1 Corinthians 1:18-24
John 19: 6-35
No matter what it might be, everyone
trusts in something or in someone. We bet
our health, happiness, and even our lives on all kinds of people every day,
ranging from our family members and friends to people we do not know, such as
airline pilots and the workers who make our cars. If we refused to trust anyone with our
well-being, we simply could not live in society.
At the very heart of our faith as
Orthodox Christians stands our deep trust in a Person, our Lord, God, and
Savior Jesus Christ. By His Cross, our
Savior has conquered sin and death and made it possible for us all to become participants
in eternal life. To believe in the power
of His Cross is not simply to affirm that Christ died upon it or to be able to
describe in words why it is important to our faith. No, to believe and trust in Christ’s Cross is
to bet our lives on His sacrificial offering.
It is to think, act, and speak from our hearts in ways that manifest our
Lord’s way of holy, loving obedience. It is for the Cross to become the deep
truth of our lives. And even as no one
forced or required the Savior to accept the Cross, no one forces us to take up
our crosses or to follow on His path of selfless love.
Whether in first-century Palestine
or twenty-first century America, the way of the Cross is neither popular nor
easy; it naturally attracts no one. We
should never forget that the Romans nailed people to crosses in order to make
them die painful, slow deaths. They
publically humiliated and tortured them as a reminder to everyone else of what
they would do to their enemies. Who
would be attracted to that?
St. Paul recognized the offense of
the Cross by calling it a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles. In other words, the Jews were hoping for a
conventional political and military leader to conquer their earthly enemies,
not One who would die a shameful death at the hands of the Romans. For Gentiles, crucifixion was the most
disgraceful way to die; consequently, it made no sense to worship someone who
died like that. But St. Paul experienced
personally the new life that the crucified and risen Savior has brought to the
world. He knew in his soul the power and wisdom of God that seems like
foolishness and weakness to those who live and die by the false gods of this
world. He proclaimed One so strong and
righteous that He overcame the very worst that corrupt political and religious
leaders could do to Him. St. Paul
trusted this Lord and literally bet his life on Him by eventually dying as a
martyr.
Perhaps we have heard the story of
Christ’s crucifixion so many times that we have lost our sense of shock and
horror about the public torture and execution of the incarnate Son of God. This was not only the death of an innocent
human being, but the slaughter of the God-Man. The One Who spoke the universe into existence became
the Passover Lamb that takes away the sins of the world through His sacrifice. The One Who is “Holy, Holy, Holy” accepted
the very worst misery and punishment that fallen humanity could devise in order
to save us.
Those who worship the false gods of
power, wealth, and pleasure continue to view Him and His Cross as foolish and
weak. But those who like St. Paul have
experienced in their souls the wisdom and power of God know better. This is not the kind of knowledge that
confirms that “two plus two equals four,” but the kind of knowledge that comes
only from trust, love, and personal encounter.
True spiritual knowledge roots in the soul and is the stuff of
experience, not abstract thoughts. Even
those who claim that power, wealth, and pleasure are the ultimate truths of
life do so not because they are particularly intelligent, but because they love
power, wealth, and pleasure. They have given
their lives to them and that is how they see the world. Likewise, there is no
path to the knowledge of the power of the Cross without taking up our crosses,
without serving Christ through lives of obedience and sacrificial love. We must entrust ourselves to Him if we are to
know Him and the power of His Cross.
To trust the Lord in this way is not
simply to have religious thoughts and feelings.
Think of what it means really to trust another human being who is very
close to you. It is not simply about
occasional words, thoughts, or even deeds, but an ongoing relationship that
changes us, requires something of us daily, and opens our eyes to new dimensions
of who this person is and of who we may become.
If we truly love someone, we sacrifice for them in meaningful ways on an
ongoing basis. So if you wonder why the
Church calls us to pray, fast, forgive, repent, give to the needy, and lead
pure and righteous lives, here is an important part of the answer. It is through such practices, done with faith
and humility, that we strengthen our relationship with Jesus Christ. We know and experience the Lord by entrusting
ourselves to Him through practical steps that we take every day in serving Him
and our neighbors in Whom He is present.
In His crucifixion, Jesus Christ has
made clear that He is no stranger even to our most horrible sufferings, pains,
and fears. Our salvation has appeared not
in an imaginary world of perfect people with no problems, but in the same
broken reality that we experience every day.
On this Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, let us remember that
the One worthy of our trust is He Who endured the full consequences of sin and
death in order to bring us into His holiness and eternal life. He did so purely out of love, even for those
who killed Him. Christ’s Cross manifests
the love of God that has conquered even the tomb and Hades. Therefore, let us trust Him with our lives
and take up our crosses daily so that we will grow in our knowledge of the
crucified Christ. For as St. Paul put
it, “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.”
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