Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Palm Sunday| Philippians 2:5-11| Pastor James Preus| Trinity Lutheran Church| March 29, 2025

“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 14:11)

This statement of Jesus summarizes the Christian religion. Those who exalt themselves in pride will be brought low. And those who lower themselves will be lifted-up high. There is no one who has humbled himself so lowly as Jesus Christ. And there is no one who has been exalted as highly as Jesus is now. This is because Jesus is God. He shares in the glory of the Father and the Holy Spirit. When Isaiah saw the seraphim flying around the throne of God singing, “Holy, holy, holy, LORD God of Sabaoth! Heaven and earth are full of Your glory!”, (Isaiah 6:3) they were singing to Christ, who is in the form of God and does not consider it theft to claim equality with His heavenly Father.

And yet, this same Jesus, the Son of God, humbled Himself and took the form of the lowliest of human beings, so that Isaiah prophesies, “His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and His form beyond that of the children of mankind” (Isaiah 52:14), and David prophesies of Him, “I am a worm and not a man!” (Psalm 22:6) Christ came in the form of sinful flesh, to condemn sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3)! To understand better the extremity of Jesus’ humiliation, consider this. If Christ were to humble Himself to be but a hair’s breadth lower than the most exalted archangel in heaven, and we were to humble ourselves to be a thousand times lower than the most damned devils in hell, our humility would still not compare to the greatness of Christ’s humility. Because we are sinners and deserve hell. Yet, Christ is God, infinitely more glorious than even the highest ranked angel in heaven!

And so, consider that as we embark into Holy Week. We see Jesus ride triumphantly on a donkey, silly theater for fools and children in the eyes of the elites, but a somber ride to glorious battle for the faithful. We will see Him wash His disciples’ feet, debase Himself as their servant, give His final will and testament in the institution of the Holy Supper, before going to pray in the agony of death in the Garden of Gethsemane. We will see Him mocked, spit upon, slandered, flogged, condemned, stripped naked and nailed to a tree. We will see Him abandoned by men and by God, the most miserable man of sorrows ever to exist. That man, from whom our eyes must not turn away, that man is our God. He left the glory of heaven, the dignity that kings and presidents on earth could never dream of, to suffer the pains of hell reserved for the worst sinners of the damned. Why did Jesus humble Himself so lowly?

Jesus humbled Himself so lowly, so that He would not be out of reach of even the lowliest sinner. His suffering atoned for the guilt of even the most depraved sin and sinner. It is as the Apostle to the Hebrews writes, “But we see Him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.” (Hebrews 2:9) And as St. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5, “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Christ was already exalted above the angels. He already shared in majesty with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He did not need to humble Himself to be exalted for His own sake. He humbled Himself so that He could save us in the depths of our misery. He came to save sinners, even the chief of them (1 Timothy 1:15). Because Christ lowered Himself to take on all sin, there is no sinner beyond Christ’s saving. He died for us all.

He humbled Himself into death for us all, so that in His exaltation we might be exalted with Him. On the day of judgment, every knee will bow in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth at the name of Jesus. Yet not every knee will bow willingly. Satan and his demons, and all the wicked will be forced to bend the knee to the King whom they have rejected. Although Jesus died for all and rose for the salvation of all, not everyone benefits from Christ’s exaltation to the Father’s right hand. Who does benefit from Christ’s exaltation?

Only those who humble themselves in faith benefit from Christ’s exaltation. We must meet Christ in His humility, repenting of our sins which He so willingly bore for us, accepting as a gift the Salvation He won for us. Faith does not exalt itself. Rather, saving faith acknowledges our neediness. In faith we confess our sins. Faith believes that Jesus comes down to sinners, not that sinners exalt themselves to Christ. And faith believes that God lifts sinners from their misery and seats them with Christ in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6).

Although Christ is exalted at the right hand of the Father, forever to be worshipped by angels and all the saints in heaven, He continues to give us His grace in our humility. You come to church each week as sinners, deserving temporal and eternal punishment, and you hear Jesus’ forgiveness from the mouth of a sinner like you. Yet God bids you to believe that it is the voice of Jesus from heaven. In humility you bend the knee to receive poor bread and wine, yet your heart confesses that this is the exalted and risen body and blood of Christ, which was given and shed on the cross for poor sinners like you. To begin and end your day, you bow your head and pray, “forgive us our trespasses,” along with requesting everything you need from heaven and earth, and your faith confesses that Christ meets you each time in prayer. In this life, Christ only meets us in humility. There is no other way to meet Him. Yet those who do meet Him in humility will most certainly be exalted with Him. They will be lifted to heights no human endeavor could ever reach.

Jesus promises us that if we humbly approach Him with open beggar hands, He will not only fill our hands until they overflow, but He will exalt us to live and reign with Him in His glorious kingdom. Yet Jesus teaches us to be humble not only before Him, but before one another. When Paul tells us to have the mind of Christ, He is saying the same thing Jesus said to His disciples shortly before His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, when they were arguing about which of them was the greatest. Jesus said, “whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:26-28)

As Christ, who is the King of Glory from eternity, humbled Himself to the status of the worst sinner and endured greater punishment than even the worst sinner in hell as He bore the guilt of every sin, yet God exalted Him again above all glory, so Paul reminds us of Christ’s teaching and example to be humble before one another and to serve one another in humility. Jesus did not suffer for His own sake, but for ours, and so, we serve one another out of love for each other.

Jesus was not afraid to humble Himself, because He had confidence in His status as God’s Son. He said, “I lay down My life that I may take it up again.  No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.” (John 10:17-18) And so, we as children of God through faith in Christ have no reason to fear humbling ourselves. In Christ we can have perfect confidence as God’s children to serve one another, even lay down our lives in love, knowing that our status in heaven is secure. Through faith, God has already seated us with Christ in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6). Our citizenship even now is in heaven, from which we eagerly wait for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our body to be like His glorious and exalted body (Philippians 3:20-21).

So, our status does not diminish no matter how much we serve others, just as Christ remained true God even as He suffered on the cross for our sins. And so, you remain a child of God, even and especially when you humble yourself before others. When we humble ourselves, we imitate our Savior Jesus, who is exalted at the Father’s right hand in heaven. When we exalt ourselves in pride, we imitate Satan, whom Christ cast down from heaven like lightening, and who is condemned for all eternity to the depths of hell. The walk of faith is a walk of humility, following the course of Christ, as Hebrews 12 states, “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (vs. 2)

Pastors should humble themselves before their congregations, even as Christ washed His disciples’ feet. It is only through humble service that a pastor can win souls over for Christ by presenting Christ Jesus as the one who humbled Himself to save sinners. Likewise, parishioners should humble themselves before their pastor, and with meekness receive the implanted Word, which is able to save their souls (James 1:21). Those who will not humble themselves before the preaching of God’s Word will refuse the good seed entrance into good soil, and so will not receive Christ or His salvation (Matthew 13:19).

Husbands must humble themselves before their wives and serve them in love. Wives must humble themselves before their husbands and submit to them. Now, to humble does not mean the same thing as to submit. Christ humbled Himself before His disciples, but He did not submit to them. Submit means to subordinate, that is, to place yourself in the order God has placed you under someone. Yet, even while the disciples submitted to Christ, Jesus served them. And so, as a wife submits to her husband as to Christ, a husband must serve his wife. Likewise, parents must not submit to their children, lest their children become terrors, make others miserable, and destroy themselves. Yet parents must serve their children and put their needs before their own. This is why fathers must lead their families in prayer and devotions and bring them to church. This is their God given service. And mothers in submission to Christ and their husbands should devote themselves to aiding in this holy task. Children also, should humble themselves before their parents and serve them. Although there are different vocations among Christians, every vocation is one of humble service to others.

And so, we should humble ourselves before each other and serve one another in love, as Jesus says in John 15, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friend.”, that is, for the one he loves. We ought to love one another and be willing to sacrifice for each other.

And we will lose nothing by living this way. Rather, as Jesus says, whoever loses his life in this world for His sake and for the Gospel will gain it for eternity (Mark 8:35). As we are confident that Christ, who humbled Himself lower than we possibly could is now exalted above every name, so we can be confident in Christ that He will exalt those who humble themselves for His sake. Let this be your mind as you prayerfully meditate on Christ’s passion this week, so that you become a joyful servant to others and continue a confident heir of Christ’s kingdom. Amen.