Monday 9/15/14

This week’s Monday Morning Bible Breakdown is on the second reading: Philemon 2:6-11

Brothers and sisters:
Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Saint Paul, though he never met Jesus while he was living, was one of the greatest evangelists the Christian faith has ever known. He is responsible for the founding of several Churches in the area of the Mediterranean Sea, but he was not always so saintly. Before his conversion to Christianity, Paul was a Pharisee named Saul. The Pharisees were a group of Jewish people who held fast to the laws of Moses. Since Jesus’ teachings about Moses’ law were sometimes in conflict with the way the Pharisees interpreted the scripture, many Pharisees were antagonistic toward Christianity. Saul (soon to be Paul) was among the antagonists and persecuted Christians for many years. Then, after an accident, Saul had a powerful conversion experience. He changed his name to Paul and went out to preach the Gospel. He founded numerous Churches, and when the Churches needed guidance they would write to Paul, and he would respond. We call his letters “Epistles” and several of them, including Philemon, are New Testament books.

Paul’s letter to Philemon is Paul’s shortest letter. He wrote it while he was in prison with Timothy. The letter was delivered to Philemon by Onesimus. It’s commonly believed that Onesimus was a runaway slave of Philemon’s who was looking to return to his master. Paul’s letter to Philemon speaks extensively about forgiveness, love, and mercy using Christ as the model. He urges Philemon not to be too hard on Onesimus. This passage is a perfect example of that. It tells of God, in His glory, humbling himself to the level of a slave. As a result of his humbling himself, Jesus name is elevated above all other names. This is the model Paul wants Philemon to follow. He wants Philemon to humble himself and accept Onesimus with mercy.

As (I hope) we all know, Paul did not write his letters in English. Sometimes, some of meaning can be lost in translation. Unfortunately, that happens a bit in this passage when Paul writes that Jesus “did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.” Most people take “grasped” to mean “understood,” but the original word was much more literal. A better translation would be “clung to” or “grabbed at.” When we read it this way, we realize that Jesus did have equality with God, that He understood it, and that He willingly chose not to hold on to it. Instead, He chose to be “emptied” and become a man.

When asked what Jesus’ greatest sacrifice was, many people would quickly respond “His death on the cross.” This is a good answer. It’s a very human answer. In our humanity we see death as one of the worst things that can happen to us. It is the loss of our greatest gift, our life. Jesus’ death may not have been His greatest sacrifice, though. We know that Jesus, as part of the Holy Trinity, was God even before He was incarnate in a human body. I’ll write that sentence again, because it’s kind of a lot. We know that Jesus, as part of the Holy Trinity, was God even before He was incarnate in a human body. Becoming human meant giving some of that power up, temporarily. It meant giving up omnipotence (the ability to do anything) for human limitations like hunger, thirst, and exhaustion. It meant giving up omniscience (the knowledge of all things) to live in human confusion. It meant giving up ubiquity (being present everywhere at once) for a physical body that could not be more than one place at a time. There is debate about how much of these powers Jesus may have kept while He was incarnate, but there is no doubt that His incarnation represented a great sacrifice.

In short, for Jesus, being born may have been a much greater sacrifice than submitting to death on the cross.

Either way, Jesus made two huge sacrifices in order that we might be saved from our sins. We, like Philemon, are called to humble ourselves in the model of Christ. We are to take the role of a servant and take everything that comes with it. We must humble ourselves, for, as Jesus said, “those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.