See the cross through the teaching of Jesus and know that it is the shape of the life in Christ, the way for the healing of all.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
Holy Cross Day
Texts: 1 Corinthians 1:18-24; John 3:13-17
Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
What do you see when you look at the cross?
When you put a cross on a chain and place it around your neck, what are you saying? When you bow to the cross as it is carried into our worship, what are you thinking?
This feast of the Holy Cross has its origins in commemorating the fourth century finding of a beam of wood, excavated from a hill in Jerusalem, that the one leading the search, Helena, mother of the emperor, believed was the true cross of Christ. By Luther’s day there were enough pieces of the true cross in reliquaries across Christendom you could build Noah’s Ark from all of them.
So: is the cross a relic for you to adore? Is it a talisman when you wear it, where you feel protected? Do you wear it openly to declare your faith? Is it a reminder that Christ died for you and your sins?
All of these are very personal, individual understandings of the cross. As if Christ’s death was for each individual believer to own. Some of our more beloved cross hymns, like “When I survey the wondrous cross,” and, “Beneath the cross of Jesus I long to take my stand,” come from that personal perspective, using “I,” and “me,” viewing the cross primarily for the suffering and agony of Jesus on it, and the personal forgiveness of sins that are given through it.
But what if, when you looked at the cross, you held with you the words and teaching of the One who died on the cross? Jesus had a very particular and consistent focus that the cross reveals to you and me. We might want to pay attention to that.
I talk a lot about the “cross-shaped life,” and sacrificial, vulnerable, love as the way of Christ.
That’s because this is the guiding focus and thread of Jesus’ teaching. Jesus, the face of the Trinity for us, clearly called humanity to follow a self-giving path of love for neighbor and God that is sacrificial, vulnerable, focused on losing for the sake of the other.
So, can you look at the cross not only for your own sake, but as a call to a way of life, as Jesus meant it to be, the path Jesus has laid out for all who wish to follow?
There’s real danger in making the cross only your personal salvation talisman.
First, it implies that God’s plan of salvation is individualistic. If the only thing that matters is that I believe that Jesus died to save me from my sins, I don’t really ever have to think about the life and suffering and reality of my neighbor. The only concern I have for my neighbor is if they know they also are “saved” by the cross.
Second, this focus implies that the cross is only about a single, one-time transaction – Jesus died for me – and doesn’t necessarily lead to the life in Christ Jesus talked about. All I need to know is that I’m “saved,” that I get life after death. I don’t have to think about the shape of my life, because Jesus died to save me. Too often this creates a Christian life that bears little resemblance to Jesus’ teaching and command.
Here is the truth the Scriptures proclaim with joy: the Triune God pours out God’s life in love to show humanity the same path.
The true healing of the cross begins with the suffering and death of God’s Son and continues with my suffering love and yours, our willingness to lose our lives to find them. Jesus came to identify once and for all the way of Christ, the way God has always been calling God’s people to walk. Jesus models this way, teaches this way, and lets himself be killed to show that this way is the only way God will love the creation back into the life God intended for us.
Easter then is the great triumphant Life of God breaking through suffering and death, showing that this cross-shaped path of Christ, while difficult, is filled with life and hope and resurrection.
That’s what Jesus and his followers whose words are in Scripture have taught. It’s the wisdom that makes life rich and abundant, and leads to the healing of all things. But, as Paul says today, God’s wisdom in the cross is a wisdom that looks like foolishness to many. So let’s be sure we keep our eyes on Jesus, and our ears, too.
“When I am lifted up,” Jesus said, “I will draw all people to myself.” (John 12:32)
Yes, the cross is for you, and yes, your sins are fully and freely forgiven. But it is also for all, because God’s love is for the whole cosmos, Jesus proclaims today.
And seeing that when you look at the cross, the love of God in Christ flows in you through the Spirit and you are strengthened and fed to follow the same path of Christly love that the cross began. To look at the cross around your neck, or carried in worship, or hanging on your wall, and remember you are blessed to shape your life, your love, your whole being the same way.
And in this, Jesus’ hope to draw all people into Christ’s love will be realized.
In the name of Jesus. Amen