Matthew 4:8-10
This Sunday is Palm Sunday and Randy’s sermon considers Satan’s 3rd temptation alongside Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem. Satan ratchets up the imaginative lure; he goes from baiting Jesus to turn stones to bread into showing Jesus the endgame—the nations of the world and their glory. Satan wants glory of salvation without the suffering of crucifixion. Jesus’s entry on Palm Sunday was his way of refusing Satan’s crossless Christianity. Satan doesn’t mind if we succeed as long as we do it his way. He doesn’t care if our values are right-side up as long as our crosses are upside down!