“Called to the Cross”
Original sermon given on March 9, 2025 written and delivered by Pastor Jeff Leininger at First Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church.
Watch the sermon live.
“Called to the Cross”
Luke 4
Luke 4
In the name of the Living God and the Crucified Christ. Amen.
The temptation of Jesus is certainly one of the most well-known and iconic accounts in the Bible. It has made it into some of the greatest pieces of art, of poetry, literature, and music in western civilization.
But the account of the temptation of Christ is of great personal importance to me. This scripture is actually the reason my Rachel and I met. Long story short (I’m in the pulpit, I can tell my side of the story): I was singing in the seminary choir. Her former teacher from middle school was our director. He sent her a note, inviting her to our concert, and we sang a music piece based on this very text, a little gospel motet. As she tells it, when she went to the service, she checked out all the seminarians up there and wasn’t interested in any of them. (I know, hard to believe, right? Who doesn’t like a nice seminarian?) But then… then… she heard me sing. I sang a solo from this text. The solo I sang was the part of Satan, so I guess you could say that Satan brought us together.
No! This gospel text brought us together! But I guess I tell you this story because, really, this account from St. Luke brings us all together. It brings us all together because we’ve all been there, in a fiery trial, a time of testing. That’s why it’s such an iconic scene throughout the world. We’ve all been there: sent to do a difficult, spiritual task; challenged to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness; asked to cling to the word of God alone for strength; enticed by the easy road, the easy way out, the satanic shortcut. I think also, in our most honest of moments, when we assess ourselves through the lens of this account, we perhaps find some times when we did okay. But more often than not, in our honest moments, we’ll see the times of failure—giving into temptation, or not enduring the fiery trial, failing the spiritual test.
It’s a drama in three scenes — and literally has been acted out in that way in religious plays for 800 years or so. You’ve got a good guy and a bad guy. It starts with dramatic tension: forty days of fasting and prayer, will he make it? Can he endure? It’s a battle between two opposing, cosmic forces, but mainly a battle of words, or of the word.
Scene 1: Turn this stone into bread. Choose the physical over the spiritual. Make the most of this moment, rather than planning for eternity.
Scene 2: Satan leads him up (high somewhere) and shows him all the glories of the kingdoms of the known world, in a flash of a moment, an instant in time. He can have it all, if he but make this one, little compromise. Just for a moment, bow before Satan in worship.
Scene 3: Satan takes him to the pinnacle of the temple — the highest point in the city. Jesus tempted by Satan to not simply trust his heavenly father, but to make his Father prove his faithfulness. Satan tells Jesus to throw himself down and watch how the Angels come to your rescue; and then watch how you’ll be proclaimed king and messiah; and then… no cross. No nails. No thorns. No suffering. Only victory and glory now, Satan tempts him.
Jesus survives the fiery trial; he resists temptation; he takes the devil down three-for-three in the wilderness, even when Jesus is at his weakest, most vulnerable moment.
That’s the drama of the biblical story, but I want to apply it to the drama of our everyday lives. Two broad points: the Lord did this for us, and he did this before us.
The Lord did this for us. As I said, we are all brought together in this biblical account because we’ve all been there and failed. We fail, not even in our weakest, most vulnerable moments, but at our best moments, when we’re the strongest even, we’ve failed. Like Israel, which in its forty years of testing, complained, sought after other gods, didn’t trust, didn’t see the spiritual picture, put God to the test — put up or shut up, Lord — rather than hold to the promise of his word. That’s where we are too.
But Christ did this for us. He has survived every trial and passed every test for we who fall so miserably short. And those who believe in his name and are baptized into his life, death, and resurrection, they receive Christ’s work for them, on their behalf. His success covers our failure freely, as a gift by grace through faith.
What a savior this is! Called to the Cross for failures, of which we are the worst. For us, he mustered every bit of strength to resist the devil and all his works and all his ways. For us, he chose the cross over the crowns of this world. For us, he set his face to Jerusalem to become the sacrificial lamb. Though he knew where it would all lead, in that wilderness testing he fought that fight and won that victory, even out of love for those who he knew would fail him.
Christ did this for you. He also did this before you. That is, as an example for us in times of tiny testing. He goes before us. I’m going to give us 4 brief points to take with us this morning, to comfort and strengthen us in our own times of trial, testing, and temptation. Christ goes before you in that:
1) The Spirit is still at work. For the Baptized, even in times of testing, the Spirit is still at work. God does not abandon us, but rather promises to strengthen us. Note that “in one breath Luke tells us Jesus is full of the Spirit” and also continuously being led by the Spirit in the wilderness.[1]
What a comfort it is to know that, however difficult our times of trial and testing, God’s Spirit does not abandon us, but rather continues to lead us and strengthen us, as was the case with Christ.
2) Christ goes before you in that the Word is your weapon. You’ll notice that in this spiritual combat, the Lord counters every temptation of Satan with the word. “It is written. It is written. It has been said. Thus says the Lord.” Here we have an example from our Lord as to how the battle is to be fought.
Martin Luther had his many vicious battles with the devil. We sing his famous hymn this morning, born of those battles. And as you’ll recall, it was Luther’s clinging to the truth of scripture which bulwarked him. Here’s how Martin Luther described it:
“But to nothing is Satan a more bitter enemy than the dear [precious] Word; because while Satan can conceal himself under all creatures, the Word is the only agency that can disclose him and reveal to everyone how [dark] he [truly] is.”
So (1), the Spirit is still at work, in our times of testing; (2) Word is Your Weapon. And:
3) You’re called to the cross, like Jesus. It strangely gives me comfort, knowing that Satan attacked Jesus before he attacked me. And it also reminds me that, because Jesus was called to his cross, I’m called to one too. Of course, we’re not called to a cross for the salvation of the world — that’s already been accomplished by Christ. But the Lord did tell us, “Take up your cross, and follow me.” If the tempter awaited the son of God, he certainly will await those who united with him in baptism. If Christ was opposed and attacked on his journey to the cross, certainly we will be too. It’s not a matter of if temptation will come; it’s when and how we will respond.
So: 1) The Spirit is still at work, 2) the Word is your weapon, and 3) you’re called to a cross too.
4) The battle is real, but the war is won. Saints, the Tempter has been ultimately defeated. Yes, he rages on now in this world, but the final outcome is not in doubt. We know who wins in the end: the same Lord who was victorious in the wilderness, who died on the cross, who arose from the tomb on Easter Sunday, this Lord will return again to take us to be with him forever. Yes, we are called to resist the devil and all his works and all his ways. But we fight as ultimate winners, not losers, for we know how the story ends. We’re all united in this story.
Brothers and sisters: Christ has done all this for you. Resisted temptation on our behalf, because we all have failed and will at times continue to fail. His perfect righteousness is ours for the gift of eternal life. Christ has also done this before you. He goes before us, in times of temptation, remember 1) the Spirit is still at work, 2) The word is your weapon, 3) You’re called to the cross, like Jesus, and 4) The battle is real, but the war’s already won.
Come soon Lord Jesus. Amen.
[1] Michael Card, Luke, 66