Our Sunday Message

Having the Mind of Christ: Philippians 2:5-11
Rev. Dr. Kenneth A. Corr
April 9, 2006
Palm Sunday

  “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”
  There is a challenge to live by: to imitate the mind of Christ. But I am a little surprised that the apostle Paul did not say, “Let the same heart be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” When I think of Christ, I don’t imagine a great mind. I did an internet search this week of Great Thinkers. The list is impressive: Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Galileo, Thomas Aquinas, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Frederick Nietzsche, Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, Karl Sagan. These are some of the world’s great philosophers, scientists, inventors, and theologians. Interestingly, Jesus was not included in any list of Great Thinkers that I found.
  Don’t misunderstand. I am not suggesting that Christ was not a great thinker. But when I think of Christ, it is not the mind of Christ that I want to imitate. It is the heart of Christ: the heart that allowed time for the little children, even after a busy day; the heart that befriended tax collectors and sinners, even though it did not help his standing in the religious community; the heart that heard the pleas of the blind beggar along the roadside, even though everyone else turned a deaf ear. Why didn’t the apostle Paul say, “Let the same heart be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”
  In his commentary on this text, Charles Cousar says that the word here for “mind” is not only used to describe intellectual activity, but can also refer to “the direction of the will.”1 It’s not just the thoughts of Christ that we are to imitate, but the “intuitions, sensitivities, imaginations,”2 intentions, directions, and priorities of Christ.
  Do you remember the day that Peter took Jesus aside and rebuked him for talking about suffering, humiliation and death? Do you remember what Jesus said to him? “Get behind me Satan! For you are setting your mind . . . on human things.”3 It was not Peter’s thinking that Jesus was challenging. It was Peter’s direction, the focus of his mind.
  In his letter to the Colossians, Paul says, “Set your mind on things above, not on things that are on earth.”4 That is the way that Paul was using the word “mind” in our text. It is the mind-set, the direction, the purpose, the will, the focus of Christ that we are to imitate.
  “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”
  When I graduated from seminary, I had the privilege of working with Dr. John Jeffers, the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Auburn, Alabama. John was more than my pastor. He was my mentor. We did not always think alike. I certainly did not agree with everything that he did. I certainly did not believe everything that he believed. But in the years that we worked together, as I listened to him, watched him, and learned from him, I began to value his opinions, embrace his perspectives, and imitate the way that he viewed things.
  What would it mean for us in the 21st century to be mentored by Jesus? What would it look like to align our wills and intentions after his? What would it require to let the mind of Christ be in us?
  Today is Palm Sunday. I want to look at the events of this one day in order to think about the mind of Christ. Clearly, this was a day in which his mind was focused.
  The day began with a parade into Jerusalem. Let me try to describe that parade. That parade signaled the beginning of Passover week. It was a spectacle that thousands stood by the roadside to watch. It was heralded by a trumpet fanfare, even better than our Trompette en Chamade. It was a demonstration of power. It was a procession that left people, as one commentator said, “some curious, some awed, and some resentful.”5
  But it was not the parade that we remembered this morning. The parade that I have just described entered the city on west side. The parade that we remembered this morning entered on the opposite side, the east side, of the city. The parade that I have just described was accompanied by horse cavalry, foot soldiers, and impressive armor. The parade that we remembered this morning was accompanied by a few peasant disciples and a humble donkey. The parade that I have just described was intended to demonstrate that the world was ruled by a kingdom of power and the god in charge was named “Caesar.” The parade that we remembered today was a calculated alternative, a symbolic protest, a decisive reminder that there is another kingdom, not of power, but of love; and another god, not Caesar, but Yahweh.
  Pontius Pilate did not live in Jerusalem. He lived in Caesarea Maritima, sixty miles west of Jerusalem. But he always processed into Jerusalem at the beginning of Passover to demonstrate both “Roman imperial power and Roman imperial theology.”6 Jesus paraded into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday in prophetic criticism of that kingdom and of everything that is opposed to the kingdom of God.
The religious and community leaders knew exactly what Jesus was doing and they were horrified. Do you remember how they insisted that Jesus silence the mob? Do you know what they were so afraid of? They were afraid of the other parade. They were afraid of offending the ruling power. They were afraid of disturbing the status quo.
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”
  Do we honestly think that we can be Christ-minded and not disturb the status quo? Prophetic criticism of everything that is opposed to the kingdom of God is part of our mission, even if it upsets the religious and community leaders, the status quo.
  Luke says that as Jesus came into the city that first Palm Sunday, “he wept over the city.”7 His prophetic criticism was accompanied by divine compassion.
  We will not have the mind of Christ until we weep over the city. It is easy to criticize. But criticism without compassion simply makes us mean-spirited.
  But if we can have the gift of tears for the domestic violence that tears at fabric of the home, for the lack of healthcare that puts children at risk, for the lingering racism that motivates our political choices, for the unfair wages that keep people locked in cycles of poverty, for the staggering loss of life and resources to the on-going war in Iraq, then criticism and compassion will come together for constructive change and “God’s will on earth will be done as it is in heaven.”
  “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”
  There were two parades that first Palm Sunday representing two very different mind-sets. In their wonderful book, The Last Week, Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan say, “The same question, the same alternative, faces those who would be faithful to Jesus today. Which procession are we in? Which procession do we want to be in?”8
  “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”

1 Charles Cousar, Texts for Preaching: Year B, p. 246.
2 Ibid., p. 246.
3 Mark 8:33b.
4 Colossians 3:2.
5 Borg & Crossan, The Last Week, p. 3.
6 Ibid., p. 2.
7 Luke 19:41a.
8 Borg & Crossan, p. 30.