Archives For Philippians

Your First Advent Post, Jesus as a Worm, etc.

samuel kee —  November 18, 2012 — 1 Comment

When did Jesus begin to suffer?  You might think that Jesus began to suffer on the night of his betrayal or when the Roman soldiers began to beat him with rods and whips.  You might think that he began to suffer when the first nail was driven into his hand, or perhaps after the first few hours of excruciating pain, as he hung on the cross.

I’m not going to get sentimental on you and say some blubbery stuff about Jesus’ suffering starting when others let him down.  Jesus had thicker skin than that.  So when did Jesus begin to suffer?

Imagine if you turned me into a worm, scooped me out of the dirt, impaled me on a hook, tossed me into a lake, and then fed me to a hungry fish.  When did my suffering begin?  My suffering did not begin inside the fish’s mouth (though that would be quite traumatic!), but further back.  My suffering began the moment you turned me into a worm.  Had you done nothing else, just by turning me into a worm, my life would be wrecked.

The suffering of Jesus began the moment he became human.

Jesus left the perfect bliss of heaven in order to enter the comparative hell of earth.  His suffering began at incarnation.  God-with-us ultimately means God-suffers-with-us.  He became a despised worm, so that he could join us and identify with us in our muddy misery.  Here’s how the Apostle Paul puts it in Philippians 2:6-7,

Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men.

We may think that turning into “the likeness of men” were a good thing.  Who wouldn’t want to be like us?  Jesus began to suffer the moment he became human.  When did God begin to suffer for us?  Christmas.  When Jesus became human, he let go of all his rights and pleasures as God.  He made himself nothing.

That’s when his identification with the human race and plight began.  That’s when he was tossed to the earth as a worm.  He was given the body of a human, so that, one day, the Romans would have something to nail to a cross.  The only reason you fish with a worm is to give the fish something to consume.  The only reason God went fishing with his Son was to give death something to consume.  God the Father pierced his Son with the hook of the cross and then lowered him down into this Lake of Fire, so that he could catch us and bring us home.  Continuing 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.

Why is this important?  The season of Advent needs to be sobered by this truth.  True, it’s an amazing celebration that God came to be with us in Jesus.  However, in the midst of all the cheer, we must not miss his deep and profound love for us.  Jesus showed up on our doorstep as a worm.  That ought to move us to tears.  Forever, we have to live with the knowledge that there’s a God who would go to any length to rescue us.

© Samuel Kee, 2012

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Honk if you (don’t) love Jesus

samuel kee —  March 13, 2012 — Leave a comment

The sign betrays too much about our beliefs

I saw one of those obnoxious church signs that read, “Honk if you love Jesus, text if you want to meet him.”  Now, I understand what the sign is getting at: if you text while driving, you might die.  At first this was funny to me, but the more I thought about it, the less funny it became.  Think about it.  The sign is using something that is wonderful (being with Jesus) and turning it into a crime deterrent (don’t text while driving).  In other words, it was saying, “You had better not do this crime, or else you’ll have to go see your heavenly Creator…”  Can you imagine what God must thinking?  His beloved children are using him to keep themselves from doing stupid and illegal things.  “Oh, how God’s heart must weep at the thought that his children do not want to see him.”[1]

Don’t hear me wrongly, I am not approving of texting while driving. Neither am I saying that we should kill ourselves just so we can be with God.  What I am saying is, why bring God into this?  Why not just say something like, “Texting while driving is reckless and might kill someone.”  I know that’s not too catchy, but it at least it’s honest and not self-centered.  At least it puts others before yourself.  For the sake of your neighbor, please don’t text while driving.

The sign betrays too much about our beliefs, even the default assumptions of Christians: death is loss.  True Christianity, in contrast, flies in the face of such atheism.  “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain,” says the Apostle Paul (Philippians 1:21).  Then he goes on to say, “If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.  Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell.  I am hard pressed between the two.  My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.” (Philippians 1:22-23).  Paul actually struggles between living here on earth and living in heaven with God.  To the Christian, one is just as real as the other.  Actually, to the Christian, to be with Christ is “far better.”

Please don’t hear me being a radical, fundamental, grumpy Christian, who hates life and all forms of comedy (the sign actually is kind of funny).  Rather, hear me challenging your worldview.  Have we truly grasped the implications of our faith?  If we have, then we’ll operate out of the same longings as Paul.  We will fully realize that death will actually make us better, happier, and more real, not less.  We’ll stop being afraid, stop holding back, and stop being intimidated, for to die is gain, not loss.  Upon death, we will cash in, receiving all of longings of our hearts and more joy than we could ever handle.  We’ll be in the presence of a God who can’t stop loving us, beautifying us, and serving us (Ephesians 5:25-27).

The farther we drift from the reality of God in heaven, the heavier our hearts will become on earth.

© Samuel Kee, 2012

[1] This is a paraphrase of a quote that I heard from Tim Keller, I believe.

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