Opening Prayer

Dear God, thank you for sending Jesus to us. Help us understand how far he came to save us. Open our ears and our hearts. Amen.

Scripture: Philippians 2:5-11

Jesus was God — fully and completely. He was equal with the Father. He had all the glory and power of heaven. But he didn’t cling to that. He didn’t say, “This is mine, and I’m keeping it.”

Instead, he emptied himself. He took the form of a slave — a servant with no rights, no power, no home of his own. He was born as a real human baby. He grew up. He got tired and hungry and sad, just like you do. And then he went even lower. He obeyed his Father all the way to death — death on a cross, the most terrible and shameful death there was.

But then — God the Father lifted him up to the highest place of all and gave him the name that is above every name. One day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess: Jesus Christ is Lord.

What This Means

Have you ever played “king of the hill”? You climb to the top and you hold on for dear life. You push other kids away. The whole point is to stay on top.

That’s how the world works. People grab for the top spot. They hold onto their stuff. They make sure everyone knows how important they are.

Jesus did the exact opposite. He was already at the top — not of a hill, but of everything. He made the galaxies. Angels worshiped him. And he climbed down. All the way down.

The Bible uses a special word for what Jesus did: he emptied himself. Think about turning a cup upside down and pouring every last drop out. That’s what Jesus did with his glory. Not because he stopped being God — he never stopped being God. But he hid his power. He tucked it away like a king putting on a servant’s apron.

He was born in an animal’s feeding trough. He worked with his hands in a carpenter’s shop. He washed his disciples’ dirty feet. And then, at the very bottom of the hill, he hung on a cross between two criminals and died.

The Romans used crosses to kill slaves and rebels — people they thought were worthless. And that’s exactly where the God of the universe chose to go. Because you were down there. You couldn’t climb up to God, so God climbed all the way down to you.

And because Jesus went to the lowest place, the Father raised him to the highest. That’s how God’s kingdom works — it’s upside down from the world. The way up is down. The way to life is through death.

Let’s Talk About It

Eberley: Paul says Jesus didn’t consider equality with God “something to be exploited.” What does it mean to exploit something? How do people exploit their power or their advantages today? What makes Jesus’s choice so shocking compared to how the world normally works?

Sonja: Jesus was at the very top and he came all the way to the very bottom. Can you trace that journey with your hand — start up high and go down, down, down to the cross? Now go back up to where God raised him. What shape does that make? Why do you think God didn’t just leave Jesus at the bottom?

Dahlia & Freddy: Did Jesus come down to help us because someone made him, or because he chose to? (He chose to!) When Jesus went to the cross, did he stay dead? (No! God raised him up!)

Remember This

Jesus came all the way down to the cross so the Father could raise him — and us — all the way up.

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus, you were God and you became a servant for us. You didn’t grab for power — you let go of everything so you could hold onto us. When we want to be first, remind us that you became last. When we’re afraid of being small, remind us that you made yourself the smallest of all. Thank you for coming down to find us. Amen.

Memory Verse

“He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross.” — Philippians 2:8