The Life Well Lived

Some years ago I was invited to deliver the high school graduation homily at my daughter’s graduation. Her classmate, who issued the invitation conversationally, called it a “brief address thingy.”

Since she put it like that, how could I refuse?

I didn’t really need any persuading. Having attended quite a few graduations before that, I’d had occasion to ponder what I’d want to preach at a graduation if I ever got that opportunity.

What I wanted to tell them is that, for a Christian, any kind of graduation is a major step forward in a life well lived—and if we want to understand what that means, there is no better-lived life than Jesus’ life. Philippians 2:5-10 provides a powerful summary.

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 (NKJV)

I challenged the graduates that day with three observations about the life well lived. (The students had all studied Greek, so I brought a bit out.)

1. The well lived life is more than meets the eye.

Jesus exchanged the form (μορφη, morphe) of God for the form (μορφη) of a “bondservant,” a δοῦλος (doulos). Paul tells us Jesus also took the “likeness” and “appearance” (different words) of a mere human being.

We know that, though He was genuinely human, He was so much more than that—there was so much more to Him than could be seen. Peter, James and John got just the tiniest peek of the reality on the Mount of Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-3).

The life well lived can look a lot like failure. In John 6, a difficult exchange with skeptical leaders required Jesus to deliver “hard sayings” (v.60). Many followers walked away (v.66). Beginning in John 18, we read of a man who seems to have died prematurely as a victim of crime and corruption.

If you live the life, some will not understand. Some will not believe in you. Some will misjudge you. When that happens, you’re in the best of company! (See Matt 5:12, John 15:18-20).

2. The well lived life is a humble life.

Philippians 2 points out Jesus’ humility and closely connects that humility to something else. He “humbled Himself and became obedient” (2:8). This is the humility of true submission. Jesus accepts the Father’s mission for Him.

For us, true submission involves a slightly different sort of humility. It’s acknowledging and feeling deeply that God is more wise and more good than we are, then yielding to His will in that context and with that motivation prominent. In other words, it’s recognizing that we are lower than God and that doing His will is an honor for us.

For Jesus, not lower than the Father at all, humbling Himself was accepting a task that would take Him lower.

In a way, it’s a good thing Jesus didn’t have the attitude that is so prominent in so many graduation speeches: “I’m going to follow my dream! I can be anything I want to be!”

At heart, this is the opposite of Jesus’ attitude and should be the opposite of ours. The question isn’t “What is my dream and what do I want to be?” but “What is God’s ‘dream’ for me, and what does He want me to be?”

But in the end, a beautiful thing happens when we love God and humble ourselves. Our dream becomes the same as His dream. There was nothing Jesus wanted to do more than become obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, for all of us.

So what mission, what projects, does God have for us here and now?

It doesn’t matter how great our accomplishments are if they’re the wrong ones. My students had recently finished thesis projects. There were a lot of assignments as part of the overall project. What if a student decided the project was a bug collection, or better yet, a collection of rare coins? It could be the greatest collection in the world and it would still fail. The project was to write a paper.

For those in the room that day, their bigger projects were to be sons and daughters, to be students, to be citizens, to be Christians—eventually to be fathers and mothers and workers in their vocations.

The projects include lots of assignments, but we have to accept the projects first. So humility is the starting point.

That shouldn’t surprise anyone who is a Christian. For all of us, the life well lived began with a humble response to the good news that Jesus Christ died for sinners and rose again.

3. The life well lived is an approved life.

In Philippians, the apostle draws a conclusion: “Therefore…” (2:9). The conclusion is that because the Son humbled Himself and completed the work, the Father “has highly exalted Him.”

There’s a lot going on there, but it’s at least an expression of the Father’s pleasure. “Highly exalt” is ὑπερυψόω (hyperypsoō)—to give exceptional honor. Looking back on His short, widely misunderstood life, and His humiliating and seemingly premature death, Jesus knew the joy of real success (Heb 12:2).

Preachers often ask questions like, “So how do you want to feel about your life when you’re on your deathbed?” It’s an appropriate question. But I want to ask a bigger one: Will the Creator and Judge of all the Earth say your life was a life well lived? Will He say mine was?

I ended my “brief address thingy” that day by leaving the graduates with two words—and I leave them with you and with myself: live well.

Photo by Joan Kwamboka on Unsplash.