Palm Sunday April 5, 2020
Palm Sunday
Matthew 21:1-9 & Philippians 2:5-11
April 5, 2020
“My King”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Over the last ten years I’ve read a handful of articles describing the continuing rise of narcissism in America since the 60s and 70s. Our narcissistic tendencies continue to grow and some say many of us are even borderline personality disordered. Narcissism is, put simply, the excessive love of yourself. We’re in love with ourselves! Infatuated. Self-absorbed. Self-centered. Self-serving. We worship celebrities because we want to be celebrities. We’re less and less involved in community because we don’t have time for others. We’re obsessed with stuff—materialism—buying more and more for ourselves.
And we even applaud it. We teach it as a good thing. We strive for it. Look at all these words used to describe supposedly good qualities: self-reliant, self-sufficient, self-esteem, self-actualization, self-confident, self-assured, self-fulfilled, self-aware, self-determined, self-admiration, self-acceptance, self-improving, self-worth, self—ie! That’s a lot of self. And somehow one virtue that never seems to make the list of good things anymore is self-control. Ugh! Self-control?! Why would we want that? Control ourselves?! No way!
Now, of course, as Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes, there’s “nothing new under the sun”. This narcissism isn’t a new problem. It’s a sin problem that’s been around for some time. But there’s no doubt that we’re especially tempted to it more than usual in 21st century America.
So we need this Palm Sunday and her Scripture readings as much as ever. Jesus is the anti-narcissist. He’s the anti-selfcentered. Look at Him. He’s a King. The King of kings, in fact. King of the entire earth and universe. And yet this King doesn’t ask you to come and serve Him as any good narcissist would—He comes to serve you. Just hear again these beautiful and comforting words from Zechariah chapter 9, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!…Behold, your King is coming to you.”
Not “your King is awaiting your service”. Not “your King is ready to rule over you.” Not “your King demands your obedience”. No! “Your King is coming to you.” How many kings have come to you in your lifetime? How many kings, princes, presidents, and governors have come to find you and serve you? This King is different. He’s no narcissist. He’s the exact opposite. He comes to you to offer Himself for your service.
And of course, as we know the account so well of what happens after He rides the donkey into Jerusalem—He doesn’t just come to you to chat from a good social distance. He comes to give His life on the cross for your sin. He comes to offer His back for your beating. He comes to offer His head for your thorning. He comes to offer His hands and feet for your nails. He comes to offer His life for your death. Jesus isn’t too self-admiring, is He? Not too self-actualizing? Not too self-fulfilling? No. He’s self-giving. Self-denying. Self-sacrificing. And He is your King. “Behold, your King comes to you.” Yes, He does. Jesus comes to you because He loves you.
Now this is all described so beautifully and poetically for us in Philippians chapter 2 by St. Paul. He describes this self-humiliation of Jesus, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant.” Jesus didn’t shout, “Equality! I demand equality! Equality! I want what’s mine! We need to bridge this inequality gap!” No. The key words here: “He made himself nothing.” He who had everything made Himself nothing. And He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Are you hearing this? Jesus took this self-humiliation thing so far that He was actually willing to die for you. In other words, Jesus wasn’t like, “Well, I want to help you but there’s only so far I can go, right? I mean, at some point, I have to look out for myself also, you know?’ No, Jesus was like, “Oh, Father, you want me to go so far as to actually die for these sinners? Okay. Yes, I’ll do that.”
There’s not the smallest hint of narcissism in our Savior. He’s perfect Love. Now contrast that with us sinners. Contrast Jesus with American Christians in 2020!
Jesus is everything and made Himself nothing.
We are nothing and make ourselves everything!
We are nothing! Who do we really think we are? We’re like Job demanding that God answer him and satisfy him (Job 38). And God finally says back to Job, “Who do you think you are, little man?” Were you there when the earth was set on its foundations? Did you put all this in place? Do you tell the stars their place? Go out into the middle of the ocean with its surging waves and tell me that you really are something? Can you command wind and waves?
We are nothing! I can’t even take care of myself, let alone the entire world. Let alone the sun and moon and stars. It’s enough just for me and you to get out of bed in the morning. Enough for me and you just to keep ourselves clean and fed. Enough just for you and me to care for a few family members let alone an entire population. Enough just for you and me not to curse and get angry with others one single day let alone love them as we should every single day.
We are nothing. And yet we make ourselves to be everything. Everyone serve me! Life is about my happiness and fulfillment. Life is about everyone else making me happy. Life is about me having what everyone else has. Equality! Equality! If you have it, I should have it! I want what’s mine.
Yet God so loved the world, this narcissistic world of sinners, that He gave His only Son. He who had everything made Himself nothing—He made Himself like us! Nothing! And He has now given us everything. See, the answer to narcissism is outside of you. It’s Jesus. You have to be turned away from SELF, turned outside of yourself, so that you’ll see Jesus and then see all the others whom Jesus died for as well.
Lutherans have a Latin term for this—extra nos, which means “outside of ourselves”. The perfect remedy for narcissism! Jesus turns us outside of ourselves in repentance and faith to Himself. To His Word and to His Sacraments. There He gives us everything we need to go and make ourselves nothing in service to others.
Here’s how it now works for you and me:
Jesus is everything and made Himself nothing.
Now—Jesus gives us everything so that we
might make ourselves nothing and be a servant to others.
We are given the same virtues of Jesus Christ our Savior—self-control, self-discipline, self-denial, self-humiliation, self-sacrifice. We don’t have to demand what’s ours. Remember, we’re nothing. God has given us everything already in Christ! There’s nothing to demand for ourselves. Rather, there’s everything to give to others.
Coronavirus has given us Christians a chance to show this. It’s given us a chance to fight against narcissism—only caring and loving about ourselves. It’s given us a chance to consider ourselves less significant than others. To make ourselves nothing and others everything. I’m afraid we’re not seizing this opportunity as we could be.
Instead, it’s often looking to me like we’ve bought the line that there’s nothing more important than our own physical health and life. Is this really true? Stop and think about it, brothers and sisters. Isn’t there all kinds of things more important than our physical lives? Jesus? Honor? Love? Beauty? Goodness? But we’ve made physical life more important than anything else. And apparently there’s no cost too great for anyone else to bear in order that me, myself, and I may be kept safe from a virus.
Is it good and wise to be smart and take precautions? Of course. But it should never be motivated by fear or narcissism. We shouldn’t be overly engrossed with this virus because we love ourselves too much. Remember that we live under a King who didn’t stay a safe distance away from sinners. We don’t have a King who sat far away from danger on a golden throne while decreeing to us about the right distances to stay away so we can protect our lives. We serve a King whose throne is a CROSS. We have a King who served by dying. By giving His life.
And this same King has called us to die to ourselves and to live for others. Now usually this means sacrificing our own needs and wants and time to take care of others. But the plain truth is that sometimes this even means physically dying for others. There’s a chance we could die from this virus. Any of us. But we don’t have to be scared of it. We should be ready and willing to die for others if the Lord so chooses. Jesus says very plainly that whoever loses his life for Jesus’ sake finds his life. Jesus says very plainly that greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. St. Paul plainly says that for us to die is gain.
Does this mean you should run around giving everybody hugs? No, it doesn’t. But it certainly means we shouldn’t hide in a corner if God has given us work to do. Some of you Christians are already doing this work. God bless you. Some of you are working in the medical field, working in an essential business and industry, working on the police force, working in a grocery store, taking care of family and friends—you are making yourself nothing for others. This is the calling of Christians. Love others as Jesus has loved you. Lay down your life as Jesus has laid down His for you. There is much, much, much more to life than this life. Behold, your King comes to you. Pick up your cross and follow Him. In Jesus’ name. Amen.