The Paradoxical Jesus

Philippians 2:9-11 ESV

9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

I remember early on in my ministerial studies, my pastor taught me an important lesson. There was a potluck after church one day and so my pastor and I headed down to the fellowship hall to get in line.

We were followed by a couple of people and when we got close to the line, I walked forward to join the line. But when I went to do this, my pastor grabbed my shoulder and said, “Remember what Jesus said? The last shall be first and the first shall be last.” And so, he pulled me aside and let those who were following behind get in line before us.

I stood there for a second and thought to myself, “The last shall be first and the first shall be last…” Then I told my pastor, “well, if the last are first, then you get in front of me, in fact, I’ll get in the back of the line so I can get my food first”!

Obviously I was joking with him, but those kind of situations in life remind us of this vitally important teaching of Jesus. Whenever I am moved by God to put someone else’s needs before my own, especially my family at home and my family at church, I think about those words of Jesus: “the last shall be first and the first shall be last”.

Now, when I say that, when I reason that way, I’m not saying that because I put you before me, I will somehow come out better off than you, no, what it means is that because I live a life that places the good of others, even the good of my enemies, before my own good, it shows that I have been born-again from above. It shows that I have been born-again from above because that is exactly what Jesus did.

And so, when the flesh creeps up and insists on having things “my way”, I really do try to remember that Jesus made Himself the Servant of all and so, no matter how hard life gets, how weary the world becomes, I need to keep on putting others before me, because that is what Jesus did here on earth.

Christians, true, legitimate Christians are literally the most despised people in the world, being reckoned as the lowest form of low. And I don’t mean the lowest form in the realm of morality or anything like that, but rather, the legitimate Christian, the one whom God has separated from the world is utterly despised by those of the world, even when those who despise us don’t even fully recognize it.

And while we may suffer in the world, while we may consistently put others before ourselves and many times, those who we put before ourselves either don’t care or don’t appreciate it, we must remember that while we are last in the world, in the world to come, we will be first. We may be last here, but there, we will be manifested as the children of God and be showered with the full measure of His love for eternity.

And how do we know this? Because this is exactly what happened to our Lord Jesus. Jesus made Himself the lowest, taking on the form of the lowest servant and was exalted to the highest position!

We see this clearly as we conclude our series of sermons from the second chapter of Philippians today.

As we have been saying throughout this series, the Philippian church, during the time in which Paul the Apostle had written this letter to them, were divided and on the brink of fully imploding.

This was due to the rivalry that existed between Euodia and Syntyche, two extremely influential women in the church. Some sided with Euodia, others sided with Syntyche, and it was effectively transforming the Philippian church from a community of those who were putting each other’s needs before their own, as Jesus commanded them, to a community divided against itself, seeking even the harm of these who disagreed with them.

Well, as we said last week, and as we have already said today, when Jesus came to this world, He certainly placed others before Himself. In fact, He put others before Himself to such an extent that He obediently suffered death upon a cross, but unjustly suffering death and humiliation was not the end of the story for Jesus.

We see this as we look to the first part of verse nine in our reading, which says,

Philippians 2:9a ESV

9a Therefore God has highly exalted him

So, as we begin by looking at the word “therefore”, and we think about what comes before this, as we said, the humiliation of Christ, we can see how this word “therefore”, connects our reading from last week with our reading this week.

And so, we say, Christ willingly and obediently suffered the utmost pain and humiliation, “therefore”, or, because of this, “God has highly exalted Him”. And so, we see the paradox on full display here; Jesus became the lowest because it was God’s will for Him to become the lowest, and because He willingly and obediently became the lowest, God the Father received the resurrected, ascended Jesus and made Him the highest.

It's a paradox because though it seems to be contradictory, it proves itself to be true. And there are a lot of paradoxes in the Bible.

For example, in Matthew 10:39, Jesus says, “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it”.

In 2 Corinthians 12:10, Paul says, “When I am weak, then I am strong”.

And then again in Second Corinthians, this time in chapter six, verses eight through ten, where Paul says, “We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything”.

And so here in our reading, Jesus became the lowest, and because He became the lowest, God made Him the highest.

And so, Paul tells the Philippians that what they are doing in being divided amongst themselves and refusing to put each other’s needs before their own is most certainly the wrong thing to do. And he tells them that it is the wrong thing to do because it is exactly the opposite of what Jesus did.

Naturally, we think that if we want to figuratively succeed in the world, then we need to place our own interests above the interests of others and even be willing to step on others on our way to achieving whatever it is we want to achieve, you know, the survival of the fittest type of mentality.

That is what our depraved hearts naturally think is most advantageous, and if our reward were in this world and of this world, then perhaps that would in fact be most advantageous, but as we look to the example of Christ set before us, we clearly see that that is not the case, for Christ, though He obediently made Himself the lowest on earth, was then exalted to the highest place in heaven.

Now, we must understand here that Jesus never ceased to be God. God, in fact, cannot be anything other than Himself. And so, when we speak of Jesus becoming the lowest on earth, we don’t mean that Jesus stopped being God while on earth. And when we speak of Jesus being exalted to the highest place by God, we are not saying that it was at that point that Jesus somehow became God again.

What is being said here is that this same Jesus, Who ever is God was received by the Father after His resurrection and ascension and shown to all in heaven and on earth and under the earth that this One Who was humiliated and crucified is in fact God.

And having exalted Jesus to this highest place in heaven, Paul then says in the latter half of this ninth verse that God the Father,

Philippians 2:9b ESV

9b bestowed on him the name that is above every name

Now, we have said before on several occasions that names are important, particularly names in ancient times. One’s name would summarize someone, it would give someone an idea of the kind of person that they are dealing with, based on what their name means.

And indeed, there is in fact one name that is above, that is, that relays a meaning that is higher than any other name and cannot be matched by any other name. That name is “Yahweh”. Yahweh is the personal name of God, and what that name means is, “I AM”.

While everyone and everything exists, it all still has a beginning and an end. And in the process of those things which have been made existing, they all, we all are constantly changing. Not so with God, for His very name, Yahweh, reveals that He has no beginning, He has no end, and He never changes, He never was or will be, but always is. There is no name greater than the name of Yahweh, for there is none greater than Yahweh.

It is the name above every name, and it is this name that God the Father bestowed on Jesus.

Now, this is not something that we should just passively recognize and move on, because what Paul is saying here is an excellent commentary, first, on how legitimate Christians should view Jesus, our Christology, and also, on the trinitarian doctrine that orthodox Christians hold to.

So, in giving Jesus the name “Yahweh”, Jesus is recognized as synonymous with God; in other words, saying that Jesus is Yahweh is saying that Jesus is God.

Also, in recognizing Jesus as Yahweh, we are not saying that the Father is a God, Jesus is a God, and the Holy Spirit is a God. That would be polytheism, the belief that there is more than one God. No, there can only be one God, and thus, there can only be one Yahweh. Therefore, when we say that Jesus has been given the name, Yahweh, we recognizably hold to the orthodox doctrine of the trinity, which states that while the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are individual Persons, there are still one God.

And so, when Paul says that Jesus has had the name Yahweh bestowed upon Him, He means, again, that after His humiliation, His resurrection, and His ascension, Jesus is publicly recognized and proclaimed to be God.

And as we conclude out reading, looking at verses ten and eleven, we said that this has taken place,

Philippians 2:10-11 ESV

10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Paul says that while Jesus was the lowest on earth, He is now the highest in heaven, He is Yahweh. And at the name of Jesus, Who is Yahweh, every knee will bow, showing submission to Him. Every tongue will confess and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord.

And this will take place, not merely among a few people here and there, in this realm and in that realm, but rather, as Paul says, it will be every knee and every tongue in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.

So, the realm of God and the angels (heaven), the realm of humanity (earth), and the realm of the underworld with the demons and the devil (under the earth) – every last one will bow.

“Some willingly bow now by joyful choice; some will be forced to bow in defeat, openly acknowledging the rightful rule of the exalted Christ on the day when he returns.”[1]

Beloved, what an example for us to follow as the One Who obediently made Himself the lowest was exalted the highest!

May we likewise make ourselves the lowest on earth, knowing that we will be exalted in heaven.

Amen?

[1]Benjamin L. Merkle et al., Ephesians–Philemon, ed. Iain M. Duguid, James M. Hamilton Jr., and Jay Sklar, vol. XI, ESV Expository Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 154.