A Coronavirus Gathering | 2. He Made Himself Nothing

Quoting the once-naked prophet Isaiah, Luke announces the gospel through the humble birth of a novel king.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light; they who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, the light shines. 

In a stable, on the run from an emperor’s murderous edict, the breath of Mary’s newborn rises with sheep-dung steam as the God of the cosmos pees into swaddling rags.

With the incarnation, Philippians 2 tells us how low this king will go.

He made himself nothing

    by taking the very nature of a servant,

    being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

    he humbled himself

    by becoming obedient to death—

        even death on a cross!

Learning from his good friend and fellow scholar C.S. Lewis, JRR Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, understood the biblical story as metanarrative, the one true myth all others point toward. Near Mount Doom, the eye of Sauron searches for uprisings of power as two hobbits, small halflings, move under the radar to destroy on the One Ring to rule them all.

Sentenced to death by the great Roman Empire and religious authorities, fueled by the politics of greed and law, Jesus, this strange king, yields power for the sake of the other, counting the cross a joy. 

As we lament our current circumstances, living in the havoc of a deadly global virus, let us remember power moves incognito through an invisible supernatural Kingdom. Underneath the terror and fear of our world, we take refuge and find service in a greater reality. We are called to follow our King to Golgotha, giving ourselves away for the sake of others.
 
In the opening scene of Tree of Life, the narrator examines two fundamentally differing motivations for living life — self-serving (nature) or self-giving (grace).  

I love the narrator’s line: Those who follow grace come to no bad ending. Even in a worse-case scenario, grace rules in this strange new Kingdom.

Each day, each moment, is given us to choose what path we will follow — self serving or self giving.