Jesus Christ: his kenosis

Make up your mind . . .

As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says,

“In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.”

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. (2 Corinthians 6:1-2)

Philosophers talk of the eternal now. This thought, however, is not restricted to just philosophical speculation, it is also part of God lexicon. He, too, speak of the ever present now; as a matter of fact, He only exist in the now. We are best, therefore, not to search for Him elsewhere.

Yesterday cannot be recaptured; and tomorrow is just over the ever elusive horizon. Always coming, yet not quite yet here. Thus, if we are going to capture the future, we must do it now—that is, we must seize the moment to secure the future.

Now, please understand that this is not mental gymnastics. These are the facts. Think of it this way, all that any urgency has is in the moment. This is why Paul can write to the Corinthians, we urge you to change now! Not tomorrow, or the next minute, or even the next second, but do it now.

Living in the past is impossible, and to live in the dreams of the future is a risky proposition. None of us know what tomorrow may bring. So, in essence what Paul is saying is, salvation must take place in the here and now, or it may never take place.

To better illustrate what I am talking about I will recall a story told by Fr. Meletios Webber, an Orthodox priest and monk once told. He said that—

Once, there was a young man who was given a 70 year prison sentence which he had to serve in solitary confinement. Naturally, he missed home, so he thought about that a lot. He also dreamed of the future. Friendships he wished to cultivate. What he might do. Furthermore, the only contact that he had with the outside was a small smudgy window just below the ceiling of his cell. Much of his time he spent standing on his tiptoes just to catch a glimpse of the sky outside. Of course, he prayed. As a matter of fact he had a litany of prayers that contained a very long list of “I wants.” He lost track of time, so it seemed as if he was confined in time and space neither of which he could grasp. His only hope, was hope.

Then one day, he heard the noise of a keychain outside his cell and someone working a key inside the lock. Finally the door opened and as he stared out in the blinding light he heard a voice say, “We are releasing you today. You have served your time. You are a free man. And with that great news, the prisoner fell over dead with a heart attack. In due course he arrived at the throne on God.

“Where were you when I need you?” he demanded of God.

“I longed to see you,” replied God, “but every day when I came to visit you in your cell, you were not there.”

Which, I think, illustrates that we cannot live in the dreams of the past or the imaginations of the future. God, if He is ever to be known, must be known in the now. Dreams can never replace the here and now, nor will future hopes. There is much that can be said about this truth; however, let’s consider the topic of prayer.

What do you think Jesus hand in mind when he said,

“But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking (Matthew 6:7)?

What he is saying is not only true with God, it is also true when we are dealing with each other. Think of the lyrics by Gloria Estefan,

“I'm trying to say "I love you" But the words get in the way.

God is a person, and when in our search for a relationship with him much like the words of the song we often blur out the present and cover up communication that only the heart can give. Therefore, when we come to God, we must understand that He rewards the yearning of the heart. I believe that this is precisely what Paul means when he writes,

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. (Romans 8:6-27)

Process theology, I believe, attempts to understand God in the temporal setting, but falls short of doing that in that it strips God of His ontological essence. God never was, nor shall He ever be, He is. His essence of being can and does interface with the temporal, but is not in any way contingent with contemporarily except through His unique relationship with His Eternal Word, who willing in time and space absorbed Himself into His creation in order to transform us, and in general all creation into His purposeful intentions.

Intentions, however, even the best of intentions is only realize when the perfection of that intention is fully one with the Intender—which is axiomatically God.

Jesus prayed specifically for this, when he said,

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us … I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me (John 17:21-23).”

So, we understand that although God does exist outside of time and space He can and does engage with His creation over which He, however, maintains ownership.

Jesus, the express image of God, as the creed declares is both fully God and fully man united in willful intention—to this I fully ascribe; however, when Paul says that we should have the same mindset as Christ Jesus in Philippians 2:5; what He had in mind was the human mind of Jesus, the anointed Christ, not God’s mind. This I say because Jesus was fully man as He was fully God. We are not God, but are fully man in potentiality. Thus our nature is humanly; whereas, God’s is godly, and as such is in essence eternal. Humanity, however, has only the promise of eternity; this I say because only God has immortality. Eternal life for man is a Godly gift, not a right, and certainly not by nature.

It is in light of this new understanding that we are able to fully grasp the meaning of Paul’s declaration that Jesus,

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:6-11)

The point being, of course, that among other considerations we must understand that to become man, truly man, one must take on the essence of which is man’s, including the spirit and mind of man. This Christ did, and thereby demonstrated that there can—indeed must be—a blending of wills: human and Divine for the incarnational intentions of God to be fully realized.

Yours for the journey,

JimR_/-