We continue today with the reading of the Letter to the Philippians, we’re now in Chapter 3. Last week, we turned our attention to Paul’s “mini-creed”, this hymn he wrote to summarize his beliefs about Christ and Christ’s mission, and we may have been quite surprised that for Paul, basically, the story of Christ can be understood through the lens of Christ’s deep humility, his self-emptying, renouncing the joys of heavens to come live among us, and doing so not to live as a king, mind you, but as a humble servant to all, teaching, feeding, healing, and then, after he washed his disciples’ feet, not even a servant anymore but a slave who died the most shameful death on the cross. Jesus’s motivation wasn’t of course the motivation of a masochist. Jesus didn’t enjoy suffering more than we do, and we actually see many passages in the Gospel where Jesus confesses his affliction when he is rejected, misunderstood and betrayed. Jesus was also very much afraid of dying the way he did, the Gospel tells us that as he prayed waiting to be arrested, his sweat turned into blood which is actually a medical phenomena that has been observed happening only in case of extreme anxiety. Jesus’s motivation was not an interest in suffering, indeed, but Jesus let all of that happen out of love, his love for the Father and his love forevery human being: He did it all to obey God’s will, to be with us, to share our tribulations, to take our pain, and in a mysterious way (but extremely important to Paul) he suffered and died to take our sins and save us from eternal death. Paul teaches that Jesus gave all he had for us, and even more than that, Jesus gave all he was. Now for Paul the question is: How can we respond to Christ’s love? Well, in the simplest way in the world, we are invited to imitate Christ’s humility and Christ selflessness. And to help the Philippians understand that, Paul will use his own example. He will tell them his own story. So let’s look at that.
The opening paragraph may be a little confusing for us, so we’re going to start with some clarification. If you have ever paid attention to Paul’s writings, you have certainly noticed that circumcision (or actually “the release from the need to be circumcised”) is a big deal for him, and this is where Paul starts here. We need to know that since Abraham, circumcision was for the Hebrews the mark “in the flesh” of God’s people, the sign that they were consecrated to God, and every Jew went through the rite on the 8th day after their birth. Now in the first century, there were pagans (non Jews) who decided to follow Christ and some preachers were teaching them they first had to become Jews and therefore be circumcised, which makes sense in a way. Jesus was a Jew after all, and circumcised too (Luke 2). To Paul though, this requirement does no make sense anymore, and he teaches about that on and on. For Paul, Christ and faith in Christ is the only covenant with God, and actually those who continue to teach that circumcision is necessary are deadly wrong and they are misleading the people because it’s like asking them to rely “on the flesh” to be in a right relationship with God. Now I know that circumcision is not a problem for any of us here, but we still need to pay attention because immediately “circumcision“also becomes for Paul a metaphor for all the confidence we may put in earthly things to bring us salvation, when there is only one thing we can rely on: our faith, which is not a set of beliefs but our willingness to receive the grace Christ has obtained for us.
And this is very important because this is really what humility is all about. For Paul, humility is not about beating ourselves up, or letting others abuse us, or self hatred, as humility is sometimes described. Humility, and we have talked about that last week, humility is about renouncing our privileges, renouncing to use our power or our influence to manipulate or exploit others. Humility is about serving others and this is exactly what Jesus did leaving the privileges of heaven to serve on earth. And so, Paul wants the Philippians humble and self emptying yes, but what we need to understand is that it’s not a question of morality. Paul does not want them to do “good deeds” and be “good persons” by being humble, what Paul teaches is that this self emptying is the only way for them to know Christ (know means to have a relationship with, to know intimately that is to love, it’s a not about theoretical knowledge), self emptying is the only way to receive salvation.
At any rate, this is Paul’s story, and again Paul is going to tell them his story:
Paul says he was circumcised on the 8th day and a member of the tribe of Benjamin, which means he was indeed a Hebrew born of Hebrews, that is not a Jew by adoption, he was from the beginning a member of God’s people. On top of those birth privileges, Paul had also many personal accomplishments. Because of the stories in the Gospel, we may not think of being a Pharisee as an accomplishment, but Pharisees were actually considered as the holiest among God’s people, teachers of the law of Moses and examples of obedience to this law. Paul wasn’t only respectful of the Law but he was also zealous for the Law, being willing to pursue all those who disobeyed. And yet Paul says he realized that none of that did matter. All of that was as meaningless as circumcision, only human, fleshly ways that have no value in terms of salvation. Paul, as we know, renounced all of his privileges and accomplishments the day he became a Christian:He lost his status, he also lost his former relationships, the respect of his people, his financial security, and in the end he lost his health, his freedom and even his life. Yet to Paul it is all worth it to know Christ and make Chris known.When he considers Christ, Paul says that he regards everything else as a loss, as rubbish, which is actually a polite translation for the actual word Paul uses: crap. Now it’s not so much that these things in themselves are crap, I have a hard time believing that Paul regards the Holy Law or the religious rites as crap, but what he says is that it is as useful as crap if we think it is going to save us.
And I think it’s very important for us to think about that because, even if certainly circumcision isn’t a question for us anymore, we are always tempted to put our trust, our hope and our salvation in crap: Titles, diplomas, relationships, productivity including in terms of religious practice, or maybe the respect of our bosses or neighbors, a big family, a beautiful house, a nice car. It does not necessarily mean that these things are bad in themselves, just that they cannot save us in the end, so in this regard they mean nothing at all indeed, they mean nothing ultimately. They are what psychiatrists call “Symbols of immortality”: all the things and even the people we surround ourselves with that make us feel powerful. They may reassure us and lead us to have more confidence in ourselves but they are misguiding because in the end they cannot do anything for us. It is reported that Steve Jobs (the former CEO of Apple) in his last days said that he realized he spent all his energy in his life to be successful, to be innovative, productive, to make money, only to discover that it couldn’t do a thing to save him because he couldn’t pay someone to lay on his hospital bed and die for him. It was all crap, even if we love our iphones. They cannot save us. As I was reading those lines from Steve Jobs I was thinking that Paul would probably respond something like: Certainly you cannot pay someone to lay on your bed and die in your place, but you may discover that someone actually laid on the cross and die for you already and he did that at no charge at all and this is called grace.
Paul teaches that Christ did the impossible, what nobody can do for us, what we certainly cannot do for ourselves, and all we need to do is to put our faith in Him, which does not mean having a belief in our head about Christ but trusting Him with all we have and all we are, renouncing to self, to all our “symbols of immortality” and in this poverty rejoicing in Him because as we may know Him in our sufferings, in the self emptying and humility, we will know him in heavens in his glory. Paul says: He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory.
For this reason, in the end, Paul is urging the Philippians to move forward. What matters does not lay in the past, rather we should live our lives having in mind our final destination. Yes, self emptying and seeing things for what they are may be painful, renouncing to what all others may seem to cling to may humiliate us, yet in the end we will obtain so much more that what this life can give us, and we will obtain not just “heavenly things” but Christ himself. Paul invites the Philippians, and us today, to have an ultimate desire for Christ rather than clinging to anything else in the world. A mystic once said that true humility is not so much about being aware of our limitations and our indignities and our crap, rather it is about gaining a clearer vision of God’s goodness, God’s greatness and God’s glory. He quotes St Augustine who said that Christian life is nothing else than your holy desire. Or rejoicing in being nothing so Christ can be our everything.