Palmarum 2025

Palm Sunday

Philippians 2:5-11

April 13, 2025

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” “Mind” suggests thinking, but the term St. Paul uses is the origin of our English word diaphragm. It’s not up here [head] but down here [middle]. In the creation of man, it was God’s breath that made Adam a living being. Skilled singers emphasize letting the voice come up from the diaphragm. The Greeks used this as a way to describe not just our thinking but our emotions, our consciousness, our understanding, our person.

So when St. Paul says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,” it is more than thinking right thoughts about Jesus. He’s calling us to adopt the mindset of Jesus, the outlook, the emotions; we are called to bring the person of Jesus into ourselves.

This exhortation quickly reveals how very unlike Jesus we are. We are rather like Lucifer, who is obliquely referenced in today’s Epistle. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.” This is tough to put in simple English; why is Jesus being compared, or rather not being compared, to a robber? So let’s work it from a different angle. The idea here is someone trying to rob God of His office, His position. It’s seizing power for yourself, insurrection, usurpation.

Paul is telling us Christ did not usurp God, did not seize equality with God. Who did? Paul is saying Jesus is unlike Lucifer. The Luciferian rebellion is recorded in Isaiah 14:

How you are fallen from heaven,

O Lucifer, son of the morning!

How you are cut down to the ground,

You who weakened the nations!

13 For you have said in your heart:

‘I will ascend into heaven,

I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;

I will also sit on the mount of the congregation

On the farthest sides of the north;

14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,

I will be like the Most High.’

15 Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,

To the lowest depths of the Pit.

The mind of Lucifer—to take the top position for himself—this same mind, or will, he suggested to our first parents. “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God.” Same thing Lucifer said: “I will be like the Most High.” Everybody wants to rule the world.

That's the mind, the breath, the spirit of man now: I will do what benefits me, my family, my tribe, I will secure my future, I will change loyalties to whatever benefits me now. That’s the nature of Lucifer, and it’s our own deep inclination.

But this is not who Christ Jesus is. He was in the form of God, and equality with God was not something He needed to grasp or seize. He had it by nature. Like Father, like Son. The Logos, the Word, the Son was equal to the Father in essence. But what does He do? He “made Himself of no reputation.” Literally, He emptied Himself. In the ancient medical literature, the word was used for purging a patient, cutting and purifying. Emptying was also for a contract nullified, or for all wealth to be lost. Christ made Himself nothing; He emptied Himself. Think of a rich man who loses his houses, cars, investments, family and friends, suddenly he’s on the street begging. We might say he’s “reduced to nothing.” That’s how St. Paul is describing Jesus. He has equality with God the Father, but He is reduced to nothing – or rather, He reduces Himself to nothing; He does this voluntarily. He “made Himself of no reputation [He emptied Himself, He reduced Himself to nothing], taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” God becomes man, the humblest of men. Adam disobeyed, we are disobedient; but Christ obeys God’s Law to the uttermost, and for it is put to death. When St. Paul says Christ was obedient to death, “even the death of the cross,” it’s more than information about how He died. Crucifixion was a execution that the Romans used purposefully to show excessive cruelty to enemies of the state. It was total, public humiliation. The Emperor of the cosmos is declared by men to be the enemy of the world. Jesus is falsely accused of insurrection; meanwhile, they put the true emperor to death. And He accepts it!

That’s the character, the mindset of Jesus – He lays aside His own rights and benefits for you. And today the Apostle tells us, “Let that mind, let that mindset, be in you.” Is it? Have you given of yourself, to the point of emptying, reducing yourself to nothing? Or are you still grasping, seizing, desiring for yourself?

By His humble entry to Jerusalem, by setting aside His rights, by allowing Himself to be crucified, Jesus forgives our arrogance, our folly, our grasping for self at the expense of others. He shows us what true love looks like, and invites us to join Him. His Church is found where disciples set aside their own claims, their own demands, and say “yes” to His Word alone. Everything we have and are, we renounce and give away. For He is the resurrection and the life, and in Him nothing is lost. 

In the Name of + Jesus