Sermon for 4/10/22: Sunday of the Passion (Palm Sunday)

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Humility in Christ

Philippians 2:5-11

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

Humility often seems in short supply. As character traits go, it is decidedly unpopular. According to conventional wisdom, what this world needs is not more humility, but more assertiveness. We revere those who say exactly what needs to be said, regardless of who might be hurt. We envy those who aren’t afraid to step on toes, to crawl over backs, to jump right in the middle of things unconcerned about where they might land or what damage they might do.

Again, according to conventional wisdom, humility is viewed as weakness. Humility is the way of the spineless. It is the mode of the indecisive. It is the character of those who are willing to be misused and abused.

By that measurement, it is no wonder that our Lord Jesus was not given much welcome in our world. No one displayed perfect humility as He did, and humility has never found much favor; we sinners much prefer to exercise sinful pride. But Jesus didn’t come to curry favor among men. He came to save them, and to do so in a way that was uniquely His, a way humanity could never really understand. For His humility led Him to let the seemingly powerful have their way with Him. And that meant suffering; it meant abuse; it meant, finally, the cross.

And now, our Lord says to us, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” To take up our cross is to willingly take up the humility, the suffering, the mockery that attaches itself to the cross. It is to follow in the way of the Lord: the way of humility, the way that seeks the eternal welfare of our neighbors, the way that pursues peace of heart and soul even when there is no peace to be found from the world.

St. Paul says, “Have this mind among yourselves.” Paul is talking about humility that follows the example of Jesus Himself. Jesus “made Himself nothing”—literally the text says, “He emptied Himself”—that He might be one flesh with us to serve us. There were no trappings of kingly power for Him. Even in that Palm Sunday entrance into Jerusalem, humility was the message He delivered. He entered not on a kingly steed, but on the back of a donkey, a simple beast of burden. He did not come to overthrow the Roman overlords; He came to face the death of the cross. He was not merely a man living among sinful men; He made Himself lower than the lowest of men. He became the despised and rejected One. As Isaiah put it, He was the One from whom people turned away their faces so that they might not see Him. He was stricken, smitten, and afflicted, and they thought His suffering was for sins He had committed. But in truth, they were the marks of His perfect obedience to the Father, the sign of His perfect humility. He had come to do not His own will, but that of the Father who sent Him.

And what a wonderful example this is to us. But as we try to give humbly of ourselves, we become discouraged because we never live up to His standards. Our sinful pride keeps popping up. Not even the virtue of humility is immune to the temptations of the world, the devil, and our sinful flesh. We all suffer from false humility, which is nothing else than an inflammation of the ego.

But true humility is possible when we depend on Jesus. We depend on Him for forgiveness. That was what His humbling to the point of death on the cross was all about. And His resurrection was the heavenly Father’s stamp of approval on our Lord’s atoning work. It is the proof that all our sins, including pride and false humility, are truly and surely forgiven. We don’t have to make excuses for our sins. We don’t have to make up for our failure to be humble. We simply acknowledge our sins and confess them. And then we depend on our Lord Jesus to forgive those sins. This humility is a gift of grace. It comes with faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Because we abide in Christ, we want to walk in the same paths of meekness and submission He walked. Because we are His disciples, we want to learn from Him, for He is gentle and lowly of heart. Looking at our Lord, we learn to love others, especially those who are difficult to love. We share the affection and sympathy He had especially for the forgotten and downtrodden.

It is not the way most would choose. It is not the way we would choose, left to ourselves. But humility is the way our Lord followed; it is the way He sets out before us. And as He gives us strength through His Word, as He feeds us and molds our hearts through the Sacrament of His holy body and blood, our lives—our thoughts, words, and actions—are formed in that humility. It is humility in the shape of a cross, for on the cross He gave His life for us. By the power of that cross, we now can and will live for Him and for others. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

The peace which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.