Standing Under the Scriptures
October 5, 2008

Dear Fellow Voyagers,

Our readings for this Sunday are:

Philippians 3.4b-14: Paul, despite his impressive credentials in Judaism, puts his whole trust in Christ.

Matthew 21.33-42: Jesus tells the parable of the wicked tenants against the chief priests and Pharisees (but not only against them).

Contained in our Philippians reading (2.1-13) was an early Christian hymn (verses 5-11). Whether it was Paul’s own composition or whether he instead incorporated verses that already existed has been debated, but in any case it is one of the cardinal passages in the New Testament. It begins, “Have this mind in you that was in Christ Jesus… “ and goes on to relate how, despite his participation in the Godhead he emptied himself, becoming obedient even to death on a cross. But for this very reason God exalted him, giving him a name above every other name. Three moments are to be seen in this: original divine status, acceptance of utter human humiliation in death on a cross, and resulting divine exaltation. This is the pattern of obedience that Paul holds up for the Philippians, now specifically with regard to their relations with each other.

We were not unappreciative of the hymn and of the passage as a whole. But to be understood fully it needs to be seen against the background of Paul’s personal commitment to the Philippians as set out in chapter 1. There he notes that he is writing from prison, likely in Rome. For Acts tells us that he ended there, and in the letter he speaks of the Praetorian Guard, which was the Emperor’s own. Further, although not explicitly, he indicates that he does not expect to see the Philippians again. There are signs also of his sense that his earthly life is drawing to a close. And these circumstances impel him to speak of his deepest feelings for the Philippians, of his longing to see them and of his confidence that they return his affection. Thus he speaks in verse 1 of their mutual bonds encouragement in Christ, incentive of love, participation in the Spirit, affection and sympathy. Ordinarily we think of Paul as the zealous missionary, as the daring articulator pf the theological implications of Jesus’ death and resurrection in all their profundity. But here we see his emotional warmth as well.

And this being so, there is no question of Paul here merely laying some sort of obligation on the Philippians. Instead he urges them to imitate Jesus’ obedience because he knows that this is what in their hearts they desire to do out of their own participation in the Christ, brought about by his obedience. Paul’s call to them is given poignancy by his recognition that in the future they may be obliged to do without him. This is reflected in his exhortation, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” But so that they will not fall then into the trap of supposing that by their own efforts they can save themselves, he immediately adds, “For God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

Such was Paul’s legacy to the Philippians: trusting wholly in Christ, diligence in responding to what he calls them to do, recognition that it is God who enables this response. It was his legacy no doubt to his other churches. And it is his legacy also to us.

Context, we discovered, was no less important in appreciating our Gospel reading (Matthew 21.23-27). When in the temple the chief priests and elders ask Jesus by what authority he does “these things,” he asks them in turn for their view of the baptism of John: was it of heaven or of men. And realizing that either answer will get them in trouble---because the people believed in John and they did not---they reply that they do not know. Jesus then declines to answer their question. This however may seem only a clever exploitation of a difference of between the religious establishment and the common people unless we remember what were “these things”that immediately preceded it as well as what followed it.

This was Passion Week and thus began with Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, already a flagrant action. It was followed even more flagrantly by his cleansing of the temple, the Jewish cultic center. And now by his teaching he was drawing a crowd in this same temple. The establishment could scarcely ignore these challenges to their authority. And their questions to Jesus were their attempt to confront him. But they made it with the crowd listening; we may infer this from Matthew’s account. And this circumstance put Jesus in a position to turn their question aside. Except for it they presumably would not have allowed him to do so. As for why he did not give them his answer anyway---another question that we considered in the class---we may suppose that it would have been premature to do so. In any case, in Matthew and the other synoptic gospels he did not make public his divine status but rather guarded it as the “messianic secret,” at least until his trial by the religious authorities.

But his temple confrontation with the chief priests and elders may be supposed to have affected them profoundly, indeed to have determined them to do away with him. And this leads to a question we did not raise at all in the class but which may be the profoundest. It is how the obedience ascribed to him in our Philippians passage comports with his conduct during Passion Week. The answer would lie in what followed this confrontation. Instead of organizing to resist forcibly the plans of the establishment or leaving town so as to escape them, he allowed them to proceed even to the point of death on a cross. Indeed he knew that he was in conflict with the establishment; he came to Jerusalem to bring matters to a head. We conjectured some weeks ago that until this conflict was resolved, his gospel could not be proclaimed except to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But he knew also that it could be truly won only through non-violence, which would leave the way open for the power of God. And it was won, and all earthly authorities reduced to subjection, through God’s raising him from the dead.

The pattern of non-violent obedience set by Jesus can be seen operating in the early church, which not by any physical force but by the blood of its martyrs overcame all the material power that the Roman state directed against it. In our own time we have largely lost sight of this pattern. But in it may still lie our salvation.

Faithfully, Fr. Ted