Rev. John Campoli, i.v.dei
His Love Ministries

John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life,” is probably the most quoted and comforting line in scripture. Eternal life is offered to each of us. But the thing we must never forget is that without the Cross, there is no crown of glory.

In the day’s Gospel, Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, Jesus recalls the experience of the Israelites when Moses was leading them to the promised land. The people complained about the hardships they were experiencing in the desert and angered God, so He sent poisonous serpents, which killed many people. The Lord relented when they begged and asked forgiveness. Moses was instructed to make a bronze replica of a serpent and attach it to the end of his staff. When the people looked at the serpent-cross, they were healed. This was Jesus’ way of telling us that we will be healed if we but look to his Cross.  

When he died on the Cross, he took the punishment for all our sins. On judgment day, we do not need to fear condemnation, for as Paul reminds us in Romans 8:1, “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

But there’s more. Not only did Jesus take the punishment for our sins, but he also forgot that we even sinned in the first place. Truthfully, I wouldn’t want to go to heaven if God remembers. I couldn’t imagine standing at the gate of heaven and hearing him say to me, “John, we’ve been waiting for you!” Thank God that when we repent, our sins are blotted out, buried in the deepest sea.  As we  are told in Acts 3:19, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”

The Cross has become life to every Christian. When Jesus accepted death on the Cross, he put an end to death and let eternal life enter. Salvation, through the Cross, became the greatest irony in human history. What was once a place of death for many had become a source of new life for many.

Today’s feast is not a mere remembering or reenactment of how Jesus gave meaning to the Cross. This feast is also a reminder that we have our own crosses to carry and die on. But, like the people in the desert, we tend to complain.

There is a story of a group of cross-carrying pilgrims on the road to heaven. There was one man who constantly complained that his cross was too heavy and it dragged on the ground, making it difficult to carry. Along the way, they passed a Home Depot. The man put down his cross, ran in, and bought a saw, which he used to cut the end off his cross. With his lighter Cross, he continued his journey. Arriving at heaven, he saw a great chasm between him and the gate. He thought that if he put his Cross across the gap, he could crawl on it to the other side. But his Cross didn’t reach. It fell into the chasm. Then Jesus laid his own Cross over the gap, picked the man up, and carried him safely home.

We look to the Cross today, lifted before us: to see the wounded Jesus who is our healing Lord; the thorn-crowned Jesus who is our mighty sovereign; the suffering Jesus who is our hope, the victorious Jesus who is our promise of life forever.