Road Out | Wayfarer

…rather, [Jesus] made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
Philippians 2:7 (NIV)

Like millions of people around the world, Wendy and I have thoroughly enjoyed watching The Chosen, a retelling of Jesus’ story by Angel Studios. We have told countless people who are interested in watching the series to make sure you gut through the first three or four episodes. We are not the only ones who found the opening episodes of the series a bit slow. The action and the story don’t seem to really get rolling until you’re a few episodes in.

About a year ago before season four was about to drop, Wendy and I went back to binge the first three seasons in preparation. Guess what? Suddenly, the first three or four episodes came entirely to life for us. They were amazing in ways we couldn’t see until we knew more of the story. There was so many meaningful story seeds planted in those first few episodes that wouldn’t germinate and take root until later episodes and seasons. We could only see them once more of the story had bloomed.

That’s how it goes with good stories, and the Great Story.

One of the things that I’ve experienced on this chapter-a-day journey, and through my perpetual meditations on the Great Story, is that I have come to realize that entire sections of the Story that I once dismissed or largely ignored are essential to understanding the entirety of the Story itself, as well as the story God is authoring in me.

For example, the Exodus story was once simply a Charlton Heston epic movie I got to stay up past my bedtime to watch as a kid every Easter. Even after becoming a disciple of Jesus and reading my way through the entire Great Story, I didn’t see the paradigm. By the way, I credit The Bible Project for helping me really see it.

And, now that I see it, I realize that it’s everywhere.

The Exodus paradigm is simple:

The setting is slavery.
There is a road out of slavery.
There is a road through the wilderness.
There is a road into a Promised Land.

In today’s chapter, Paul shares one of the most famous passages about who Jesus was on a cosmic spiritual level. As I read the passage for the millionth time in the quiet this morning, I found the Exodus story hiding in plain sight. Let me unpack it.

Paul writes,

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ 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.

There’s the setting for Jesus’ own Exodus. He chose to empty Himself of the advantages equality with God and become a human, by very nature a servant. The Greek word also translates as “slave” in English.

And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

The road out for Jesus was being obedient in suffering and dying sacrificially for humanity. The road through the wilderness was not only through the suffering, but it was also through a wilderness we don’t talk much about except perhaps on a day called Holy Saturday between Good Friday and Easter. The road through the wilderness was through the grave. Jesus descended into hell and proclaimed “freedom” to those spirits who were imprisoned there (1 Peter 3:19).

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.

The ascension was Jesus road into the Promise Land, to His eternal Kingdom where a throne awaited at the right hand of the Father Almighty.

So, in the quiet this morning, I am reminded that all good stories are a reflection of the Great Story. This means that my story is as well. Once enslaved in my sin, Jesus offered me a road out if I would surrender my life to Him. For almost 45 years He has led me through the wilderness that is my earthly journey. Like the Hebrew tribes, I’ve had to learn to trust God for my daily bread, resist the temptation to return to my chains, and have faith to follow Jesus into surprising and even scary places. Ultimately, He has promised that at the end of this wilderness I will cross through the Jordan River and into the Promised Land where He waits to welcome me to my new home.

The road out.
The road through.
The road in.

Time to lace ‘em up and hit the road through another Monday and into the wilderness of another work week.

Here we go!