Word to the Wise
Monday, September 14, 2020 - Sept. 14: The Exaltation of the Cross
[Num 21:4b-9; Phil 2:6-11; John 3:13-17]"No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life." [John] Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. [Philippians]
The early Christian community was faced with a difficult fact. Jesus was put to death like a criminal! Crucifixion was the worst penalty the Romans could inflict and the bodies of the crucified were often left on the crosses for days as a warning to others! The image of the crucifixion did not appear in Christian art for a long time. Imagine a hangman's noose, an electric chair or a gas chamber as a symbol of salvation! How could the Christian preachers deal with the "awkward" fact that the Risen Lord had first been executed like the worst kind of criminal! Yet, it is the cross and not the empty tomb that has become the universal symbol of Christianity!!
St. Paul's Letter to the Philippians and the Gospel According to John offer two different interpretations. Paul focuses on the person of Jesus and the depth of his sacrifice - "even death on a cross." That indicates just how repugnant such a death could be. The evangelist John focuses on the effects of Jesus' "hour" and the revelation of his glory in the cross, drawing on the story of Moses and the serpent in the desert, in which looking at the "cross" with the bronze serpent could heal from the serpent's bite. One might find an echo of this also in St. Paul's Letter to the Galatians 6:14 in which he speaks of the "glory" of the cross.
The crucifix is a reminder of Christ's sacrifice. The cross (without Jesus' body on it) is a part of Christian life, as the gospels remind us. It is on Good Friday that we kiss a cross. This is not a thing of the past associated with Jesus but a present reality for all of us. AMEN