Palm Sunday: Epistle, Philippians 2:5-11                                

Philippians 2:5-11

Our Old Testament lesson this week pointing to the prophecy of Messiah’s entry into Jerusalem highlighted the humility of our Savior. Our epistle lesson points to the same truth and references the coming into our flesh of the eternal Son. While many believe this passage to have been one of the first formal confessions of the Christian community, it most certainly was sung as a hymn among early followers of Jesus. It’s always interesting to me that the highlight of this particular text is that God not only took upon Himself the likeness of humanity except for sin, but that He did so willingly and that He “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped” (Phil. 2:6). In other words we might say, “He became one of us without worrying about what He had given up.”

That is one of the most significant elements of the first coming of Jesus. He came for us. And He did so without measuring what the cost might be. We cannot begin to fathom what that means. One of my teachers of beloved memory used to say to us, “The descent from being a human to being an ant is tiny compared to the nearly infinite space separating the eternal Son and His object of coming into our flesh.” Yes, He came for us, down from inestimable heights above. And He came with the specific purpose of dying for us. A sinless life given into death with the result that His Father would exalt Him, the God-Man to receive the eternal praises of all creation. 

“My! What a Savior.”