The season of Lent is drawing to a close. At the beginning of this time of penitence we were urged to go into the wilderness of our souls and face the demons and devils that possess us and try to lead us away from God. We were asked to examine ourselves, re-evaluate ourselves, and try to take one more step forward on our spiritual journey. The various disciplines of self denial and piety that we undertook were intended to help us in this exorcism of our souls and our spiritual growth. For me, this Lent, the lesson has been to re-discover my dependence upon God; that I can’t save myself, and that I will always fall if I depend only on myself.

          And now, as Lent draws towards its end, we again commemorate the events of the last week of our Lord’s earthly ministry. We re enact his triumphal entry into Jerusalem that fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah (9:9), and through the week we read the accounts of those last days leading up to his death on the cross, and we once again are vividly reminded of the terrible price that has been paid for our souls, to what extreme God had to go, to bring us back to himself.

          The events of Holy Week are, of course, in sharp contrast to the joy and wonder and sheer surprise of the discovery of the empty tomb on Easter morning. We cannot fail to be moved by this contrast; from the utter blackness of Good Friday, as we, with Jesus’ disciples, grieve his death and are filled with doubt and loss. He, who would have saved us, turns out to be in the end, no different from us. And as he dies on the cross, the taunts of the crowd burn our ears: “He saved others, let him save himself!” We watch in despair. He betrays us because he does not save himself, he hangs on the cross and dies. But then, within days, He rises from the grave, not just restored to life, but transformed, so that we may see him for who he is, God himself. From total absolute blackness to absolute blinding white light, the contrast bears out the truth. The utter depravity of our humanity is saved and transformed by God himself who died and rose again so that we too might be saved from eternal death.

          If we have had successes with our Lenten disciplines we must take care lest they lead us into the vice of pride. Rather, we should look to the failures of our Lenten disciplines, because the object of Lent is to humble us, to bring home to us our true worth. So they also bring us to understand more about ourselves and the reason behind our lives, which is precisely what Jesus was about: that true and absolute humility is the means to divine love, and that the way of the Christian is also the way of Christ.

          Saint Paul tells us this clearly in Philippians (2:1-4):So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any incentive of love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

          If we learn anything from Christ, Paul is telling us, if we really have the spirit of God within us, this is how we show it: by being of the same mind(i.e. the mind of God), and having the same love (i.e. the love of God)

          Urging us to be of one mind with Christ, Saint Paul goes on to quote what is believed to be one of the most ancient of Christian hymns, a song of praise that is at the same time a statement of faith, a creed:

“Have this mind among yourselves, Which is yours in Christ Jesus:

Who, though he was in the form of God, Did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,

But emptied himself, Taking the form of a servant,Being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled himself And became obedient unto death, even death upon the cross!

Therefore God has highly exalted him And bestowed on him the NAME

Which is above every name, That at the name of Jesus Every knee should bow,

In heaven and on earth and under the earth, And every tongue confess that

Jesus Christ is Lord, To the glory of God the Father!"

          Christ , though he shared in the Godhead, pre-existing all creation as the Divine Word, did not take his Godly status as something to be clutched at as a possession, rather he gave up his rights to divine glory, and accepted the humiliation of becoming human, even to the degree of accepting the most humiliating of deaths: death by torture as a dispised criminal.

          Because of this, God has raised him back to his state of exaltation so that the whole universe may recognize him for who he is and worship him, and that we may know him by his true title: LORD.

          In this hymn we learn the lesson of the season climaxed in this coming week: be of one mind with Christ, learn humility. Even though there may be triumph for us in the world’s eye, as there was for Jesus as he rode into Jerusalem adored as the new King of the new Israel, our work, like his, can only be accomplished through giving up ourselves in total humility. And as he was killed and was raised up on the third day, so we must pray God’s help to kill the old man in us so that we may rise again reborn to worship on bended knee, and truly know that Jesus Christ is LORD. Amen.