah Dies” # 262:
The realm of sin and death is o’er,
And all may live from sin set free,
Satan hath lost his mortal power,
Tis swallowed up by Victory!
So, the Victory …is accomplished because, though it may be great – evil does not triumph in the end …and that is our hope in Jesus Christ. And therefore in the midst of injustice, oppression, and just plain evil … the answer to the third question: “Is God on our Side … is YES!
8. Now, in closing, I would like to say one more thing about Sin and Guilt and Forgiveness lest you think that I am not taking the substitutionary atonement theory seriously. And I know there are some, in fact many, who have a hard time with this whole thing. Sometimes because they have had to drilled into them since childhood, sometimes because it has been overdone by countless evangelistic programs, sometimes because of their situation in life it makes no sense, and sometimes because the whole “lamb of God” thing seems inappropriate in our present day and age.
And a lot of this is, in fact, the case … but I don’t want you to go away thinking that Sin is not a problem. Because it is … just watch the TV … read the papers … it’s right here … all around us.
But there is a difference between getting overly whipped up over sins you only imagine … because someone tells you are sinner you yet better “get right with the Lord” … and really being a sinner.
Among one of the greatest and most loved English hymns ever written – Amazing Grace … was written by a British sea captain … who first went to sea at age eleven and eventually mastered a slave trading ship.
Can you imagine a viler and more sinful thing … transporting human beings in chains to be sold into slavery …?
Well, in time … John Newton came to see the error of his ways … turned to God in repentance … for his sin … and became a clergyman in the Church of England.
When Newton finally came to write:
Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound that saved
A wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.
He knew from whence he had come and what a miracle had been wrought in his soul … and all he could talk about was the grace of God …! And that, my friends, is what sin, repentance, and God’s forgiveness are all about.
9. So, I end by saying … what is Jesus’ death all about? It is about
Three things …
a. Does God Forgive? … Yes.
b. Does God Care? … Yes
c. Is God on Our Side? … Yes
All, in different ways, are true and are known to us through God’s multi-dimensional revelation in Jesus Christ.
Now if that is a little too complicated for you this morning … just remember the words of Paul Holmer: “God is great and God is good. And we thank him for our food.”
Shall we pray ….
