A Slave’s Death

Scripture — Philippians 2:3-8 (CEB)

Don’t do anything for selfish purposes, but with humility think of others as better than yourselves. Instead of each person watching out for their own good, watch out for what is better for others. Adopt the attitude that was in Christ Jesus:
Though he was in the form of God,
he did not consider being equal with God something to exploit.
But he emptied himself
by taking the form of a slave
and by becoming like human beings.
When he found himself in the form of a human,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.

Devotion

When I was in graduate school, I read a book that was unusually short (for an academic treatise) and unusually garish in its appearance. The cover was bright pink with a simple drawing of a man being crucified. The book’s title read: CRUCIFIXION. The full title of this book by German scholar Martin Hengel was Crucifixion: In the Ancient World and the Folly of the Message of the Cross. It went into great depth about the practice of crucifixion, especially in the Roman world around the time of Jesus.

Growing up in church, I was quite familiar with crucifixion as the means by which Jesus died. I had seen many films or film strips (that dates me!) which portrayed the crucifixion of Jesus. I knew that it was an extremely painful way to be put to death. (Of course, in that day, there was nothing so brutal and authentic as the 2004 film, The Passion of the Christ. But even what I saw decades earlier was still horrifying to watch.) Until I read Crucifixion by Martin Hengel, however, I greatly underestimated both the horror and the social scandal of the cross.

Crucifixion was not just a means of execution, but also a hideous form of torture meant to punish the victim and control the masses. The physical pain of crucifixion was beyond extreme. As Hengel writes, it was “a punishment in which the caprice and sadism of the executioners were given full rein” (p. 25). Moreover, it was also “a matter of subjecting the victim to the utmost indignity” (p. 24). Victims were usually crucified naked and in public to exacerbate their shame. Thus, Hengel notes that “the Roman world was largely unanimous that crucifixion was a horrific, disgusting business” (p. 37). It “satisfied the primitive lust for revenge and the sadistic cruelty of individual rulers and of the masses” (p. 87).

Crucifixion was reserved for the lowest of the low in Roman society, for the worst of criminals, for “rebellious foreigners, violent criminals, and robbers” (p. 46). Often, it was the punishment of choice for lawbreaking slaves, such that crucifixion was sometimes called “slave’s punishment” by Roman authors (servile supplicium in Latin; p. 51).

In his discussion of “slave’s punishment,” Hengel refers to the Christ Hymn in Philippians 2:6-11. He observes:

Anyone who was present at the worship of the churches founded by Paul in the course of his mission, in which this hymn was sung, and indeed any reader of Philippians in ancient times, would inevitably have seen a direct connection between the ‘emptied himself, taking the form of a slave’ and the disputed end of the first strophe: ‘he humbled himself and was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.’ Death on the cross was the penalty for slaves, as everyone knew; as such it symbolized extreme humiliation, shame and torture (p. 62).

Hengel helped me understand in a whole new way the extraordinarily counter-cultural story of Christ and the amazingly gracious character of his sacrifice for us. Not only did one who was “equal to God” take “the form of a slave” by becoming human, but also, he “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (2:8). There are, of course, many different ways to die. Moreover, the Roman government had a variety of ways of executing people. But crucifixion was known to be the very worst way to die, owing to extreme pain and public humiliation.

Yet that’s exactly how Christ chose to die, “humbling himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.” And not just any kind of death, but “death on a cross,” the kind of death reserved for the worst of criminals, for slaves, and for the lowest members of Roman society.

What we find in the first part of the Christ Hymn in Philippians 2 is the mind-blowing truth that one who was God chose to become human. Moreover, he opted to suffer the worst kind of death human beings could suffer. The one who was “in the form [morphē] of God” took on the “form [morphē] of a slave,” dying by “slave’s punishment.” One cannot imagine a more unprecedented act of self-abasement and sacrifice.

Remember that immediately before this astounding picture of Christ’s self-denying actions, Paul was encouraging the Philippian Christians to put others before themselves:

Don’t do anything for selfish purposes, but with humility think of others as better than yourselves. Instead of each person watching out for their own good, watch out for what is better for others. Adopt the attitude that was in Christ Jesus (2:3-5).

This attitude or mindset can be seen, most clearly and dramatically, in Christ’s emptying himself of his divine privileges, becoming human, becoming as a slave, and dying in the worst possible way. Thus, Christ serves as a model for us to imitate, as inspiration for humbly thinking of others as better than ourselves, and watching out for the good of others rather than for our own good. If we wish to live and lead as faithful followers of Jesus Christ, then we will seek to live and lead for the good of others.

Yet Christ is not just a model to be imitated. He is also the one who makes such imitation possible. The Christ Hymn does not explain how the sacrifice of Christ leads to our salvation and transformation. This comes elsewhere in Paul’s letters. In Romans 5:8, for example, Paul is clear that Christ “died for us.” Paul passes on to the Corinthians what he considers “most important,” namely, that “Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor 15:3). This death leads to new life for us: “Jesus died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with him” (1 Thes 5:10).

So, the Christ Hymn in Philippians 2:6-11 doesn’t give us a complete theology of the incarnation and death of Christ. Rather, it focuses on the unprecedented, counter-cultural, and mind-expanding “emptying” of Christ. He not only gave up the privileges of deity, but even became like a slave, dying a slave’s death on the cross. The unique sacrifice of Christ serves as a model for us. It challenges us. It inspires us. And it ultimately enables us to imitate the self-giving love of Christ.

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the High Calling archive, hosted by the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: Imitating Christ’s Humility.