The Sundays in Lent do not count as part of the forty days of the Lenten Season, because they celebrate the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ. This reading from Philippians 2 reminds us of His exalted place.
“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, by taking the form of a servant,
being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled
himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is
above every name, so 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” (Philippians 2:5-11).
The phrase "he emptied himself" has a great
deal of significance. Jesus did not step down from the throne and merely
put on human flesh. That would have been amazing in its own way.
Instead, he stepped away from the Deity that was his...equality with
God...and he emptied himself - divesting himself of all that was his as a right
to take on our human form in which he would eventually die for us. He emptied
himself for us.
Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 – 1153) was born of noble
parentage. His mother had a great deal of influence on his life and when she
died, he decided to leave the noble life he lived behind and become a
monk. He became a Cistercian monk at the age of 22 and took with him
thirty young men, including his brothers and uncles, to an Abbey in France.
Three years later he founded a new monastery at Clairvaux. This abbey became a
center of the Cistercian order and a source of spiritual renewal throughout Europe.
They focused on a shared life of work, worship, and prayer, along with the
disciplines of the Spirit.
Bernard is most notable for his writings that emphasize
God’s great love, and what it means to love God in return. Consider this
short devotional:
Emptied for Our Sake, by Bernard of Clairvaux
Christ’s self-emptying was neither a simple gesture nor a
limited one. He emptied himself even to the assuming of human nature, even to
accepting death, death on a cross (Philippians 2:7). Who is there that
can adequately gauge the greatness of the humility, gentleness, and
self-surrender, revealed by the Lord of majesty in assuming human nature, in
accepting the punishment of death, the shame of the cross? But somebody
will say: "Surely the Creator could have restored his original plan
without all that hardship?" Yes, he could, but he chose the way of
personal suffering so that man would never again have to reason to display that
worst and most hateful of all vices, ingratitude. Even if God made you out of
nothing, you have not been redeemed out of nothing. In six days he created all
things, and among them, you. On the other hand, for a period of thirty whole
years he worked your salvation in the midst of the earth. What he endured
in those labors! To his bodily needs and the abuses from his enemies did he not
add the mightier burden of the humiliation of the cross, and crown it all with
the horror of his death? And this was indeed necessary. Man and beast you save,
0 Lord (Psalm 36:6). How you have multiplied your mercy, 0 God!
Let’s take some time this weekend to genuinely worship our
Savior, and Lord, emptying ourselves of the need to be at the center of our
living and thereby “humble” ourselves for the sake of Christ.
Peace
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