Chris was one of my best friends in high school. He and I and John were the top academic achievers of our class. John or I might have been a bit ahead in some subjects, but in math Chris was the star (he is now a math professor). In senior-year calculus, late in the year it became known that Chris had not missed a point on any test or assignment. The teacher good-naturedly took that as a challenge, and on the last test he created an especially difficult problem, made it worth less than one point, and labeled it as being only for Chris. I was not surprised when he rose to the challenge and solved it. So I know one person who really did ace all of his math tests.
I don't know what sort of school Jesus went to, if any, but let's pretend that he went to my high school. Would he have been better at math than my friend Chris? Would he have aced every single test? What about when he did carpentry – was every cut perfectly straight, every angle 90 degrees?
We are tempted to answer "Yes." Jesus was God in the flesh, so shouldn't that mean he was perfect and therefore would have done perfect on every test? I suggest that if that is your answer, you may be missing an important aspect of the Incarnation, and of the mission of Jesus. We can say that he wouldn't have cheated, and that he wouldn't have harassed the teacher or bullied a classmate. But Christian theology suggests that he wouldn't have aced all his math tests.
The reason is that Jesus was not only fully divine, but also fully human (denial of his humanity is the ancient heresy known as Docetism). To redeem humanity fully, Jesus took on humanity fully; as the Council of Chalcedon expressed it, he was like us in all respects, apart from sin. That included temptation, suffering, and death. But it also means he fell down and skinned his knees just like other kids. And it probably means he wasn't any more of a math whiz than other children in Nazareth, because taking on humanity would include a finite human mind.
Jesus, God, and Kenosis
The theological term for this concept is kenosis. While many threads in Biblical theology support the idea, the word itself comes from Philippians 2. This wonderful passage (thought to incorporate an early hymn) is worth reading in its entirety, but we will focus on verses 5-8: 5Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 6who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross. Verse 7 says Jesus "emptied himself," and the Greek word for that emptying is kenosis. The doctrine of kenosis says that Jesus, despite being of the same nature as God (verse 6), gave up his divine privileges in becoming human. This is fundamental to the Christian understanding of the Incarnation.
When you start asking exactly what Jesus gave up, then you get some disagreement among theologians. Did Jesus truly empty himself of his divine omniscience and omnipotence? Or did those qualities still reside in him so that it was more a matter of not choosing to use them? There are passages in Scripture that show Jesus exercising God’s power – did Jesus have to go outside himself for that because he had emptied himself of the power, or was he accessing something that was still in him? Those questions are above my pay grade, but in any event it seems clear that Jesus took on the limitations of humanity, including bleeding and dying. Since the earliest days of the church, Christians have affirmed that Jesus did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but humbled himself and lived as a real, finite human with all that implies. If this doctrine of kenosis is right, Jesus would not have aced all his math tests.
But let's look beyond math tests for a bigger principle. Whatever kenosis means exactly, it at least means that in Jesus God humbled himself and took on the limitations of human flesh. Was that a one-time thing where God went against his character, or is kenosis a feature of God's character? I would argue that kenosis, self-sacrifice and self-limitation for the sake of others, is much of what God is all about. The message throughout the New Testament is that, if we want to see what God is like, we should look at Jesus. The most prominent aspect of Jesus' character was self-sacrificing love, the love we sometimes describe by the Greek word agape, so this must be a central aspect of God’s character.
We see God's kenotic character most clearly in the Incarnation. John 1:14 says the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. As if that were not humble enough, in Jesus God allowed himself to suffer and die. That's the ultimate act of self-sacrifice, and this identification with humanity on the cross is at the very center of our faith. John Polkinghorne (in Belief in God in an Age of Science), put it this way, "The Christian God is not a compassionate spectator, looking down in sympathy on the sufferings of the world; the Christian God is truly the 'fellow sufferer who understands,' for in Christ God has known human suffering and death from the inside. The Christian God is the crucified God."
The idea of a crucified God defies human expectations. If we were writing the story, we'd have God come like Arnold Schwarzenegger and destroy all the evil in this world that is full of pain and struggle. But Jesus didn't fight the battle our way, he fought it the kenosis way, by humbling himself and suffering with us and in some sense becoming a loser in the struggle, just like us. And it was out of that humility and weakness that God's power defeated evil and death.
Another place we see God's kenotic character is in the Genesis creation story. God is completely self-sufficient; it's an act of self-limitation to allow something else to exist. Yet God forms and fills a universe, and allows creatures to have some independence so that we can become participants in this agape love. By appointing us as his "images," God delegates authority and responsibility to us, which is also an act of kenosis.
I think the concept of kenosis can even help with some mysteries of the faith, such as God's sovereignty and free will. The Bible tells us that God is absolutely in charge, but it also makes clear that people have free will, and there has been much debate about how to reconcile those two things. I don't claim to have the final answer, but I like the idea of restrained sovereignty, where God, in his kenotic nature, voluntarily gives up some of his sovereign rights to make room for human freedom.
We also see God's kenosis with the Bible itself, which shows signs of being produced through fallible humans rather than being the flawless God-dictated book that we might expect. The human aspect of Scripture is a problem for fundamentalists who want a perfect divine book (an expectation similar to Docetism), but it is not a problem if we recognize that it is consistent with God’s nature to give his people room to tell the story in their own ways.
Kenosis for Us
Interesting as all this may be, Paul did not write Philippians to settle modern doctrinal debates. The context of his statements about Jesus and kenosis is instruction for how Christians should live, as expressed in verses 3-5: Do nothing from selfish ambition or 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. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus… [then is the famous hymn, including kenosis in verse 7]. Understanding the kenotic nature of Jesus is nice, but Jesus didn't say "understand me," he said "follow me." Paul is saying that following Jesus includes following his example and sharing his attitude. Therefore, our character should be one of kenosis, of self-sacrifice. We are not to be grabbing things, even if we're entitled to them (like Jesus was entitled to the privileges of being God) – instead we are to look to the interests of others. How to live that way, how to cultivate that kenotic character so that our lives are marked by agape love, is a big topic, but I will offer a few suggestions.
First, I think this applies to Christians collectively. For the church to live out kenosis means not following the world's ways of getting things by power and manipulation and lawsuits. When the church acts just like any other special interest group, it's not being true to God's call. When Christians try to impose religion from above using political power, that goes against our call to kenosis. When we go along with pursuing the interests of our own groups at the expense of others (as in the twin evils of racism and nationalism), we are failing to follow the example of Jesus. These failures give those outside the church a distorted impression of Christianity; instead of seeing the agape that should result from following Jesus, too often what is most visible is selfishness and a lack of love for others.
Second, kenosis applies to our relationship with God. We should always be asking "what does God want," not "how can God get me what I want?" I saw an ad once for a televangelist that said "Tell God exactly what you want." While there is a sense in which we should be honest with God and tell him our desires, what this guy meant was "Tell God exactly what you want, and if you have enough faith, God has to give it to you." That perverts what the relationship is supposed to be; God should be our master, not our servant. It is easy to point fingers at that "name it and claim it" movement, but we all do this to some extent. I may not give God orders, but I spend more effort trying to get what I want than trying to discern how I can do what God wants. So that's a place many of us need to exhibit kenosis – we should empty out our selfishness and humble ourselves before God.
Third, for the sake of others I think we are called to limit some of the material things we take. Maybe you can spend $60,000 on a luxury SUV, but maybe you should spend some of that money in a way that helps others, not to mention being a better steward of God’s creation. This should apply in our everyday decisions about consumption, where we recognize that loving our neighbors (nearby and around the world) can mean sacrificing our comfort and preferences for the sake of the resources they need and the environment on which they depend.
Finally, we must be kenotic in dealing with other people. Rather than grasping everything we're entitled to, we are called to look also to the interests of others. The also implies that we should not neglect our own needs, and we don't have to let others take advantage of us. Nor does it say to do what others want you to – it says look to the interests of others, which can be a very different thing. But, for the sake of others, we should be willing to lay aside our rights. That's not just in chapter 2 of Philippians. I Corinthians 8-9 is about how we have freedom in Christ, but if using that freedom causes our brother or sister to stumble, we shouldn't do it. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talked about being meek and humble, about not exercising your right to revenge but loving your enemies. People argue about Ephesians 5 because it mentions wives submitting to their husbands, but the context of the passage is Paul telling everybody to live the kenosis way. Wives, husbands, parents, children, masters, slaves – the point is that whatever situation you find yourself in, even if it is something unfair like being a slave, you should have a humble servant attitude. That does not mean you never pursue things that are rightfully yours (like a promotion at work or freedom from slavery). The key is that my rights, what I want, can't be the dominant factor, because I'm called to look out for the interests of others and most of all for what God wants. I think the more we live that way, the more we make the kenosis choice in situations, the more "what we want" will line up with "what God wants." This transformation is a part of being conformed to the character of Christ.
Kenosis is an important theological concept, but we shouldn't leave it as abstract doctrine. If we answer Jesus' call to follow him, that is not only about believing the correct doctrines (though that is a good thing), or avoiding specific sins (though we should), but it must also include following the example of Jesus’ self-sacrificing, kenotic, agape love.
| Disclaimer: The views expressed in this essay are the opinion of the author of this essay alone and should not be taken to represent the views of any other person or organization. |
Essay written January 2019, based on a talk prepared in 2000. Page last modified January 25, 2019.
