16 March, AD 2008
Palm Sunday
“Seeing God Within You”
INFSHG+
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. (Phi. 2:5-7)
The words we read in the midst of this short passage have an awkward ring: ‘but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant’. It is an arch construction in English. We might wonder if the translators were trying to delicately avoid saying something they were firmly convinced they would regret. We can understand their apprehension if we go to the original Greek and translate for ourselves. This passage in St. Paul’s epistle to the Philippians reads allά eauton ekέnwsen morfήn doύlou labwn: literally ‘but himself he emptied, the form of a slave he took up’. We have to admit that this is a much more stark construction. In fact, the Church has struggled with that one word ekenwsen for centuries. If we focus just on this word it seems to suggest that the Incarnate Word somehow set aside some part of Himself so that He could become as a man. But of course we do not focus on one word. We consider the words of Scripture in their fullness and we estimate each word by weighing it against all the rest of Holy Writ.
We know, from the bulk of Apostolic witness and the sure evidence of the Old Testament, that our God is one. He has no parts and is not divisible. We know that all that the Son is He shares in full with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. There is no bit any of them would set aside in any sense. So the meaning of ‘emptying’ cannot be that the Word divested Himself of any power or dominion. He incarnated as a man in the fullness of His divinity. That is not in question. The issue is more how did Jesus Christ appear to those among whom He walked? Did He appear to radiate the divine glory that certainly belongs to God? Was there typically a supernatural aura to be seen whenever one encountered Him? From the Gospel testimony, we would have to say that this was usually not the case. The Jews were acutely sensitive to authentic status. If a member of the Sanhedrin should pass by, everyone would pay due respect. They would never imperiously ask any of them how they thought they could question peoples’ descent from Abraham, as they did our Lord. When He preached in the synagogues, they were startled when He displayed even the mere hint of His inherent divine wisdom, because all they saw was an ordinary man whose mother they knew and with whose siblings they were familiar. To their eyes, He was ‘just a man’.
Thus, we see that the Word become flesh really did not automatically manifest Himself so that no one could mistake the truth that God Incarnate had come to walk among them. That degree of insight would not be unavoidable, but would require a leap of faith. Those who would recognize God Incarnate would have to look within and perceive with the eyes of their souls, rather than of their bodies. They were tested, to see if they would freely reach out when touched by the still, quiet voice and demeanor of God. He would never oblige them to perceive. He would not compel them to believe. He would present a shadow of Himself, something emptied of the grandeur and majesty which rightly and properly was His, and if their hearts were true, they would pick up that faint impression of divinity and recognize that it pointed to the presence of full divinity. They would embrace the resulting belief in free will, their hearts turned by inspiration but their wills freely assenting.
We do not have the advantage of seeing our Lord, even in the guise of a man. We have His holy word and we have the witness of those who have themselves freely embraced faith in Him. So we now see very dimly indeed. We are thus tested, just as Jesus’ contemporaries were tested. They could not know that He would offer Himself a perfect oblation and, having completed His oblation, rise from the dead to triumph over sin and death. They could only see a man of preternatural wisdom, but oddly humble demeanor. We live after all these facts. We have the testimony of those willing to die for the truth that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, the only-begotten Son of the Father. So we are tested but our test lies elsewhere.
Our test is internal. God does act in this world and He does so daily. Our Lord said that if we believed in Him, He would dwell in us. We believe that He does so by sending His Holy Spirit to abide in our souls as the constant source of spiritual growth and guidance. Our test is to live according to the growth He gives.
In this world and in these morally dark days, we are repeatedly challenged when we seek to faithfully tread the path to salvation. We know our Lord’s paramount commandment: Ye shall love each other, even as I have loved you. That commandment is the challenge. The world tempts us to love in the exact opposite way. Rather than seeking for each other’s best interests, the world incites us to seek our own, to always first ask, ‘Hey, what’s in it for me?” That is the open door to sin and it is the devil’s first and best way of decimating Christ’s church. Once Satan gets the faithful to ask what they themselves are getting out of the deal, life in the Church turns from building the kingdom of God as a team to worrying about the advantages others might have or building up pride in what we applaud ourselves for having done. That detonates the unity the Church must have to fulfill her duty to her Lord and Savior. He did not call us here to exalt ourselves and especially not to envy what others have. He called us here to bear witness as the communion of the living saints in this age. He calls us to be living examples of the kingdom He has prepared for all who would freely accept it. The only way for us to do this is to look into our own souls, ask the Holy Spirit to guide us and to place love for each other in the first place. When we do that, we instantly see which path is right for us to follow and we then know the God who dwells within us. It is then we pass the test that our Lord has posed to this as for every generation: can you recognize the God who loves you but who will only ask you to be faithful. Will you trust in God’s wisdom and simply love one another, even as He loves you.
+And now, unto God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost be ascribed all might and majesty, power, dominion and glory, both on this day and every day, world without end. Amen.