The Almighty is Meek

A theological fad these days, especially those of liberal sensibilities, is what is called kenotic theoogy. This comes from a Greek word for “emptying” and the basis is from a song/poem that Paul recites in the second chapter of Philippians:

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, ⁷ but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. ⁹ Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, ¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, ¹¹ and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The message here is simple, and yet utterly deep and unfathomable. The very Creator and Word of God made Himself nothing, bearing the totality of shame that His form brought with it. He became Man, and so was obedient through man’s cursed life beneath the Sun.

If you’re looking to understand what it means that He became a slave, read Ecclesiastes. This depressing piece of eyes-wide-open wisdom wreaks havoc upon the stupidity and aimlessness of our lives. Treasure, sex, hobbies, wealth, progeny, honor, and, yes, even wisdom, do nothing but heap up continued frustration. The best intentions are foiled by one slip of folly. The best attempts are scrapped by designs of the clever, the malignant, and unscrupulous. The virtuous are not spared a single thing, despite the moralisms of Karma preachers. Everyone ends up dead, and yes says the preacher, perhaps it’s better to be not born at all.

This is radically out of bounds of much of American religion, but that’s because most of American religion is self-serving and for the purposes of Empire and therapy. Alas, I digress.

This is the world that Christ entered in, and He did so honestly. That is why He was born in humble Bethlehem, a little shoot of the tribe of Judah, and not amongst Hasmodean line of princes and priests. He is a Prince and Priest of the highest order, but this is what this Pauline song is getting at. His majesty is in the very fact that He was born in the dust of a trough. He wanted to play the Man, not masquerade as something else. That is why He counted no home, no kin, no luxury. His reliance would be His Father, through Him Jesus would be provided a much deeper country, a much deeper family, a much deeper joy.

It was in His death, even death on the cross, that He’d see victory. The curse of dying on the tree, interated in Deuteronomy, might be the horror of Adam’s destructive signing away of life. The way through Death would take our Champion back to Death’s root of power over the creation. Adam invited sin into the world through the tree, Christ would end it by being nailed to it. The Tree of Life would be joined to the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and re-form it.

And in Jesus’ resurrection, His Name, HaShem in the flesh, would rise above all names, and upon that name the whole of creation would bow. The Cornerstone of the new Cosmos would either be stumbled over, breaking chains and bringing redemption, or it would crush the enemies of Life, and blow them back into the dust, eternally. But this ought not to be melancholic or gloomy. Jesus is not the Dread-lord of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. Jesus is the slain-yet-living Lamb, who alone is worthy to sit upon the Throne and bring about God’s Judgment.

The Slain-yet-Living Lamb is, in the Revelation to St.John, the Lion of Judah. The Wrath of God is the Wrath of the Lamb. The Judgment of God is the destruction of Babylon and the unending joy and praise of the Wedding Feast.

Jesus is Lord!

Nothing I’ve said is terribly controversial to the general thrust of the Biblical narrative. Yet the implications tend to be worked out in ways that deny their functional reality. For some reason, many people divide theology or preaching into scholastic and rigid doctrinaire proclamations and practical insights and applications. The division is ridiculous. All doctrine is practical, significant in the commonness of life. If it’s not, then it’s fantasy and the bickering of school boys.

In the beginning I mentioned what is called Kenotic theology that is capitalized by much of liberal theology (but not exclusively) in an attempt to banish the Almighty from working in His creation. It’s all attempts for man to try and assume the reigns out of the Lord’s hand. I use to find this approach attractive, and I maintained it in many different guises. At some points I was a semi-Pelagian/folk-Arminianism along the lines of John Cassian of Erasmus. In this, the Freewill (poorly defined) was what kept out the Lord from acting decisively. At other points, I opted for open theism and the cosmic-warfare model of Greg Boyd. It made sense of the constant confusion in life.

Both of these, like all things (including Marxism, Atheistic Existentialism, and Nietzsche), have valuable things to contribute, and their complaints and questions help focus and guide one to the truth. Let it be said, I love Greg Boyd, I have benefited from his sermons, and love his vision for community and discipleship beneath the Lord Jesus. I’d instantly stand up and call him a brother. He’s not even really a theological liberal. However, both the approaches listed make nonsense out of, what may be called, Providence and the guiding hand of the Lord. Certainly, if not a sparrow falls without the Lord’s permission, then the evils, even the worst, are beneath the Lord’s hand.

Yet, early in my conversion, I found Boyd’s message so attractive. It was because he repudiated the war-mongering, blood-drunk, chicken-hawk preachers who flooded to support Bush’s imperial expedition to clean up a left-over from the Soviet days, and stick a flag in the land of two rivers. What he fought against was a Jesus-less god of Anglo-American values. TF Torrance once said that there is no god, or godness, behind the back of Jesus. There is no god outside of Jesus. Before Abraham, Jesus is. The Christ is the Fullness of Godhead.

Therefore, Providence is cruciform.

Sadly, many who adhere to biblical theology, and call themselves conservative defenders of the gospel,  really throw this song out. That is, they recast this hymn, where Jesus’ complete and total identification as the Word from which all things are made and are sustained, into something else.

The major problem is a two-dimensional, flat, univocal definition of power that limits the Almighty into the box of an oriental despot. For all attempts at sophistication, many defenses of political regimes and imperial adventures and power plays are at the level of “can God make a rock so big He can’t pick it up?” Paul’s proclamation that the Lord chose the weak things of this world to reveal His power is lost on deaf ears. Many heads nod along, but are functionally wagging in scorn and mockery.

The Kenotic theologians, who proclaim a weak god, end up in the same place. Whether its defense of the status-quo and Empire, or liberational theology, both advocate humans take up the sword to butcher and slaughter and showcase the strength of their Molech. They all say, some with suit and tie, others with AK-47 in hand: kill them all, God will know His own.

Romans 13 is vomited up as quick, instinctual parry, but ignores the context of the preceding Romans 12. Again, with a univocal understanding of the Almighty’s power, they can’t conceive that God uses these powers and principalities, subverting their arrogant and selfish goals, and exerts His authoritative reign over them. All the while, He is calling a people together, setting hearts ablaze with a vision of an eternal city tucked away in the Heavenlies, waiting to descend behind her King when the Trump is blown.

The mysteriousness is even in the very life of Jesus. The Son of God reveals the Face of God, and how God brings His authority in a godforsaken world. He tells the ‘Sons of Thunder’, James and John, that their cry for fire from heaven had nothing to do with Him. Jesus denied His disciples, including us, the sword.

And yet, He also cryptically speaks of how even the Powers That Be are beneath the moving of Providence. Caiaphas is an icon of all self-preserving religion, yet even he foretells the significance of the Christ. Pilate begins the trial of the Messiah, but he can’t do anything that the Divine had not decreed. The betrayer would come, such was in the prophets, but woe on him! Better if he be not born.

Yea, even Christ’s Spirit, after His ascension, brought both life and death. Ananias and Saphira are struck dead in the midst of thinking that the Kingdom was one more system to scam. They lost their lives in the lie of self-progress. It had nothing to do with giving, but in distorting reality. The disciples did not rejoice, or seek out other liars. They trembled.

There is a multiplicity to the movements of the Lord, and it’s not visible, but murky. Even the revolving of the cursed world under the sun is still maintained by the Creator. Yet He moves in quite a different way to bring about liberation. Those Constantinians can’t understand this, and so, when given the choice, Christ is reshaped. God is either weak or dead, or a self-absorbed tyrant. Again, this is not preached formally, generally speaking, but embraced functionally.

Let the Gospel of our Lord Jesus shape our understanding of how we live as His people. We need to worry about being faithful. We’re not weak, but strong through His weakness, and taking up our cross, and following Him. This is what shapes how we live our lives in the fullness of true humanity, imitating Christ. The Lord will Judge, and He is Almighty, but He is the One who took on His own Judgment for our sakes.

So whatever you do, remember this. May it lead us into being peacemakers. May we understand we are in the power of the Most High, but it is not the same as the ways of this world. May we resist such a temptation to get drunk on conquest, and seek after orgasms of Babylonian victory.

Sit at His feet and listen. Be conformed to the Matchless King.