Intro The great event took place in 326 AD. Helen, the mother of Constantine, the emperor of the eastern half of the Roman Empire, found the “true” cross of Christ. After her son had made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, Helen went searching the religious sites in the Holy Land. During an excavation, trying to confirm where Jesus had died, she found what looked to be the remains of three crosses.
Main Body Three crosses? Surely, this couldn’t be merely coincidental. These had to be the crosses of the two criminals crucified next to Jesus--and, of course, the cross of Christ! But how could she tell which one was Jesus’ cross? She couldn’t! But when Helen heard about a miracle, when an ill woman touched one of the crosses and was healed, that settled it. That cross, the one through whom the woman was healed, that one had to be the cross of Christ. She then had the Church of the Holy Sepulcher built over where she had found the remains of that cross. On September 14, 335 AD, the remnants of that “true cross” were housed within the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. And so on this day, the Church celebrates the holy cross. But why the big deal about Holy Cross Day? It’s because the cross, dear saints of God, is the center of our theology. The cross is so important to the Faith that we set aside one day to focus only on that. As Dr. Martin Luther said in Latin, “crux sola nostra theologie”: The cross alone is our theology. One verse before today’s epistle reading, the Apostle Paul declared: “Christ didn’t send me to baptize but to preach the gospel--not with clever words, so the cross of Christ won’t be emptied of its power” (1 Corinthians 1:17). Throughout the New Testament, we find a similar emphasis on the cross. Elsewhere in 1st Corinthians, we hear: “While I was with you, I resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). Galatians tells us: “I have been crucified with Christ, so it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). In Ephesians, the Apostle Paul notes that we are reconciled to God “in one body through the cross” (Ephesians 2:16). And if that wasn’t enough, there’s more. In Colossians, we hear these life-creating and life-altering words: When you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ and forgave us all our sins. He did this by destroying the record of debt we owed, which stood against us and condemned us. He took the charges away by nailing them to the cross. [Colossians 2:13-14] And even more, we hear God’s call for us to live every day in the cross of Christ. As St. Paul wrote to the church in Galatia: “But as for me, God forbid that I should boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14). Did you notice that the Apostle Paul wrote all those passages, which I just quoted to you? Was Paul the only one who was so obsessed? No; it wasn’t just the Apostle Paul. All Scripture proclaims the saving Word of the cross. Consider the Old Testament. The prophesied Messiah to come, and what He would do to save us, is the center of the Old Testament. Shortly after our fall into sin, God promised that He would fix our sin problem by sending someone who would crush the head of that serpent, Satan. That someone, that enmity between Eve’s seed and Satan’s seed, was Jesus Christ. He would crush the serpent by dying His death, which Genesis poetically described as the serpent striking His heel (Genesis 3:15). And when the Israelites wandered in the desert after their exodus from Egypt, despising God and His servant, Moses, the Lord sent fiery serpents into their camp. After the snakes infested the camp, the Israelites then cried out to the Lord. And in that event, God relented and showed mercy to them by telling Moses to do something with prophetic meaning. God commanded Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole. Whoever looked to the serpent lifted on the pole would be saved. How was that prophetic? Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel reading: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32). Earlier in John’s Gospel, Jesus said: “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 3:14). As the serpent was lifted up, so also was Jesus on the cross. Whoever would look to him in faith and believe would not perish but have everlasting life. The cross is why Jesus came into the World. The cross was how He was glorified. The cross was even where Jesus showed us the Father’s glory, for it shows us how God the Father loves us--He gives His Son to die for us that we may live. The cross--that’s how you read the Bible. You look for Jesus crucified, for you. For God’s saving act, Jesus’ saving act, who is God in the flesh, saves you. The cross is why God the Father accepted Jesus’ sacrifice. And so because of that, You, dear Christian, live daily in the cross of Christ, or you have no part of Him. Isn’t that what Jesus says? “Whoever doesn’t take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it” (Matthew 10:38-39). Even for us living in a post-resurrection reality, the cross is still our central theme for daily life, for we are to live our lives in and under the cross of Christ. That reality is still true for us because that which made the cross necessary--sin and the cost of saving us--those are also the causes of our repentance and peace. The cross shows us our sin and our need to repent. And yet, the cross is also the source of our peace, for the cross was where Jesus took that sin to give us His righteousness. And so you live by dying in Christ. Every day, you “put to death” that which brings you eternal death. That’s what repentance is. And living in repentance, you live in humble gratitude for God’s gift of forgiveness and the blessing of new life that you have in Christ Jesus. Now, that life isn’t something that you can create within you. God brings forth that life in you, through the cross of Christ, for there, Christ died to serve us. And so, one way we live in the cross is by serving others. We live by living lives of service to others, living lives bound to the cross, moment by moment. Jesus described living the daily life of the Christian: “I assure you: unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces much grain” (John 12:24). The world would have us to believe in ourselves, to believe in anything but the cross of Christ. And if we were to listen to the world, trust in our own righteousness instead of Christ’s righteousness, then we would love our own life, and we would lose it. To love our life is to make our own comfort more important than Christ. The devil, the world, and our sinful flesh would slither between us and the cross, cutting us off from all its saving benefits. For in the cross of Christ, we have eternal life. But what then of the resurrection? Isn’t that also important? Oh, it is most important, for the resurrection affirms the value of the cross, not decreases it. When Christ was on the cross, the devil got to have his say. But when Jesus rose from the dead, the devil was silenced, for the resurrection shows that what Jesus did on the cross was not some fairy tale with a sad ending. The resurrection proves that Jesus won your salvation, paid for your sins, made you holy, and gives you His divine life from His work on the cross. So, dear saints loved by God, on this day of the Holy Cross, cling to Jesus and what He has done, for you. For in clinging to Him, you will find that this world’s sorrows and failings are passing and cannot eternally harm you. After all, you have life in the One who conquered all His enemies by triumphing over them on the cross, certified through His resurrection. On Holy Cross Day, we celebrate the cross and remember to cling to it for our salvation. But to cling to the cross, it is not the abstract idea of the cross that saves you. So, how can you cling to the cross? You have to cling to the fruits of the cross. You do so by hearing Jesus Christ and Him crucified preached into your ears. You do so by receiving what Jesus sacrificed to save you: His body and blood, which you receive in His Supper as God’s own promise and pledge to you of eternal life. So, no matter how bad life may be, no matter the hardships you face, the true reality of God’s love for you, His promise of forgiveness, life, and resurrection are now and will always be yours. For through God’s means of grace, you receive what Jesus did for you on the cross. Conclusion Your salvation comes from the cross of Christ. Your Christian life is one of living under the cross. And as Jesus awaited the resurrection, so also do we as cross-bearing Christians. For, in the same way that we have died with Christ in the waters of holy baptism, so also will we rise, body and soul, just like our Savior, and reign with Him in eternity (Romans 6:3-5, 2 Timothy 2:12). First the cross, then the crown--and it’s only yours in Christ Jesus. That’s why we remember Holy Cross Day. Amen. -- Rich Futrell, Pastor Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Kimberling City, MO http://sothl.com Where we receive and confess the faith of the Church (in and with the Augsburg Confession): The faith once delivered to the saints, the faith of Christ Jesus, His Word of the Gospel, His full forgiveness of sins, His flesh and blood given and poured out for us, and His gracious gift of life for body, soul, and spirit. _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
