Philippians 3:7-11

⁷ But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.

⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

¹⁰ I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Think for a moment about all the times recorded in the Gospel accounts of the life of Jesus when Jesus faced the temptation to save his physical life by not going to the cross.  As we consider just a few of them in a moment it will be impressed on us why we joyfully and proudly preach and listen to the message of Christ crucified.  Every time Jesus resisted a temptation to turn from the cross and the suffering he endured there, we are impressed that Jesus’ great love for us and for our eternal welfare caused him to regard his cross, namely what would be accomplished on it, as more important to him than his physical, earthly life.  Let’s see that love in action as Jesus resisted temptations to save his life from the physical and spiritual tortures of the cross.

 

            A couple Sundays ago, the first Sunday in Lent, we read from Luke 4 how Jesus was tempted by Satan to save his earthly life and to supposedly enhance it.  Satan took Jesus to a high point on the earth to show him all the splendor and beauty and wealth this earth has to offer.  Satan was looking to get Jesus to exchange the glories of heaven he could win for us for his temporary use and enjoyment of what is available in this world touched and stained by sin and its consequences.  This past Sunday our lesson from Luke 13 showed us some Pharisees telling Jesus not to go to Jerusalem because Herod wanted to kill him.  “Save your life, Jesus.  Don’t go to Jerusalem.”  Their reason for this advice may have been out of genuine concern for Jesus, or it may have been selfish – to keep him from drawing people of Jerusalem to himself and away from their influence; we don’t know.  Regardless, they urged him to save his own life from death, which would have resulted in the payment for our sins not being made.  And even before than one of Jesus’ own disciples urged him to save his life and not go to the cross.  Jesus had told the disciples it was time to go up to Jerusalem where he, the Son of Man, would be handed over to wicked men, be put on trial, mocked, tortured and finally crucified and then he would rise from death.  To this announcement Peter replied, “May it not be, Lord!”  And finally, when he did end up on that cross the temptation to save his life was still right in front of his face.  Jewish political and religious leaders mockingly called for him to save his life by coming down from the cross.  “If you are the Christ, come down from the cross!”  And right next to him on another cross, that criminal urged him to save his life, too.  “Yea, if you’re the Christ, save yourself, and us.”  And just the fact that these people at the foot of his cross who were supposed to be a blessing to people by leading them through God’s word to their Savior, were behaving so sinfully against God’s anointed One was a temptation to save his life, too.  Certainly the question could arise, “Is it worth suffering so much for these ungrateful people?” 

 

            But Jesus overcame all the temptations to save his own life and he embraced the cross.  With determination and joy he went to that cross with our sin and guilt.  The writer to the Hebrews later wrote to believers, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus…who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame” (Hebrews 12:2).  Because of his great love for you and me Jesus treasured our souls and eternal life more than his own earthly life.  This great love and sacrifice of Jesus causes rescued sinners to then love that cross of Jesus and what happened on it more than earthly life itself.  So it was with the apostle Paul.  Jesus’ cross was more precious and important to Paul than his own earthly life. 

 

            St. Paul understood the full meaning of Jesus’ cross.  He had come to understand its value the hard way.  At one time Jesus and his cross had been rubbish to Paul, then known as Saul.  It had been offensive to him.  Saul’s life that he had lived was what he valued.  In one meeting with the crucified and risen Jesus Saul’s precious life became rubbish.  In the verses before our lesson from his letter to the Philippians Paul described his earlier life that he once so treasured.  He believed that his family history and what he had done with his life on earth made him right with God and therefore was of great value.  He believed that his life was precious to God and deserving of life with him because he was an Israelite descended from the tribe of Benjamin; because he was “Hebrew of Hebrews”, perhaps extremely patriotic about his Jewish ethnicity; because he was a Pharisee, an expert on God’s laws and all the man-made laws of the Pharisees; because he was zealous for God as evidenced in his violent persecution of followers of Jesus, whom he believed perverted the Jewish religion; and finally, because in regard to keeping God’s commandments, he believed he was “faultless”!  In his mind, a God who said Saul didn’t have what it took to be right in his sight was a God not worth his time.  His life was so spiritually precious, he believed, that he didn’t need any Savior.

 

            But the Savior himself knocked Saul to his physical and spiritual knees while he was on his way to the city of Damascus to round up more followers of Jesus for imprisonment or death.  That was the beginning of the end of Saul.  When he was powerfully struck down and blind when Jesus appeared in perhaps a lightning flash, Saul was introduced to the crucified and risen Christ!  “Who are you?” Saul had asked, and Jesus answered, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”  Saul had probably believed the rumors promoted by Pilate and the Jewish leaders that Jesus’ disciples had stolen his body from the grave and said he had risen to life, but here was Jesus, risen and powerful blinding him and knocking him to his knees.  Here was Jesus making Saul realize that his life – his bloodlines, his zeal for Judaism, his obedience to pharisaical rules – were nothing before the perfect, just and powerful God!  Saul was now helpless.  Blind and confused and directionless, he had to be led to Damascus where he was given back his sight through a follower of Jesus (Ananias) and assured of God’s forgiveness in Jesus through baptism into Christ offered again by followers of Jesus.  Saul died to his old way of thinking and came alive and had peace with God and with himself through Jesus’ life and death.  The crucified and risen Christ and eternal life with him became his greatest treasure, more precious than even his own earthly life.  His attitude changed.  Paul rejoiced in the cross of Jesus and what happened there, and then he rejoiced that Jesus gave him the privilege of bearing the cross for Jesus’ sake.

 

            That new attitude created by the Holy Spirit formed the words of our text in this letter to the Philippians.  All that Paul previously thought was valuable for him before God he now considered “rubbish”, valueless.  What he now knew to be of value before God and for him was Christ and everything about him!  He said, “I want to know Christ and his resurrection.  I want the privilege of carrying a cross for him.  I want to be associated with Christ – in living, in suffering, in dying, in rising to life everlasting!”  And, boy, did Paul ever carry a cross!  As he carried the message of Christ crucified across the Mediterranean world he carried and embraced the cross of suffering for Christ.  He spent a couple days in the sea after a shipwreck.  He endured threats and attacks on his life.  He patiently endured physical pain and illness coming from what he called his “thorn in the flesh”.  And finally, he was put to death for proclaiming Christ crucified and risen as Savior, God and Lord.  For Paul, Jesus’ cross and what was accomplished there for him was much more precious and valuable than his own earthly life.

So, also for us Jesus’ cross and what was accomplished for us there becomes more precious than our earthly lives. 

 

            The same thing that happened to Saul has happened to you and me.  When Jesus met us at our baptism, that old self, the old Pharisee in us, was being put to death, drowned by the righteousness of Jesus being poured out on us through his word working with the water.  The Pharisee in us that thinks God should accept me just because of who I am or what I’ve done was being put to death.  We may think that I’m valuable and acceptable to God because my ancestors were founding members of our church.  Or we may think that just we come from a family that is filled with a long line of pastors God should be pleased with me.  All of us fight the attitude that my life has been good enough or precious enough that God should accept me into heaven.  We daily have to fight the lie that God should take me in because my driving record is clean or I’ve never murdered someone or cheated on my spouse or robbed a bank.  Too often we find ourselves comparing our lives with the lives of others and finding ourselves morally superior.  When Jesus met us in baptism and applied the accomplishments of his cross to our lives all that previous stuff became “rubbish”.  His cross and what was done there became our greatest treasure, more precious than even our earthly lives.

 

            So, we too embrace the cross of Jesus on which he died and the crosses Jesus allows to come into our lives.  With Paul we rejoice to have “fellowship in Jesus’ sufferings”, to endure hardship in this life for the sake of Jesus.  When his cross is what’s most precious to us, then with confidence and even joy we can carry the cross of illness, finding in our illness the opportunity to tell others of the great love of our Savior that took him to the cross to give us perfect and never-ending life beyond this world.   When Jesus’ cross is what’s most precious to us, then with confidence and boldness young people and students can stand up for what’s right and godly in behavior when so-called friends try to lead you to do what is against God’s commands.  Wherever you and I are in our lives and whatever the challenges we find there become opportunities for us to bear those crosses to the glory of Jesus our Savior.  What Jesus accomplished for us with his cross – eternal life – is our greatest treasure, of greater value to us than our earthly lives touched with sin and its consequences.  So, since Jesus’ cross is our greatest treasure, carry his cross in your life with joy and with pride.   Amen.

 

 

Preached by Pastor Philip Heyer at St. Stephen’s Ev. Lutheran Church, Beaver Dam, WI.

  (Adapted from “We Preach Christ Crucified” Lent sermon series by Rev.  

    Wayne Laitinen, published by Northwestern Publishing House, 2010.)