Sleepless

March 1, 2016

Sleepless

I woke up at 2:30 this morning and couldn't go back to sleep.  This happens every so often.  My wife also struggles with sleeplessness.  After several minutes of restless tossing and turning.  Well, the reality is, after about an hour I picked up my Kindle and opened my Bible software program.  It delivers a daily Bible verse.  That's it above.  Normally, a little Bible reading and prayer and I'm off to sleep.  Not this time.  That's due in great part to the passage above.  It's Philippians 2:8.  It's bad enough that the passage was Philippians - one of my treasured studies.  It's from the second chapter of Philippians.  To make matters worse, it's from the first half of the chapter.  If the quote had been verses 19 and 20, I probably would have drifted off to sleep as normal, Verses 19 and 20 are about Timothy, and Paul says of him, "I have no one like him."  I like that.  I probably would have prayed for a few Timothy sort of folk and fallen asleep.  But you can't do that with Philippians 2:8: 

"And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."

If you know the passage, you can't stop there.  My next thought was about verse five, "You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had." And so, the long night began.  There is no doubt that this section of Scripture is humbling.  But just what makes it so humbling?  Most of us who have hung around a church for a while probably think we understand Philippians 2:1-18 pretty well.  Therein may be the danger.  Is it possible that familiarity breeds contempt when it comes to an oft quoted, and frequently taught passage?  In other words, did the Holy Spirit's work in this passage come to a grinding slow down after Paul's inspiration to pen it?  Oh my, let's be brutal.  Do we allow the Holy Spirit to do all He can do in our hearts when we read Paul's challenge to have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had? Maybe, but likely not.  Remember how Philippians 2:4 goes:

 "Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others."

Okay, so maybe a lot of folk benefit from our niceness.  However, is it to the level of Jesus?  Nice is, well...nice.  But what Jesus has done is...grab your head in your hands, fall to your face, sob like a broken child and cry out, "I can't take it!  It's too much.  I don't...I don't...I absolutely do not deserve what you have given me!"  A cry for mercy.  Not mercy because the punishment is too severe, but mercy because the grace is overwhelming.  He traded heaven for earth, a throne for a toilet, praise for ridicule, a crown for thorns, the caress of angels for the sting of a whip, ecstasy for agony.  He traded His life for mine...and yours.  Every great thing He has done He gave to our credit.  Every disgusting vile thing we have done, He took the punishment for.  The King became a slave, so that slaves could become kings.  By the way, the slaves were treating Him abysmally as He made the trade.  I like how Eugene Peterson handles this section: 

   “Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.” (Philippians 2:5–8, The Message)

Yes, it's good to be nice, but Jesus is more than nice.  The difference is like the ring of bells.  Nice is like the chime of the little bell on the counter of some business establishments - a tinkle.  What Jesus has done is like the full-throat rumbling of a large church bell.  No, it's more than that, it's as if bells were cast that were the size of cathedrals, that the whole world would be filled with them.  Then, at the moment Jesus died and cried out for God the Father to rain down forgiveness on this wretched humanity, the bells began to ring the world over.  What He has done would make the bells ring, heaven shout and the world to shake from the reverberations,  we do something nice for someone likable and a counter bell rings.  It begins with, "consider others better than yourselves."  The real test is in the verses before and after five through eight, then the chapters before and after. Read it, absorb it, ruminate upon this letter written by a man chained to a Roman guard and facing death.  If you allow it, it will change you.  However, it may be a sleepless night.

   “Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.” (Philippians 2:1–4, NLT)