Exaltation 2016

September 14, 2016

Preached by Sister Cecelia
Holy Wisdom Church


Is 10:25-27,11:10-12, 1 Cor1:17-28, Jn19:13-35



Life is so full of mysteries. An ignominious death on a cross was certainly one of the mysteries the followers of Christ had to deal with.

A stumbling block to the Jews because they were looking for a miracle worker that would free them from the yoke of the Romans. The whole of Chapter 53 of Isaiah describes all that happened to the servant of God in Isaiah’s time, which was a foretelling of what also happened to Jesus. Chapter 53 ends with “Because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” The Jews’ Messiah could not be this servant of God, according to their law from Deuteronomy 21, verse 23: “He that is hanged is accursed by God.” One who served God and ended on a Cross seemed an impossible picture of the Messiah, the Chosen One of God.

The Greeks found the notion of a God becoming human to be ridiculous for several reasons. Their notion of a god was a being with no feeling. If anyone or anything could influence the god, that thing or person was therefore better than or superior to the god. They viewed god as unchanging, and by our nature a human changes. A second-century writer expressed their reasoning with these words: “God is good and beautiful and happy and is in that which is most beautiful and the best.” The incarnation would be a change for a god to experience, a change from good to bad, from beautiful to ugly, from happiness to unhappiness, from what is best to what is worst. If one had the time to delve into the Greeks’ history, it might become apparent where their notions of what a god is came from. Nevertheless, if we look at our own notions of God versus the material world through the ensuing centuries, the desire for goodness, for happiness, to be “best” pervades Christianity throughout its history. The desire to be united with Absolute Goodness has been the aspiration of many and seems a good thing. The outlook that everything human is worse, unhappy, bad, and ugly seems to be missing the mark but has also been in evidence by many as well: flee from the “world.”


If we understand this Absolute Goodness as Love, some things fall into place (though mystery is still abundant). Let us ponder what Absolute Goodness—Love— has to do with the Cross.

What can we learn from celebrating this exaltation of the Cross?

The Cross is not merely a nice artistic addition to our churches. It is a constant reminder of our faith in the one who was slain for us. It is a reminder that because we each have free will, there will always be suffering. Contrary to what many think, suffering is not God’s will. However, with discernment we can learn to be at peace with suffering that we cannot avoid and even learn from, and suffering that we should try to eliminate as best we can.

The Cross is a reminder that by Christ’s dying and rising, the fear of death has been overcome. The mystery of this ignominious death becomes the joy of the Cross that Paul and the other apostles preached so boldly. It is the joy that comes from knowing that all things in heaven and on earth are reconciled in Jesus. Our ascent to the Divine and the descent to the world can be brought into harmony.

In the gospel of John, Jesus says that “when the Son of Man is lifted up he will draw all things to himself.” On Calvary all are united, Jew and Greek, male and female, as equals before God. It is love that draws all things into Christ. It is love that enables us to embrace all things as valuable in the eyes of God. It is a mystery that all are equals in God’s sight, but if all are equals then all are valuable. Even if we embrace this notion of all being loved by God, and we attempt to love as God loves, we find it not always possible. It is a humbling experience to realize that we cannot do or be what we would like to do or be without the help of God. In our attempts to love as God has commanded us to do, let us be mindful that God is with us to help us to live out this mystery of the goodness in all things.

Glory be to God!