As we come to the end of Lent, Paul’s soaring passage from Philippians 3:8-14 reminds us beautifully of the “surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (3:8). Paul, imprisoned as he writes to the Philippians, speaks of having “suffered the loss of all things”(3:8), something which he intends quite literally, I believe, as his conversion was the loss not only of a stable life, work and vocation, but of the honor and prestige that would have accrued to him as a Pharisee. Paul says he regards these “things” as “rubbish” (3:8), a word which I have previously indicated means something more like “excrement” in the Greek of Paul’s day. Paul intends this sharp contrast between worldly “things” and “knowing Christ” because, where the two conflict, it is essential that Christ take precedence. Paul’s goal, as that of all Christians, is the resurrection and the life of eternity with Christ.

Paul also uses the phrase, “if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (3:11), as he writes of his desire to “know Christ and the power of the resurrection” (3:10). Does Paul doubt his salvation in Christ? I do not think so, but Paul is aware that prior to the resurrection, while we are in the body, “we have not already obtained this” and have not “already reached the goal” (3:12). It is necessary to continue to grow in closeness to Christ, to continue on the path of righteousness. Paul reaches into the language of athletic imagery – so appropriate an image in the midst of March Madness as well as Lent – to make clear the strain and work and training involved in the Christian life: “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus” (3:13-14). This is the true glory for which we are training, in Lent, but also in every day, which is why we must keep pushing forward until that time when we are assured our rest will be eternal.

John W. Martens

John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn,where he teaches early Christianity and Judaism. He also directs the Master of Arts in Theology program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. He was born in Vancouver, B.C. into a Mennonite family that had decided to confront modernity in an urban setting. His post-secondary education began at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas, came to an abrupt stop, then started again at Vancouver Community College, where his interest in Judaism and Christianity in the earliest centuries emerged. He then studied at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, and McMaster University, with stops at University of Haifa and University of Tubingen. His writing often explores the intersection of Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman culture and belief, such as in "let the little children come to me: Children and Childhood in Early Christianity" (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009), but he is not beyond jumping into the intersection of modernity and ancient religion, as in "The End of the World: The Apocalyptic Imagination in Film and Television" (Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford Press, 2003). He blogs at  www.biblejunkies.com and at www.americamagazine.org for "The Good Word." You can follow him on Twitter @biblejunkies, where he would be excited to welcome you to his random and obscure interests, which range from the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Timberwolves, to his dog, and 70s punk, pop and rock. When he can, he brings students to Greece, Turkey and Rome to explore the artifacts and landscape of the ancient world. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and has two sons. He is certain that the world will not end until the Vancouver Canucks have won the Stanley Cup, as evidence has emerged from the Revelation of John, 1 Enoch, 2 Baruch, and 4 Ezra which all point in this direction.