1 Corinthians 1:18-25; St John 12:20-33
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
The Festival of the Holy Cross originally commemorated what was considered the discovery of the original cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the early fourth century AD, St Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, undertook an archaeological search for the cradle of Christianity within the city of Jerusalem. That holy city had been destroyed and rebuilt countless times under the Roman Empire following its destruction in AD 70 as our Lord Jesus has prophesied.
The presumed sites of our Lord’s crucifixion and burial were uncovered, dug out from the rubble of Jerusalem’s destruction and rebuilding. Tradition says that three crosses were discovered in this process and one of the three was presumed to be the Cross on which Christ Jesus Himself had been crucified when it “self-identified” by effecting a miraculous healing.
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was constructed on this archaeological site. This building was dedicated on September 13, AD 335, but the Holy Cross was exposed for public veneration for the first time on the next day, September 14. Tomorrow.
Martin Luther wasn’t a huge fan of feasts and festivals dedicated to the Holy Cross. He recognized in them a latent superstition akin to the relic trafficking he so long had opposed. He once quipped that if all the alleged pieces of the “true cross” were gathered together it would construct a cross over fifty feet high and twenty feet wide! Rather than fixating on the relics, better to direct your attention to the crucified and risen Lord Christ, whom St Paul says, “This is what we preach. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The power and wisdom of God.”
Anecdotally I would like to add that I received my requisite years off purgatory when I mistakenly visited and beheld a relic of the true Cross while in High Cross Abbey in Ireland. Curb your enthusiasm. It was a piece of wood smaller than your Amazon Firestick encased in glass and ensconced in a cross mosaic on the side wall of a chapel. There was no authenticating its providence, but the curator sure moved quickly when I tried to touch it. So much for those years off purgatory.
The truth is, we celebrate the Festival of Holy Cross Day not because of the Cross found by St Helena nor by bits of wood and relics scattered around the world claiming to be authentic or miraculous. Holy Cross Day is celebrated because of the triumph and victory of our Lord upon the indisputably real Cross that once was planted on Golgotha.
There, in love, the Father’s eternal Son and the Son of the Blessed Virgin Mary emptied Himself of His life. His blood stained that sacred crucifix and blotted out the sin of the world. His death proved death’s destruction. His Body hallowed the graves of all who die in Him when His divine life and love were finally and gloriously indigestible and Christ has raised from the dead never to die again.
We celebrate Holy Cross Day because that Good Friday was the glorification of the saving Name of the Father as His Son was raised up from the earth in order to draw all men to Himself. We celebrate Holy Cross Day because the lifeless Body of the only begotten Son of God sanctified the wood of that Cross and made that instrument of death into the true Tree of Life. We lift high the Cross because in it the love of God is proclaimed.
And this is how Holy Cross Day is rightly celebrated. Not in pilgrimages or adorations. But in the bold and fierce proclamation of Jesus Christ and Him crucified for the salvation of the world. This preaching is madness and stupidity to a world enveloped by sin and blinded by a false and seductive beauty. The bloody death of Christ Jesus has broken sin’s hold on the world and Satan’s grasp on you. His gruesome, cruel death is, in fact, the most glorious and beautiful sight to behold. This worldly foolishness is divine wisdom and in its preaching is the instrument of salvation to all who believe.
When some Mormons visited my house they were appalled and offended by the crucifixes we have hanging in our home. But I rejoice and boast with St Paul in the Cross of my Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified and me and I to the world, even as we pray while we vest with the pectoral crucifix (Gal 6:14). What did you just sing? “Faithful cross, true sign of triumph, Be for all the noblest tree; None in foliage, none in blossom, None in fruit thine equal be; Symbol of the world’s redemption, For the weight that hung on thee!” (LSB 454:4).
We celebrate the Festival of the Holy Cross and rejoice in the Crucifix of our Lord because we know by faith that God used and uses suffering to bring blessing; the way He worked and works so contrary to anything human reason could or would ever conceive.
We celebrate the Festival of Holy Cross Day for by His Cross we are crucified, dead, and buried with Him in Holy Baptism and in daily repentance. And from the same Cross we receive the absolution that “bespeaks us righteous,” by which we also rise with Christ unto newness of life. The Cross is exulted in our lives by self-sacrificing love for our neighbor, as it is lifted up for us by the preaching of the Gospel, by which we are drawn to Christ in faith and through Him, our Great High Priest, brought into the Holy of Holies made without hands, to our Father in heaven.
It is under this banner and before our closing eyes that we behold the Cross in our dying day. It shall shine through the gloom and point us to the skies. Heaven’s morn shall break and earth vain shadows flee. In life and in death, our holy crucified Lord shall abide with you.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
The Festival of the Holy Cross originally commemorated what was considered the discovery of the original cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the early fourth century AD, St Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, undertook an archaeological search for the cradle of Christianity within the city of Jerusalem. That holy city had been destroyed and rebuilt countless times under the Roman Empire following its destruction in AD 70 as our Lord Jesus has prophesied.
The presumed sites of our Lord’s crucifixion and burial were uncovered, dug out from the rubble of Jerusalem’s destruction and rebuilding. Tradition says that three crosses were discovered in this process and one of the three was presumed to be the Cross on which Christ Jesus Himself had been crucified when it “self-identified” by effecting a miraculous healing.
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was constructed on this archaeological site. This building was dedicated on September 13, AD 335, but the Holy Cross was exposed for public veneration for the first time on the next day, September 14. Tomorrow.
Martin Luther wasn’t a huge fan of feasts and festivals dedicated to the Holy Cross. He recognized in them a latent superstition akin to the relic trafficking he so long had opposed. He once quipped that if all the alleged pieces of the “true cross” were gathered together it would construct a cross over fifty feet high and twenty feet wide! Rather than fixating on the relics, better to direct your attention to the crucified and risen Lord Christ, whom St Paul says, “This is what we preach. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The power and wisdom of God.”
Anecdotally I would like to add that I received my requisite years off purgatory when I mistakenly visited and beheld a relic of the true Cross while in High Cross Abbey in Ireland. Curb your enthusiasm. It was a piece of wood smaller than your Amazon Firestick encased in glass and ensconced in a cross mosaic on the side wall of a chapel. There was no authenticating its providence, but the curator sure moved quickly when I tried to touch it. So much for those years off purgatory.
The truth is, we celebrate the Festival of Holy Cross Day not because of the Cross found by St Helena nor by bits of wood and relics scattered around the world claiming to be authentic or miraculous. Holy Cross Day is celebrated because of the triumph and victory of our Lord upon the indisputably real Cross that once was planted on Golgotha.
There, in love, the Father’s eternal Son and the Son of the Blessed Virgin Mary emptied Himself of His life. His blood stained that sacred crucifix and blotted out the sin of the world. His death proved death’s destruction. His Body hallowed the graves of all who die in Him when His divine life and love were finally and gloriously indigestible and Christ has raised from the dead never to die again.
We celebrate Holy Cross Day because that Good Friday was the glorification of the saving Name of the Father as His Son was raised up from the earth in order to draw all men to Himself. We celebrate Holy Cross Day because the lifeless Body of the only begotten Son of God sanctified the wood of that Cross and made that instrument of death into the true Tree of Life. We lift high the Cross because in it the love of God is proclaimed.
And this is how Holy Cross Day is rightly celebrated. Not in pilgrimages or adorations. But in the bold and fierce proclamation of Jesus Christ and Him crucified for the salvation of the world. This preaching is madness and stupidity to a world enveloped by sin and blinded by a false and seductive beauty. The bloody death of Christ Jesus has broken sin’s hold on the world and Satan’s grasp on you. His gruesome, cruel death is, in fact, the most glorious and beautiful sight to behold. This worldly foolishness is divine wisdom and in its preaching is the instrument of salvation to all who believe.
When some Mormons visited my house they were appalled and offended by the crucifixes we have hanging in our home. But I rejoice and boast with St Paul in the Cross of my Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified and me and I to the world, even as we pray while we vest with the pectoral crucifix (Gal 6:14). What did you just sing? “Faithful cross, true sign of triumph, Be for all the noblest tree; None in foliage, none in blossom, None in fruit thine equal be; Symbol of the world’s redemption, For the weight that hung on thee!” (LSB 454:4).
We celebrate the Festival of the Holy Cross and rejoice in the Crucifix of our Lord because we know by faith that God used and uses suffering to bring blessing; the way He worked and works so contrary to anything human reason could or would ever conceive.
We celebrate the Festival of Holy Cross Day for by His Cross we are crucified, dead, and buried with Him in Holy Baptism and in daily repentance. And from the same Cross we receive the absolution that “bespeaks us righteous,” by which we also rise with Christ unto newness of life. The Cross is exulted in our lives by self-sacrificing love for our neighbor, as it is lifted up for us by the preaching of the Gospel, by which we are drawn to Christ in faith and through Him, our Great High Priest, brought into the Holy of Holies made without hands, to our Father in heaven.
It is under this banner and before our closing eyes that we behold the Cross in our dying day. It shall shine through the gloom and point us to the skies. Heaven’s morn shall break and earth vain shadows flee. In life and in death, our holy crucified Lord shall abide with you.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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