Easter People in a GFW

On Sunday we’ll be looking at Philippians 2:5–11, the high point of Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi, and, as one Bible scholar claims, the most-commented-on passage in the New Testament. 

I can go ahead and tell you that I’m not going to be able to say everything I want to say in the sermon. There’s just too much there, too much wonder. My aim though, in seeing some of the wonder, is to keep practical. That certainly sticks close to Paul’s intent. Remember that what he’s been saying to the church is about humility (2:3–4) and unity (2:1–2) and living as citizens worthy of the gospel (1:27). What he tells us about the example of Jesus in verses 5–11 is for that. 

And my question is how. How does the example of Jesus impact those things? What is the main effect that plays out in a thousand little details?

This is a broader question that tries to locate Paul’s immediate concerns in light of the whole. If we learn humility from the example of Jesus, what does that mean for how we approach life in general?

In a phrase, I think it means that we become an “Easter people in a Good Friday world.” I got that phrase from the South African pastor Trevor Hudson, and I just think it fits so well with what Paul is doing in Philippians 2. 

By “Easter people” it means we know which side of the resurrection we live. Jesus has been raised. He is currently alive, real, at work, coming again. We are his brothers and sisters, children of God groaning for the glory of consummate new creation (Romans 8:18–25). We will inherit the whole world (Matthew 5:5). We will judge angels (1 Corinthians 6:3). We will have immortal, incorruptible bodies (1 Corinthians 15:51ff).

 We will do and experience all of these things because Jesus is raised — we will.

But for now, though an Easter people, we currently live in a “Good Friday world” — a GFW … where there is suffering and injustice and loss and grief and thousands of other things that we know aren’t the way it’s supposed to be. But it’s where we are … for now, anyway … but not forever.

Easter people remember that the worst thing is never the last thing. 

We worship a King-in-waiting, as it were — a King who will return and put all things right, and in the meantime, as we wait and pray for his coming, our highest allegiance is to his kingdom. We are citizens of his empire, which is above every empire. We hold high his name, which is above every name. We renew our hope, in this GFW, as it is written, 

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— 

these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. (1 Corinthians 2:9–10).