You’ve probably heard it before, maybe from a parent, maybe from a coach or a friend: don’t let it go to your head. You do something good, you have some success at something and people warn you to beware the big head.
It is a very common and dangerous malady. People have lost friends, they have gone on from spectacularly successful games to lose the next one, they have gone out and foolishly squandered their winnings and ended up bankrupt. They have forgotten who they are and where they come from and lost all the people who meant so much to them while they were climbing their way to the top. All because they let the success, or the cheers, go to their heads.
Jesus was in danger of that on Palm Sunday when he rode into Jerusalem. He had been aiming for this all his life. It was why he came, to be king and to be acclaimed as king. Hail, King Jesus, Hosanna, King Jesus. Welcome to your throne, King Jesus.
The devil had offered this to him at the beginning of his ministry. When Jesus was out in the wilderness three years earlier, Satan had taken Jesus to a very high mountain and shown him all the kingdoms of the world. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you just bow down and worship me.” You can have it all the easy way.
Well, Jesus hadn’t done it the easy way. He didn’t take the devil’s offer. He worked for this day: he had gone without, he had stayed up late at night, he had put up with fools, he had healed tons of sick folks, cast out demons, made bread and fish for people, even raised people from the dead, just a couple of weeks ago in fact. He had earned this praise, all these people lined up here cheering, “Praise you, Jesus!”
it was time now to ride on down that road with all that crowd, right up to the palace and kick those Roman buggers out. He could have done it, all of Jerusalem had been waiting for him for a thousand years, they were ready, they would have thrown themselves down, not just palms and their cloaks, they would have given their lives that day to install him as king. He was God to them.
And, indeed, he was God. That was the really remarkable thing. That is what really impressed St Paul. Paul was a climber, he was the golden boy of his generation. He was probably the leading Pharisee of his generation. he was sent on important and sensitive missions. He was on his way to joining the Great Sanhedrin.
I think one of the things that really grabbed Paul at the end was how Jesus and him were so much alike that way, but that Jesus had turned his back on all the glory and power and praise. Paul writes here: Even though Jesus existed in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, he became just like us, the Son of the Most High God, the Son of the Great King and emperor of the universe, the master of us all, he became one of us, he was one of us, and then he went even further and humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.”
Jesus did not let it all go to his head. He had not come to earth, to this point and time on earth, just for himself. Jesus had come for us. He came asking not, ‘what can you do for me?’ But ‘what can I do for you?’ And what we needed more than anything else, more than money or power or winning the World Series, was we needed to be saved, saved from tyrants, from self-centeredness, from everybody putting themselves and their own interests before everyone else.
And so, that’s what Jesus did. He put us first. He put our needs first. He put our interests ahead of his own plans. By his death and resurrection, he established a new kingdom, a kingdom that was unlike anything else in all the world before that or ever since, a kingdom of love, a kingdom where people put the needs of others ahead of their own interests, a kingdom where people love and care and do what is right and not just what will help them get ahead.
Jesus loved you more than anything else. He put you ahead of his own comfort, even ahead of his own life. He wanted you more than all of the cheers and glory and power that could have been his. He put you first.
So Paul says, let that same mind that was in Christ Jesus be in you. “Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others.”
This is how Jesus saved you. This is what he saved you for. This is what his kingship and his kingdom are all about.
Beware the big head. You are so special, so important, so cool. Angels rejoice because of you. But don’t let their cheers go to your head.
It’s not all about being better than everybody else or richer than everybody else or even being so successful or comfortable you don’t need everybody else. It’s about love and serving others.
Don’t let it go to your head. Let it sink down into your heart and out to your hands and your feet, into your life and out to others.