March 20, 2005: Emptying Yourself for God

+ PALM SUNDAY OF THE LORD’S PASSION

Twenty years ago, Dustin Hoffman made a movie called Tootsie. He played an actor who couldn’t get a part, until he got a break and posed as a woman in a soap opera. The show was a hit so he had to keep pretending he was a woman… until he fell in love with a woman. Then he had the bizarre task of being a man pretending to be a woman who was then pretending to be a man to win the girl! How’s that for irony?

The story of Palm Sunday is no less ironic. Here’s Jesus making an entrance into Jerusalem in a way that can only be described as triumphant… but of course we know that in less than a week’s time, he will have been betrayed, arrested, tortured and put to death on the cross. But irony or ironies, we know that that actually turns out to be part of the most triumphant event in human history.

Most everybody knows the beautiful verse found in John 3:16—For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Yes, Jesus Christ died for us that we might have eternal life. Paradise had been closed since the sin of Adam and Eve, but now the gates were reopened, and all of us have been invited in.

But not so fast.

We get invited to lots of things, but there’s a difference between receiving an invitation and actually going through the door. You might get invited to a wedding, for example. You don’t just stumble out of bed that morning, get into your car, and go… do you? You send back an RSVP. You get your clothes ready—maybe even buy some new things. Have your hair done. You might buy a card and a gift. Get a babysitter. In other words, you make a lot of little plans and take steps.

It’s the same with accepting the invitation for eternal life in heaven. There are certain preparations and steps that must be made.

Again and again, Jesus tells us that if we wish to follow him to heaven, we have to pick up our cross and carry it. Our readings today tell us a very important way that we’re supposed to do that.

In our second reading, we hear a magnificent hymn written by St. Paul to the Philippians. Paul writes that even though Jesus was God, he didn’t try to act like a god. Instead, he emptied himself and took the form of a slave, going around serving the very creatures he created!

What could have inspired Paul to write these amazing words? Maybe you remember the words at the beginning of John’s gospel: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… and the Word became flesh!

But those couldn’t have been the words that Paul recalled, since he was martyred 35 years before they were even written.

Rather, it was probably the words of Genesis 1 that Paul thought about… the part that says that all human beings are created in the image and likeness of God. So when Jesus chose to empty himself and identify with the lowest of humans, a slave, he was making a choice that every man and woman has to make: will I live my life seeking equality with God, or will I admit my lowliness and simply serve him by serving others?

In Philippi, the community Paul addresses his letter to, the social structure was a little bit on the snobbish side. The Philippians wouldn’t have anything to do with people they considered beneath them socially. Paul takes them to task for this just before the passage we read today. He told them: Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus (Phil 2: 3–4). That’s exactly what Jesus did when he emptied himself.

And that’s why the passage in our first reading today is so important. Isaiah writes about God: Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear. In other words, God’s true followers hit the floor every morning listening… and often, what they hear comes from “the weary”—those on the fringes of society, the “slaves” in our culture.

So we listen to St. Matthew’s account of the Passion and see close up how Jesus emptied himself and became a slave… and what the upshot of this was. Forget about Mel Gibson’s movie. Unlike Gibson, the evangelists did not concentrate on Jesus’ physical suffering. Their goal is to help us appreciate the pain that comes from emptying ourselves for others. Matthew wants his community to focus on Jesus’ determination to give himself, even when some of the recipients of his generosity betray, desert and deny him.

I think one of the most significant parts of Matthew’s Passion narrative is a remark that almost sounds like a throw-away line: There were many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him.

Could it be that our poor, weary Lord gained the strength to go through his crucifixion by making eye contact with that small group of followers who were willing to empty themselves enough that afternoon to identify with a condemned criminal? Just maybe those who learned from his giving gave him the strength to complete that giving. Something to think about…

As we begin this Holy Week, I hope and pray that we will all find opportunities—through prayer, fasting and almsgiving—to empty ourselves in service to God and neighbor. Amen.

Today’s Readings:
Isaiah 50: 4–7
Psalm 22
Philippians 2: 6–11
Mt 21: 1–11 and Mt 26: 14–Mt 27: 66