The Waiving of Rights

The Waiving of Rights--March 9, 2018

"Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death--even death on a cross." [Philippians 2:3-8]

Jesus doesn't take advantage.  Of anybody.  Or anything.

Not even his own position... his own prerogatives... his own rights.

This reality is the heart of understanding not simply the story of Jesus' crucifixion, but the Gospel itself, the whole shootin' match, as it were, of the Christian story and the Jesus Way of Life.  Jesus had the opportunity to stay safe and comfortable.  Jesus had the "right" to keep himself protected and out of harm's way.  Jesus had the authority--the actual, literal divine authority--to preserve himself at all costs.  But Jesus does not.  That is what makes him wonderful.  That is what makes him worth following after.

This is, again, one of those places at which the way of Jesus (which, as Paul reminds us here in Philippians is always also the way of the cross) is radically at odds with the way of "business as usual."  The conventional wisdom says that your rights, your position, and your interests are most important.  The conventional wisdom says you must clutch them like grandma's pearls, protect them from some vague and shadowy "Them" out there who want to take your interests and your rights away from you, and you must never lay them down for someone else... or else you'll lose them forever!  The conventional wisdom says that you have to value yourself and your group more than everybody else, because, after all they are all looking out after their own interests first, too.  The conventional wisdom, therefore, says if you're smart, you'll leverage any situation you find yourself in to maximize what's best for you, and who cares what costs that means for anybody else!  Step on them before they step on you--that's what everybody does! At least in the eyes of the conventional wisdom of the day.

But not Jesus. 

Jesus' greatest strength and his boldest act of courage looks like the waiving of his "rights" and the forgoing of his privileges in order to lay down his life for us.

As Paul reminds us here, Jesus doesn't take advantage, even of what was theoretically his to exploit--not even divinity.  And so, as you read through the Gospels, you'll notice that there is never a point when Jesus got the Sadducees in a corner and threatened that he and his followers might withhold their offerings for the Temple unless they would give him a prime spot on the Sanhedrin. (Pilate is the one trying to leverage his power and position over Jesus when he says, "Don't you know that I have the power to release you and power to crucify you?" and Jesus just won't play by those rules.)  There is never a story in which Jesus scares people into paying attention by blurting out, "I'm gonna send ALL of you to hell!" and then casually backs down once their ears have pricked up to manipulate people into giving him something more, in the hopes that they might avoid hellfire.  There is never a time where Jesus acts like a big jerk just to put the pressure on Simon and Andrew to commit to following him, and then relents to only acting like a medium-sized jerk in order to close the deal with them. 

Jesus doesn't haggle, and Jesus doesn't exploit.  Over anything.

Now, lest we say to ourselves, "Well, good for Jesus--that's why he's the Savior, and I'm not!  This is one of those places where Jesus does something that we mere mortals cannot do--whew!" take note, boys and girls, that Paul the Apostle here sees this non-exploitative stance of Jesus as exactly something for us to pattern our own lives on.  This whole passage from his letter to the Philippians starts, as you can see, with Paul's admonition that the followers of Jesus not slide into the world's same old manipulative ways of taking advantage of others and leveraging situations for our own benefit at the expense of others.  And then, again precisely to illustrate that point, Paul says, "Do the same thing you all saw and heard about in Jesus..." who didn't exploit or take advantage of his God-ness to stay safe, but put our needs first.  

It's true that there are some ways we don't get to be like Jesus in this life.  We don't get to curse fig trees into withered husks.  We don't get to assume the power of calming storms by our voices or multiplying loaves just because we want a midnight snack.  But in the deliberate choice not to exploit situations or other people--that is exactly the kind of thing that we are called to do, exactly because Jesus did it first.  

There are going to be voices around us today who would advise us that it's "just common sense" that you have to look out for your own interests first in this life.  They will say, convinced that they are being reasonable, that everybody looks out for themselves first, and that this is just "how it's done" in the adult world.  They will say that you have to take advantage of the other guy when you can, and you have to project a tougher, stronger, more hard-line version of yourself to others, so that you don't look "weak" or like a "loser. " They will say you have to clutch onto what is yours, or else--or else someone might take it... or someone might try to walk all over you... or you might lose your leverage. 

Do not buy their lies.

When those voices around us say things like, "Who on earth would ever be so foolish as NOT to look out for themselves first?" you and I will hear Paul's words ringing in our ears, and we will say simply, "Jesus--who didn't put his own interests first, but went to a cross."

And when they say, "You have to protect your own interests and defend your own rights at all costs, or else you'll lose them!" we will remember what Philippians 2 says, and we will answer, "But we are taught exactly to lay down our interests and rights for the sake of others, because that is what Jesus did for us."

And when they cry out that you have to get as much as you can from the other guy in this life, because the other guy is looking to leverage you already, too, you and I will say, "But the way of the cross means considering others as better than ourselves, just like Jesus didn't exploit what he could have exploited to preserve his own comfort."

See, the issue is not that the way of the cross is unclear or uncertain--we are perfectly clear on what the way of the cross looks like, but we do not like it.  And we look for any alternative voice to listen to that will let us rationalize to ourselves the old patterns of self-interest.  Paul calls us on it and puts it plainly--if we are followers of Jesus, we are bound for the same Christ-like laying down of our own lives, rights, and interests that led him to an actual cross.  We may not be called upon to be literally crucified, but we are called upon to lay our own interests and leverage down for the sake of others, regardless of who they are, regardless of whether it is easy or not.  

While the voices around us may be shouting, "Us first!  It's just common sense!" we will dare to answer, calmly through their noise, "Others first--just like Jesus did for us!"  And then, as God grants us the courage, we will dare to live what we say.

Lord Jesus, pull us into your new motion, where we lay down our own interests to put others before our own.