This coming September 28, 2008 marks the 20th Sunday after Pentecost with the 3 assigned readings being Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32; Philippians 2:1-4, (5-13), 14-18 and Matthew 21:23-27 (29-32). Those verses in parentheses are optional. Chosen to analyze is Philippians 2:8-9 which reads, “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name…”

Theology is the art of making distinctions such as those between the humanity and divinity of Jesus, the three Persons of the holy Trinity, the fact that a Christian is both a sinner and saint and the two states of Jesus. The two states of Jesus??? What does that mean? Such language refers to His state of humiliation and His state of exaltation.

However, the word “humiliation” does not mean “embarrassed” as in, “Because of what He did, He was totally humiliated.” No, both “humiliation” and “exaltation” derive from the Word of God in these verses from Philippians. “Humiliation” comes from the word “humble” which means that God, in the Person and work of Jesus Christ, humbled Himself. He did this by becoming sin for us, for becoming our servant and for taking upon Himself the punishment you and I deserved.

To help confirmands remember these two states, imagine a flight of stairs going down and then going up. The steps of His humiliation from the Apostles’ Crred are “conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried.” The steps of His humiliation begins with His descent into hell (a victory event indeed), rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, sit at the right hand of God the Father and will return on Judgment Day.

During His state of humiliation, it is NOT that He left behind His divine attributes of knowing all things and so forth. Instead, He did not make use of them at all times. There were times that He did as, for example, the stilling of the storm and some of the miracles He did on His own power. But by and large, He did not make use of these divine attributes or else He never would have been hungry, never would have been sleepy, never would have died.

The decision of the Holy Trinity to have the second Person suffer and die for us was one made from before the foundation of the world. Compared to the cross of Christ, nothing that happens in our lives is that significant. The sermon could point out how often we tend to forget the promises connected to the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ when, for example, we get a flat tire, we have trouble paying bills, our kids misbehave, we are overburdened at work, we lose our job, and the list goes on and on.

“If for this life only we have hope, we will be most miserable.” Our sure hope does not consist in what we eat, drink or wear but in our relationship with the God/man Jesus Christ Who died, so that we will never really die, and Who lives so that we will live eternally. That Jesus has again been exalted to the right hand of God at His ascension (see Revelation 5), is our assurance that He Who holds the whole world in His hands uses His divine attributes even in His humanity not only in keeping you safe from the evil one but also in knowing the number of hairs on your head!