2025-09-14 Holy Cross Day

Scripture Readings

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen!

Today is September 14 which commemorates the festival of Holy Cross Day in our church calendar. What does this mean? Well I’m glad you asked because there is some incredible history behind this festival. Picture it. Rome 326AD. 1699 years ago. Constantine the Emperor of Rome had converted to Christianity and began a process and mission of locating all the actual locations connected to our Lord Jesus’ life and ministry. Because the Bible isn’t just fairy tales and the recorded events actually happened, it makes sense that you could find the places where they did. Thus began this great quest to geo-locate all the Holy sites. Put up a neon sign in Bethlehem: “Birth place of the Messiah!” Nazareth: “Home town of the Saviour!” Grassy knoll where He fed the populace with the loaves and the fishes? “‘Thrills and Gills’ bakery and coffee shop!” You get the drift. So Emperor Constantine tasks his mother Helena with this ancient map-quest. Find and record all the sites from our Lord’s birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension.

This was no doubt a difficult task. Long before the days of Google Maps and Satellite navigation, she travelled around taking hints from the oral traditions that were still alive in the hearts and minds of the people. The other difficulty was that as we know, Jerusalem was sacked and destroyed by the Romans in 70AD. This was a recurring theme in history. Build the city. Destroy it. Build it up again. Burn it with fire. Helena found a site that was thought to be the exact spot where our Lord was crucified: Golgotha. She ordered and excavation, and according to tradition, behold, they discovered three crosses! But which one was our Lord crucified on? For the ultimate litmus test of authenticity, they brought a sick woman and had her touch each cross. She received a miraculous healing when she touched one of the crosses - obviously the one on which our Lord gave His life for the life of the world.

Now instead of building some Al Capone Tunnels as a tourist attraction on these sites, what did Constantine do? He ordered that a church should be built on these places to commemorate them. The church of the Holy Sepulchre was built and dedicated on September 14, 335AD. The true cross of Jesus was enshrined there and the anniversary of this date became a significant festival in the Christian liturgical calendar. The rest, as they say, is history. And low and behold, here we are in 2025 celebrating this same commemoration.

Whether Helena found our Lord’s actual cross or not is debatable and in fact, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that it actually happened - Jesus the Messiah willingly suffered and died on that old rugged cross for the forgiveness, life and salvation of the world. The eye witness testimony and the Gospel writers all reliably recorded what happened when Pontius Pilate gave the order at the goading of the Jewish crowd. A Roman instrument of torture, designed to kill people in the most excruciating way possible, the cross is where that word comes from ex crucis - from the cross. It was definitely not a normal symbol of success or glory fit for a King.

Everybody knew this, 2000 or so years ago. It was an utterly terrible fate to be crucified. A death reserved for the vilest offenders. A dire warning for everyone! Modify your behaviour or you’ll end up just like this! Nobody in ancient Rome had a cross up on their living room wall. There were no athletes and celebrities wearing big blingy gold crosses around their necks on a chain. The only place that Roman crosses were seen was on the outskirts of towns with criminals nailed to them, suffering and dying in the scorching heat of the sun. Bones in the hands and feet rubbing directly on the metal of the nails, buzzards and birds of prey circling above, waiting for the bonanza to begin as swarms of flies happily sought to use the crucified bodies as nurseries for maggots.

Who would have thought that this would have been the prophetic fulfillment of our Old Testament reading from Numbers? The sinners and serpents in the wilderness. Israel’s loathing of the Lord resulted in snake bites. And the remedy? “And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live” (21:8-9). This story absolutely encapsulates the paradox of the cross. An instrument of suffering of and death is transformed into a symbol of victory, healing and redemption. Life is proclaimed in the midst of death as the people look in faith and live through the crucifixion of Christ our Lord.

It seems so crazy! It’s the opposite of glory and triumph and every other Hollywood Blockbuster Movie ever. The main character doesn’t just die in a terrible way, full of suffering and shame. But St. Paul makes it abundantly clear: “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God … we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” (1Cor1:18…23). The cross is the very power and wisdom of God because it was the chosen method of dealing with sin, death and the devil once and for all. Just like Moses and the bronze serpent, we look to the suffering of Christ our Messiah and there we see forgiveness, life and salvation. There we see the very promise of God, His Divine declaration that we in our sins are not-guilty. For the innocent one has done what we could not do. Christ our Lord provides us with the medicine of immortality in His crucifixion and resurrection from the dead.

What is crazy in the eyes of the world is our eternal hope and consolation and joy! At every funeral service we boldly proclaim that death doesn’t have the last word because Christ the Word of God has been crucified for the life of the world. He graciously laid down His perfect life for His friends and His enemies, the very Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world. Look to Him and live! Believe and receive the grace of God in Christ alone. This is the message of the Gospel that is unique in all the world.

The light of the world that no darkness could overcome came into our world in Jesus Christ. And He purposely set His eyes towards the cross, ever marching headlong into this sign of total darkness, despair and death. And yet, at the moment of our Lord’s crucifixion, the Divine light of heaven shone and refracted throughout eternity. Failure in the world’s eyes became conquest. Humiliation becomes exultation. Sin becomes righteousness. Death becomes life. None of this is possible without the old rugged cross. Satan and the forces of evil thought that they had won the day. But they had no idea that the greatest instrument of suffering and death would become their undoing. This is the theology of the cross. This is why we lift it high today and always.

Like Emperor Constantine and Helena, we likewise seek the cross and the eternal mystery of its salvation. For Jesus our Lord tells us as His people: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (MK 8:34). This is what it means to be a Christian, a follower of Jesus. How is our Lord calling you to do this in our world today? How can your sacrifice of self benefit and transform others? Think about the time, talents and treasure that God has given you. As you search for your cross to bear, do so through the lenses of love for your neighbours. This is something the Lord is calling each of us to do. Take up your cross and follow Christ, laying down your life for others in many and various ways. In the Name of Christ Jesus, the crucified Saviour of all, Amen!