Article 2: Jesus Christ – obedient servant
September 5, 2010
BMC- Philippians 2:5-11
Introduction: Introductions of Jesus
{Watch Steve Harvey Introduces Jesus Video[1]}
Here we saw a clip of how Steve Harvey would introduce Jesus Christ. Not bad, huh? If you had the opportunity, how would you introduce Jesus Christ? It seems to me that this is worth thinking about this morning.
In the first place, this is significant because while I may not be introducing Jesus Christ to anyone for the first time this morning, article 2 of our confession of faith and my sermon are in some ways introducing or at least revisiting an Anabaptist or Mennonite perspective on who Jesus is. And I would suggest that the way that we choose to introduce Jesus says a lot about who we believe Jesus to be.
I also believe that the way that we choose to introduce Jesus is significant because while we may not have the privilege of introducing Jesus in the flesh like we introduce our spouse or friends, we do have opportunities to introduce Jesus to people. We call it evangelism, and we may sometimes fail to consider how the ways that we introduce Jesus are significant.
People have been making introductions of Jesus for over 2,000 years now. We can imagine this in a very personal way during the life of Jesus on earth in which friends, family members, and followers would introduce Jesus to others. We also read in the book of Acts of the ways shortly after his death that the apostles introduced Jesus to the people around them in healings and declarations before leadership.
In some sense, the four gospels that we have serve as an introduction to who Jesus is. For some people, reading through one of the gospels is the first place that they encounter Jesus. And as I noted in my blog this week, we also have the early creeds, the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed, that serve as an introduction to whom Jesus is.
The Creeds
Now typically Mennonites tend to be non-creedal in nature, yet much of mainstream Christianity is creedal in one way or another. And in those settings, these creeds do serve as a short hand introduction to whom Jesus is, which I also think serves as a case in point for how important our introductions of Jesus are.
I shared with you before that while the Apostles’ Creed covers much of the basics of our faith, that it also has some glaring omissions. Here you see the portion of the creed that relates specifically to Jesus.
“I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Maker of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the virgin Mary,”
Great beginning, but note what happens here. We jump from Jesus birth to,
“suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;
He descended into hell.
The third day He arose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead…”
The creed skips completely over the whole of Jesus’ life and teaching. The bulk of our gospels that introduce us to whom Jesus was while He was on earth are summed up with nothing more than a comma.
We see a similar reality in the Nicene Creed. The portion on Jesus begins,
“And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.
“Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man;”
Here we find a semi-colon rather than a comma yet once again, it is used to sum up the whole of Jesus’ earthly life and ministry. Because from there it continues,
“and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end…”
I don’t point this out to be critical of these Creeds or to suggest that they lack value. On the contrary, these are very dear to many Christians around the world and serve as unifying ecumenical statements. What is significant to me is what they leave out of their introduction of Jesus and what that means for how believers come to picture who Jesus is.
It also serves as a very simple and tangible example of the fact that while we as Mennonites do share much in common with many other Christian denominations, we would agree with what these creeds do say about Jesus; we also choose to emphasize a few things a bit differently. While we do believe in the virgin birth and the salvific power of Jesus death and resurrection, we also believe very strongly in Jesus’ call to discipleship and Jesus’ instructions on how we should live.
Article 2 Highlights
We see this clearly in our article for today, article 2: Jesus Christ. Like most of the articles in the confession, this article is not wholly independent of article 1: God. Last week as we reflected on God, we also reflected briefly on Jesus Christ and this week we see within this article that while our focus is on Jesus, we are also reading more about God. While these articles do have a certain level of independence, they also are intrinsically woven together creating an interrelated systematic whole.
We begin the article with the important affirmations of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, naming His ability to bring about salvation. We also clearly acknowledge Jesus to be the head of the church and the center of who we are as a body. Then we name four primary roles that Jesus fills. Again, three of these are pretty common designations. One of these, as commentary #2 points out at the end of the article, is a bit more particular to our understanding of who Jesus is.
Jesus is a prophet. The Old Testament is full of prophets from Jonah to Jeremiah and Elijah to Elisha. We see in the New Testament that people often wonder if Jesus is Elijah returned from heaven. And we read of his ability to declare prophetic words of the coming kingdom.
Jesus is the high priest. In the Old Testament, we read of the priestly line of Levi and their responsibilities to care for the temple and perform sacrifices. In the New Testament, we read of Jesus’ ability to heal and his atoning sacrifice on our behalf. Then in Hebrews, he is referred to as the High Priest in the line of Melchizedek.
Jesus is the king. In the Old Testament, we read of the line of kings beginning with Saul and then moving to David and Solomon before the kingdom divided. God promised that a descendant of David would always be on the throne. In the New Testament, we see that Jesus is in the line of David and we hear Jesus declaration that he is a king of another kingdom not of this world that is yet to come.
Jesus is also a teacher. In the Old Testament, we read wisdom literature like Psalms, Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes. In the New Testament, Jesus often refers back to Old Testament teachings and reinterprets them. We read of extended blocks of teaching like the Sermon on the Mount and many parables.
In all of this, Jesus is king of kings and lord of lords, savior of the world, God incarnate, the ever-present word of God. But it seems to me that while our article on Jesus affirms these realities, it also reminds us very clearly of the obedient servant that Jesus was. This is a part of the article as a whole, but it is emphasized in the #1 commentary.
“This article reflects biblical understandings of Jesus Christ in an Anabaptist-Mennonite perspective. It stresses, for example, Jesus' obedience and suffering in his work of atonement, his humility and servanthood as the pathway to exaltation, the believers' experience of Christ in the community of faith, the integration of faith and ethics, and peace as central to the character of Christ. These themes belong to the heart of the gospel.”
As Mennonite Christians, we believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, but for us that means more than just going to heaven when we die or Jesus’ final victory in the second coming. We also see Jesus as an obedient servant and the embodiment of peace. While some traditions might see these as tack-ons, we see them as central. This is what stands out most clearly to me from our passage in Philippians 2 today.
Philippians 2
5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Here we see these characteristics of Jesus named and we are encouraged to live those out in verse 5 with the instruction that our attitude should be the same. It goes on to say that Jesus is the same nature as God, but that He took on human likeness to live as a human and to be a servant. He became a servant that followed the instructions of God even to the point of death.
The passage ends by declaring the royalty and grandeur of whom Jesus is. Jesus Christ is the savior of the world, but this passage is very clear about how Jesus got there. Jesus got there by being an obedient servant. Jesus did not get there by being the conquering messiah that was victorious in battle. Jesus did not get there by executing those who stood in his way. Jesus got there by being an obedient servant and we are to follow Jesus’ example.
The passage tells us that our attitude should be as His and it exalts the methods that Jesus used to achieve this victory. This makes a powerful case for the way that we are to live as followers of Jesus and it places obedience, service and nonviolence at the heart of the gospel. They are not tack-ons to the faith, but rather part and parcel of what it means to follow Christ.
Introducing Jesus to Our Community
But perhaps this all comes back to the importance of introducing the community around us to Jesus, the obedient servant that we now serve. Our human tendency is to latch onto certain characteristics of Jesus and in the process neglect others. We each tend to have our own picture of whom Jesus is.
You may say, “But pastor, we live in a small town of faithful Christian people, they already know Jesus.” We don’t need to introduce people around here to Jesus. To which my response is both yes and no.
It is true that in a village of about 1,800 people there are 11 churches and that there are many in town who do know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. But from the two years that I have been here, it also seems clear to me that there are many in our midst who are unchurched and dechurched. Many of those who are unchurched have not been introduced to Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Many of those who are unchurched and dechurched have met Jesus, but they have not yet been properly introduced. They have only caught a glimpse of Jesus or they have bought into false rumors and gossip that distorts their understanding of who Jesus is.
It is our privilege as ambassadors for Christ in our local communities to live our lives in such a way that Jesus is reflected in all that we do. What’s more is that we have the honor not only to act on behalf of Christ but also to speak on His behalf, sharing the whole truth of who he is as we find Him in scripture and testifying to his goodness in our own personal lives. Three of our youth modeled this well for us last week as they shared their testimonies before being baptized in the river.
And if I may be so bold as to say that even for those within our community who have a committed relationship to Jesus Christ, we still have a responsibility as fellow brothers and sisters in the lord to encourage, support and nurture them in faith and life as they have a similar responsibility to us. And who knows but that in our dialogue and learning from them, they might also learn from us.
Perhaps as Pastor Rick and I came to know Christ more fully through our contacts with Mennonites at Bluffton (then) College, others in our community might come to know Christ’s life and teachings in new and more powerful ways. If in our classes at college, our professors had remained silent about their understandings of the fullness of who Jesus was and is, how would we have come to take this on for ourselves? How would we have heard the call to pastor within a Mennonite context?
Don’t misunderstand me here though, I am not suggesting that we go out and try to “steal” members from other congregations to increase our fold. And I am not suggesting that we go out declaring that we have all the answers and everyone else needs to learn from us. No, I am simply suggesting that in the spirit of Christian brother and sisterhood that we be honest with our understandings and experiences of Christ with others and that we listen with the ears of the Holy Spirit for learnings from what they also might have to share with us.
Conclusion
This morning as we consider Article 2 of the Confession of Faith and whom Jesus is, let us cling to our shared convictions of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, fully human and fully divine. But let us also grasp on to Jesus as teacher as well as prophet, priest, and king. Let us take on Christ’s attitude of an obedient servant and remember His methods for fulfilling God’s call upon His life. And let us consider whom God may be calling us to introduce Jesus to and how we might do so. May God guide and bless us as we follow in the way of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
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