A, Post-Pentecost 19 Proper 22 - Philippians 3:4b-11 "Effluence to Exhaltation"
In Philippians chapter two, Paul tells the church in
Philippi that Jesus allowed Himself to be made nothing, emptying Himself by
taking the form of a servant. He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the
point of death—even death on a cross.
In the Old Testament, we are told, “If a man has committed a crime
punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his
body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same
day, for a hanged man is cursed by God.” (Deuteronomy 21:22–23a ESV)
On that cross, Jesus served by becoming cursed by God for
our sin. Jesus never went into the Holy of Holies or the Holy Place in the
temple. In fact, He was the only One who could have gone in there without
fulfilling all the cleansing rituals needed to survive standing before the face
of God in the holiest of places on earth.
Instead, Jesus only ever ventured into the outer courts of
the temple where the Gentiles could go, and outside Jerusalem, teaching all who
were interested and confronting the scorn of the priestly leaders and Pharisees
for doing so. In His service to humanity, Jesus was eventually humiliated on
the cross outside Jerusalem, the earthly city of God. We hear in Hebrews
chapter thirteen, “So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in
order to sanctify the people through his own blood.” (Hebrews 13:12 ESV)
We have been made holy not by Jesus going into the Holy of
Holies, but by His being the servant sacrifice for us, cursed outside the camp,
so that we are made holy and welcome before God.
Because Jesus did this for us without sin, Paul tells us in
Philippians chapter two, “Therefore God has highly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and
every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
(Philippians 2:9–11
ESV)
After relating the heights of God’s exaltation of His Son,
Jesus Christ, in Philippians chapter two, Paul now calls the church in Philippi
to avoid the dogs, the mutilators of the flesh. These are those who seek to
destroy the holiness that God has won for us through the blood of Jesus. He
also calls the church not to mutilate their own flesh by describing the reality
of his own perceived lofty status in chapter three of his letter to the
Philippians.
Paul explains to the Philippians that he could regard
himself with the same grandeur as the dogs who seek to mutilate the flesh. Yet,
where God has exalted Jesus Christ, Paul regards himself and his greatness in
the extreme opposite, remaining humble by bowing to Jesus Christ as his Lord.
To the
church in Rome, he says, “For by the grace given to me I say
to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to
think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith
that God has assigned.” (Romans 12:3
ESV)
What he says to the church in Rome is rather low-key compared
with what he says to the Philippians. Although he says the same thing, here
Paul’s measure of faith allows him to go all out in his sober judgement of himself
before the Philippians.
He says, “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have
more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of
Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a
persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But
whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count
everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my
Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as
rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a
righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through
faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know
him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like
him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from
the dead.” (Philippians
3:4b–11 ESV)
Paul seemingly builds himself up to demonstrate the
futility of doing so: circumcised, a Benjamite, a Hebrew, a Pharisee under the
law and zealous beyond compare. But then hear him strip it all down! Three
times, he calls it all loss. His gain is loss for the sake of Christ! Yes,
indeed, Paul counts not just some of it, but everything as loss! To burn the
point into the hearers’ minds, he says a third time that, for the sake of
Jesus, whom God has exalted, Paul suffers the loss of all things and counts
them as rubbish.
In English, it all sounds rather sanitised, but this is
anything but wholesome language. Paul relates to the Philippians the pathetic
reality of his person and deeds compared with Jesus, who was treated as the
excrement of Israel and is now exalted above all at the right hand of God the
Father.
Paul sees himself and his works as a Pharisee as even less
than the dogs, the mutilators of the flesh. He warms the hearers up with his
threefold loss of prestige, person and passion, then shocks their ears by
saying that he counts it all as dog poo or excrement and rejects it as filth. Our
translations say rubbish, but in reality, in all its vulgarity, Paul says what
he regarded as his greatness is really “dog shit!” (My apology for using this word but this is the vulgarity of regarding
the self, higher than one ought.) Dogs are unclean animals under Jewish
law. How much more unclean is their dung?
Paul makes his point, and it reminds me of a few times on
the farm when chaos abounded! It had nothing to do with dogs or their dung.
Rather, these are a couple of stories about pigs and their poo. I can tell you that
intensively farmed pigs make a lot of poo.
The first story is about one of our stud Angora goats
getting out of her pen and trying to escape across the piggery effluent pond.
The pond looked like solid ground but looks can be deceiving! The doe rushed
out onto the crust of poo, only to crash through it into the epitome of filth.
Her white locks of mohair were stained and stinking after she was pulled out
with a crook, saving her from drowning in a mire of mess, pig piddle and poo.
The next incident happened some years later, when the slats
in the grower shed rotted over time and a half-grown pig fell through them into
the waste pit below. Thankfully, the pit was not full and the porker was alive.
But how could we rescue it from the stench and filth of ten centimetres of pig pee
and poo?
Let me say that the pig was not a willing participant in
its rescue as Dad descended into the darkness to grab the greasy grunter from
the poo. Kicking and squealing, it was raised back into the pen above. Dad and
the pig both emerged covered in poo and wee. Pigs and dogs are considered
unclean animals by the Jews; after Dad emerged from the pit covered in pig poo,
we did not consider him all that clean either!
On reflection, what happened to the white doe in the pig pond
and the porker in the poo pit stimulates our imagination and our senses,
helping us understand what Paul is getting at when he compares his pride to
poo. By contrast, Jesus, who was cursed on the cross and found outside
Jerusalem like vile rubbish, then was highly exalted by God.
You and I are not all that different from that white doe
when we try to elevate ourselves to glory at the expense of God’s glory in His
Son, Jesus Christ. The holiness freely given to us through the death and
resurrection of Christ becomes stinking and stained like the goat’s white
fleece. Our elevation and affluence in our own eyes might seem to be an ascent,
but really, it is a descent and a return to the poverty and effluence of our
humanity. Without God’s help, we would drown in our filth like the goat in the
pig pond.
Secondly, how much are we like immature pigs, not wanting
to be rescued from the poo pit of our effluent lives, as God continually sends
us the Holy Spirit to rescue us from ourselves and our darkness? Like my
father, Jesus descended into humanity and became the lowest of the low to serve
us and save us from the stench of our sin. Jesus became covered in the effluent
of our sin to save us from sin. Now He
sends the Holy Spirit to remind us of this in His Word, so we put off our
effluent affluence and allow ourselves to be covered with his robes of
righteous exaltation.
Like Paul, the Holy Spirit now gives us faith to know
ourselves and also to know Jesus Christ and the power of His resurrection, so
that, like Paul, we might count all as loss—even dog dung—and become like Him
in His death. What is that? It is innocent and blameless!
So let us press on through the poo that life flings at us!
Let us press on to make it our own because, despite our effluence, Christ wore
our crap to make us His own.
Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, You sent Jesus to wear
the stain of our humanity, and He was cast out onto the cross to bear the curse
and filth of our humanity. Help us, like Paul, to go to Christ outside the camp
and bear the reproach He endured, trusting that, in His exaltation, we too will
be raised out of ourselves, our effluence, into the holiness He won for us on
the cross. Amen.
Sermon Summary
Drawing on Philippians 3:4b–11, the sermon contrasts human
pride and self-made righteousness with the humility, suffering and exaltation
of Jesus Christ. Paul lists every reason he might have trusted in his religious
pedigree and achievements, then counts them all as loss—even as refuse—because
knowing Christ is worth infinitely more. The farm stories of the goat in the
effluent pond and the pig in the waste pit picture how self-exaltation traps
and stains us, while Christ descends into the depth of human sin to rescue us.
Through His cross and resurrection, Jesus gives us a righteousness that is
received by faith rather than earned by status or works. The Holy Spirit
therefore calls us to relinquish pride, share in Christ’s death and
resurrection, and press on in the holiness Christ has won for us.
Reflection Questions
- What achievements, identities or forms of status are you most tempted to rely on for your worth before God and others as a Christian?
- Why does Paul count his impressive religious credentials as loss compared with knowing Christ?
- How do the images of the goat in the effluent pond and the pig in the waste pit deepen your understanding of pride, sin and rescue?
- What does it mean to receive righteousness through faith in Christ rather than through your own effort?
- Where might self-exaltation currently be drawing you away from giving glory to Christ?
- In what ways may the Holy Spirit be calling you to let go of something that keeps you trapped in pride or self-reliance?
- What might sharing in Christ’s sufferings and becoming like Him in His death look like in your daily life?
- How does the power of Christ’s resurrection give you hope when life feels stained, humiliating or overwhelming?
- What practical step can you take this week to “press on” toward knowing Christ more deeply?
