Rather, he emptied himself - Sept 14
“Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself.” Phil 2:6
The incarnation is one of the most radical and scandalous teaching of Christianity. It’s power and significance is revealed in that short phrase, “Rather, he emptied himself.” This is a great source of awe and wonder for me. Pondering this mystery will be a life-long task.
It is hard to imagine what this act of God emptying Godself actually entails. We struggle with how to understand Jesus as being fully human and fully divine. So then, what did Christ empty himself of? A God who empties God’s self is a mysterious God indeed.
In a recent book I read Secular Nonviolence and the Theo-Drama of Peace by Layton Boyd Friesen, the author writes of Jesus’ dual nonresistance. Nonresistance to God and God’s will, and nonresistance to people exemplified by allowing himself to be killed.
In absolute nonresistant love, God’s approach to the world is defined in Christ by emptying, humility, and obedience. These are not the qualities of dominance, control, and power that some people hope for from Jesus. They are qualities of vulnerability. In Christ, God showed God’s vulnerability to the world.
In our life’s effort to put on the image of Christ we too are called to empty ourselves in humility and obedience – to be nonresistant to the will of God.
We empty ourselves in order to receive the fullness of Christ that is promised to us.