Today we celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. This feast traces its beginning to Jerusalem and the dedication of the church built on the site of Mount Calvary in 335. It may seem odd to exult the cross and it would be if it were not for the fact that through his death on the cross, Jesus redeemed the world. Today we honor the cross because Jesus transformed it from an instrument of brutality into an instrument of mercy. Jesus transformed the cross from an instrument of death into an instrument of eternal life.
Jesus On The Cross – John 3:13-17
No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
Scriptural Analysis
Today’s Gospel is an excerpt of a larger conversation between the Jewish Pharisee Nicodemus and Jesus. This particular passage is the first of three occasions in John’s Gospel where Jesus refers to his crucifixion as being “lifted up.” The Greek word for lifted up, hypsoō, can mean physical lifting up or it can me exultation. In this exchange, Jesus is using both meanings of the word: he will be physically lifted up and ultimately he will be exalted.
Jesus begins his explanation of what is to come by drawing a comparison to the past: to the Bronze Serpent that healed the Israelites during their exodus in the wilderness. (Numbers 21:4-9) The Israelites were suffering and they started grumbling against God. God sent fiery serpents as a punishment for their grumbling. The Israelites asked Moses to appeal to God for relief from the servants which Moses did. God instructed Moses to fashion a bronze serpent and place it on a poll. When the serpent was lifted up and the Israelites gazed upon it, the symbol of their sinfulness, the Israelites would be healed.
When we gaze upon a cross, we see Jesus crucified for our sake. We see the ultimate effect of our sin: the passion of Jesus. The cross is synonymous with Christianity. It is such a pervasive symbol that we often forget just how horrible a form of death crucifixion is. The cross is the most brutal form of torture and execution ever devised by mankind. A crucifixion was always proceeded by a scourging in which the victims flesh and muscle is viciously torn from their body. Accompanied by considerable blood loss the victim would be in a state of shock. They were then forced to carry the horizontal beam of their cross: splinters piercing their open wounds. Three long nails were driven into their hands and feet striking major nerves. Every breath was excruciating as the victim had to lift themselves up on their feet causing wave after wave of intense pain. Exhausted, they would eventually no longer be able to lift themselves up to breath, so they would suffocate and die. Crucifixion always took place outside the city because it was so horrible that it even disturbed the Roman citizens.
When we gaze upon the cross we see beyond the brutal physical reality to the spiritual reality truly there. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, our sins have been atoned for. Through his suffering, the gates of Heaven are once again opened to us. Through the cross, Jesus paid off a debt we incurred: a debt we could never repay ourselves. We exalt the cross of Jesus.
Do We Embrace The Cross?
Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Matthew that, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24). Just as the cross has become synonymous with Christianity, so too has this notion of picking up one’s cross become synonymous with the Christian life. That synonymousness however, has led to a watered down understanding of what Jesus is asking of us. It has become a sort of rallying cry for dealing with the daily struggles of life. That is certainly part of it but if we water it down to that, then we have missed the true meaning of taking up our cross.
What Jesus is calling us to is a complete and total surrender to the will of the Father. Jesus did not seek out the cross. During his agony in the Garden ofGethsemane he specifically prayed, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Matthew 26:39). Jesus did not want to go to the cross. Three times he prayed to his Father for another way to fulfill his plan. However, Jesus’s desire to avoid the cross was not as strong as his desire to do the will of the Father. In each prayer, he concludes by stating not his will be done but his Father’s will. Denying ourself and taking up our cross means embracing this complete and total surrender to the will of the Father.
How far does that surrender go? Saint John Chrysostom answered that when he wrote, “He saith also how far one ought to deny one’s self; that is unto death, and that a reproachful death.” (Homilies on Matthew LV) Jesus didn’t just die. He died in the most horrific and humiliating way anybody could have died. He was mocked, tortured, beaten, and endured unimaginable suffering. He did all of this not because he wanted to, but because he wanted to fully embrace the will of his Father. When Jesus tells us to pick up his cross, he isn’t telling us to seek out suffering. He is telling us to embrace the will of God. Doing that may mean we suffer. It may ultimately mean for us that we too die a horrific and humiliating death. However, if we willingly accept that death in service of the will of the Father, then that death will produce great spiritual fruit. That is what the martyred Saints throughout all time have known. Nothing of this world is important enough for us to turn our back upon the will of God and the eternal reward that awaits us when we follow his will.
And what is the will of God? The specifics will look different for each of us but we are all united in a common call to spread the Good News: in the Great Commissioning, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20) Our lives should be about bringing others to Christ. It should be about witnessing to the faith even if that witness brings us scorn and ridicule.
Today, as we remember the cross, not for its sake but because of what took place upon it, let us spend time in prayer with Jesus’s call to take up our cross. Let us ask ourselves if we have truly surrendered our lives to the will of the Father the way Christ did and calls us to do. Let us ask ourselves if we have been a strong witness of the faith even in the fact of ridicule or humiliation. Finally, let us ask for the Grace to embrace our cross even tighter.
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