1st Reading : Numbers 21.4-9
2nd Reading: Philippians 2.5-11
Gospel : John 3.13-17
Text: God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved (John 3.17).
What is Holy Cross Day all about? The prophets of old cried: Repent, or else. In our first reading snakes were used to bring the people back to God. ‘We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Now pray to the Lord to take these snakes away’. The snakes were not taken away, but through Moses God taught the people that if only they would trust him and turn to him, the snakes would do them no harm. As we heard in our gospel reading, Jesus himself saw this as a prefiguring of his own sacrifice on the Cross. When we turn to Jesus, the world is still full of all sorts of terrible things, the snakes at our feet, but the saving power of the Cross means that they no longer have the power to poison our lives.
I have been struck recently by the threatening terms in which our public and political discourse is conducted. Vote for the Union, or else. Don’t expect us to help you to keep the pound or retain your membership of the EU. Or again: Let’s defend British values, let’s keep out the people who aren’t like us, and maybe withdraw their citizenship. Hang on, I hear you say. Don’t mix religion with politics. But we can’t keep them apart. Paul commands us to have the same mind in us that was in Christ Jesus. God so loved the world that He gave his Son … In place of the old regime of laws, reinforced by prophetic threats and judicial punishments, Jesus established a new narrative of unconditional, compassionate love, expressed in humble, obedient service, and carried through to the point of accepting death at our hands. That’s what Holy Cross Day is about.
It follows that when we are tempted to say: Do what I tell you, or else, we need to pause. We need to remember that God showed us in Jesus a better way. We need to pray that he will show us what to do in that difficult, complex situation we are facing. It’s not an invitation to allow ourselves to be walked over. The challenge we face is to work out what a compassionate parent or colleague, organisation or indeed nation should do. That’s where we need to take our stand, and we need to be prepared to pay the price, even if we are overwhelmed by the opposition, as Jesus himself was overwhelmed. It takes careful thought and prayer to make sure we are doing the right thing, courage to stand firm and see it through. But if that’s what we do, we should take comfort in the promise implicit in our second reading, that just as our pain will be joined to his pain, so too will our triumph be joined to his triumph.
When St John set out to write his gospel, his object was not simply to record all he could remember about Jesus’ life. There was lots more he could have written, he tells us, but ‘these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name’ (John 20.31). ‘God so loved the world that He gave his only Son’ (John 3.16). As we raise our eyes to the cross, that act of supremely generous love pleads with each one of us for a corresponding response of total, unconditional commitment.
One day in the summer of 1948, I was walking home with my father from a service on the beach at Shoreham, when he asked me, in one of those heart-stopping moments when the world stands still: Have you given your heart to the Lord Jesus? The language was strangely stilted even then, and I remember feeling a bit hurt that he should have felt it necessary to ask. But I did mutter or splutter an affirmative response. So he squeezed my hand, and we walked home across the river in companionable silence.
The way we respond to God’s love differs according to our age and our nature. It may be with the simplicity of a small child; or it may be with the more grown-up self-awareness of the centurion – Lord, I believe; help me where faith falls short. But if you have never actually made that commitment in response to the love which is reaching out to you from the cross, I would urge you to do so. Do it in your own way, say it in your own words, but do it to-day, do it this morning, and allow the peace and joy of the Lord Jesus to fill your heart – and his – as he takes your hand and walks home with you.
We begin by accepting salvation for ourselves. As we go on, seeking by his grace to cultivate in ourselves – as Paul has it – the mind that was in Christ Jesus, we may begin to learn what it means to love the world, as He loves the world. For thirty years he played and worked, he loved and laughed and wept. He lived life to the full. But he did so in the context of a love for God his Father, and for the world, which was so absolute, so unconditional that he was prepared to give it all up, even to lay down his life, if that was what love required. That’s what Holy Cross Day means. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.