Meditation 254
Philippians 2: 5-11
This passage of scripture begins with a beautiful invitation, “let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” It is not just be like Jesus, but have the same mind. This implies that there is a transformation that happened to those who know and follow Jesus, we are united to Jesus.
One way we observe this union with Jesus is in the celebration of the sacrament of communion, this rite where bread and juice (or wine in some cases) are set aside from all common uses is practised by those who love and serve God. The bread symbolizes the body of Christ and the juice symbolizes his blood, and we partake. We remember in this sacrament that Jesus gave himself for us, or as our passage today says “…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.” (Verse 7). Jesus was humble and obedient to God. All of this was done in order to make God’s grace real to humans who needed more than just words to begin to glimpse the amazing truth of God’s love, and saving purpose. When we observe the sacrament of communion we are “showing forth the Lord’s death” or remembering what Jesus has done for us.
Sometime ago a friend shared something that he had been reading about the sacrament of communion. The source that he read (that I cannot remember right now) suggested that if we are what we eat, then when we take communion, we become the body of Christ. The sacrament is one of the ways that this transformation takes place, by which we are untied to Christ. There is mystery in what happens, because we still are who we are, our features do not change, and our talents remain the same, yet we are more than we used to be. We are united with God in Christ.
We often speak of the church as the body of Christ, by which we mean that the people who are called by Jesus’ name are the body of Christ in the world. When believers worship and work together they are endeavouring to do the work of Jesus. The invitation to have the same mind as Christ Jesus could be understood to be both an individual and a corporate invitation. We take the body of Christ in the sacrament of communion, and we are part of the body of Christ as one of the many who believe in Christ Jesus. As the body of Christ, we are endeavouring to let the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus.
This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday, a week before Easter, and in many congregations, there will be the celebration of the sacrament of communion. We will gather to remember that Jesus invited us to share in this sacrament to remember him. We will gather and we will remember that Jesus “humbled himself and became obedient [even to] death.” (verse 8) We also remember that God “highly exalted [Jesus,] … so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (verse 9b& 10a)