Thinking Like Jesus

This coming Sunday, March 24, is Palm Sunday and few moments in Jesus’ ministry more vividly portray the magnitude of what it means that “the Word became flesh” as John 1:14 describes incarnation, than does Palm Sunday. Riding in to Jerusalem in what seems to be a parade, Jesus immediately goes to the Temple where He attempts to bring what God intended to be a “house of prayer” back to what God intended rather than what it had become at the leading of some very “religious” people.

He must have known that to disrupt that very lucrative business – whose lucrative nature was hidden in the mask of pseudo-spirituality – would be to draw the proverbial line in the sand. But He is so focused on what His Father in heaven had sent Him to do, that what may seem at first to have been a parade becomes more of a protest.

One of the texts that can help us better understand such courage, such commitment to mission, such willingness to obey His Father is Philippians 2:5-11. Surely our reflection about Palm Sunday, the events that led up to the Lord’s Supper in the upper room, and the cross itself should not should not ignore this great, and very complex text.

Those who claim to follow the risen Lord are commanded “to think like Jesus thought.” Is there a better answer to the question “What is a follower of Jesus?” than to say that such a person is one who thinks like Jesus thought? But what does that mean?

For Paul it meant the reminder that “though He existed in the very form (essence) of God” He was able to let go of that and “empty Himself.” That pronoun “Himself” may be the crucial word – He did it Himself. God did not “do it to Him” nor did God “do it for Him.” It was His own volition that let Him to pour out His equality with God,  “taking on the form (essence) of a slave.”

Paul seems to suggest a kind of “causal relationship” with the next phrase – He became a slave because He was made in human likeness. That is, the most natural (in the sense of being what God intended humans to be) thing for an authentic human to be is to be a servant – a slave. Then Paul reminds us that “He humbles Himself” (there’s that word “himself” again) and became obedient. To think like Jesus thinks means that our obedience must always be preceded by making ourselves humble. That obedience led Him to death, death on a cross. 

To that “way of thinking” God responded by exalting Him – giving Him a name above all other names, a name that will be confessed by creation itself and all that is in it by declaring “Jesus is Lord!” Our promise in Christ is that one day we will share in that glory. (Romans 8:28-30)

The great thing about being encouraged “to think like Jesus thought” is that we aren’t being asked to do anything that God hasn’t already done. Remember in Mark (8:34) when Jesus said “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves (“He did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped but emptied Himself”) take up their crosses (“He took on the form of a slave, because He was made in the likeness of a human”) and follow me (He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even on a cross.”).

That must be how He managed to do what He did throughout His ministry – including riding in to Jerusalem, knowing that this would be the week that all hell would break out on earth and have Him in its sights.

As we come early this year to Palm Sunday, may we spend time reflecting on what it means “to think like Jesus thought.”