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

The text for today’s meditation is Philippians 2:5

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

ἐκένωσεν- Destroy, render void or invalid, - emptied himself of the full and constant use of all His prerogatives of divinity.

In the 1988 movie "Coming to America" Eddie Murphy plays Prince Akeem the son of the king of the fictitious African country of Zamunda. He decides to live without the privileges and use of his royal status and comes to Queens, New York to find a bride. What better place to find a queen than in Queens. He rents a run-down apartment and works in a fast-food restaurant. He empties himself of all his money by giving it to two homeless men. Prince Akeem chooses to live as two people at the same time. He is the prince of Zamunda and no matter what he does he will always be the prince. But at the same time he lowers himself to the life of a pauper. He is discounted and treated as the lowest at work and in the neighborhood. He truly experiences what is like to live as a pauper.

This week, Holy Week, you will see a story similar to this play out with some huge differences. Our passage in Philippians tells a story of a Son who is obedient to His Father by emptying himself of the use of His divinity. Prince Akeem defies his father when he empties himself of all the use of his royal status. Then there is the difference of prince verses God, moving to another location verses being incarnate into another nature as a baby. Ok, Ok, Ok, the only thing that is similar between the two is that they are both two things at the same time and willingly placed themselves in those situations. Prince Akeem is a prince and pauper and Jesus is God and man.

God and man; what a complicated concept. Just think Jesus went through everything we did as kids. He became the image of God just as we are. He assumed a human nature which shared in all the characteristics of His divine nature. This isn’t like taking two boards and gluing them together to become one. No, Jesus was all man and all God in one body whereas the boards never completely become one board; you can always see where they were joined. Our understanding of the divine things of God is limited by sin. We can never fully fathom the idea of full man and full God. In that body Jesus chose not to use the privileges of His divine nature. Verse 7 tells us He "emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant." The Greek word for emptied is ἐκένωσεν – A fuller definition would be destroy, render void or invalid, - He rendered void the full and constant use of all His prerogatives of divinity.He literally made Himself nothing. He humbles Himself as the son of a poor carpenter born in a stable. Wait a minute, this is the entrance into the world of the one who created it and there weren’t any paparazzi, no commotion?

You mean they didn’t cover it in the Nazareth times for months before His birth? They didn’t send a team of papyrus reporters to cover the long trip to Bethlehem? Isn’t that what you do for royal births? After all, we hear every little thing about William and Kate’s pregnancy. Did you know she got her heal caught in a sewer grate the other day? She almost fell if it hadn’t been for Prince William to the rescue. Now why did I need to know that? Because people want to know about royalty and rulers. Yet not many knew about Jesus. He entered in such a humble, lowly way.

Today we celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry in Jerusalem. Again we see Jesus humbling himself. The leaders and royalty of that day would never enter a town on a donkey. They would ride in chariots or majestic horses but never on a donkey. That would be like the president of the United States arriving in town driving an old VW Bug. It just isn’t done. Jesus humbles himself as a lowly servant all the way to the end. He allows himself to be arrested, tried, whipped, mocked, and even crucified as a criminal on a Roman cross. It was a death reserved for only the vilest criminals and slaves. The worst part is it is a kind of death cursed by God. In Old Testament Israel, the civil law required a wrongdoer’s dead body be nailed to a post or a tree. The hanging of a dead body signified God’s curse, being cut off from God and the body of believers. In Christ’s humiliation, He endured that curse. He was the lowest man when He was cut off from God. He became sin and God turned His back. That’s when Christ cried "my God, my God, why have you forsaken me." He became your sin. He became the lowest man for you because he loves you! He suffered God’s curse, being separated from God for you! God has a great exchange for you. Your sins are charged to Christ and His righteousness is credited to you. You had been separated from God by your sin. Through this great exchange and Christ’s humiliation you are reconciled to God; you are no longer separated!

When Paul says in verse 5 "Have this mind among yourselves" he is telling us to imitate Christ’s lowly-mindedness and self-sacrificing love. If you understand what Christ, both God and man, did for you, can you live a selfish self serving life when you belong to such an unselfish Lord? Now it is time to serve each other and our neighbors willingly for His sake. You can joyfully make those relatively small sacrifices in order to serve one another. This service to one another is evidence that you have the mind of Christ.

When Christ’s mission is complete in the story this week; you will see how God the Father highly exalted the same Jesus of Nazareth. See how He highly exalts Him so that now He exercises all of His divine power in, with, and through His human nature. The Greek word for exalted actually is better understood as "hyper-exalted" the most exalted. See that Jesus humbled himself, but He did not exalt himself. You will see that God the Father crowned the work of Jesus and declared it perfect and complete. In "coming to America" Prince Akeem’s work in America is an embarrassment to his father. His Father did not declare it perfect as God the Father did. See how this man Jesus is Lord and now rules over all things to the Glory of God the Father. One day every knee shall bow and every one will confess, either gladly and willingly or unwillingly, that this Jesus of Nazareth is the exalted "Lord over all," not only as God but also as Man. See the humiliation and exaltation of Jesus of Nazareth and rejoice; it was all for you!

Amen.