Finding the True Cross

Text: Phil. 2:5-11 / John 3:1-15

In the Name of the Father,  the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Last week, we heard Jesus say, “Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” I dare say all of us gathered here this morning have never had the same privilege that Blessed Thomas had, of seeing and touching the Lord’s wounds. However, we are here today because we have believed in the Good News that Jesus Christ is Lord; and we believe He has trampled down death by His death; and He has plundered Hades, taking captivity captive and now is sitting at the Father’s Right Hand.

You are sitting HERE today because by virtue of your baptism and chrismation. When you were chrismated, the priest anointed you with the sign of the cross made with holy chrism and declared that you are sealed by the gift of the Holy Ghost and marked as one of Christ’s own. Others of you are here with the express desire to be chrismated. ALL of us are choosing to be here because our hunger and thirst for the authentic Orthodox faith “which was once delivered to the saints” can be quenched here when we feed on the body and blood of our Saviour.

As God begins to form us, first as catechumens and later as chrismated members, we are like the arrows of a compass being magnetized and learning how to zero in on “true north.” We have been moved from the exalted heights of rejoicing at the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus on Pascha, to the lowest valley of doubt (last week) with Thomas. The honeymoon’s over, the excitement is gone as we learn to embrace the mundane daily grind of working out our salvation with fear and trembling. It’s common to our human nature, that after we have lived through a terrible tragedy filled with trauma and pain, we want to do our best at putting away anything that remotely reminds us of the chaos that invaded our lives without an invitation. Death by crucifixion on a cross was for criminals. It was unthinkable that the Rabbi from Nazareth would ever suffer a similar fate, at least in the minds of the disciples.

So today, instead of “ignoring the 900 lb gorilla in the middle of the room,” we face that instrument of horrific torture. We commemorate that which reminds us of the death of the innocent Lamb of God. We celebrate “The Finding of the True Cross” in approximately the year 325 A.D.

It was the prayers of his righteous mother Helen which had turned the Emperor Constantine towards finding his “true north” of faith in Christ Jesus. At his request St. Helen went to the Holy Land and established many churches there. Her greatest desire was to find the Cross on which our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. After long searches the place was discovered where the Lord's cross was hidden together with the two crosses on which the two thieves were crucified. Most accounts say they were able to identify the True Cross when after touching a sickly woman with all three, one of them instantly healed her. Immediately following that there was a funeral procession going by. The True Cross was placed on the corpse and the dead man was brought to life by a miracle of the Lord. Then the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Macarius stood on an elevated place and raised up the Cross so that the Christians could see it and venerate it. All the faithful fell to the ground before the Cross and with joy called out: “Lord, have mercy.”

St. Helen had a church built over the Holy Sepulchre to house the relic of the True Cross. This church was dedicated in the year 335. As the Cross was being carried into the church, it was again raised up. Since that time the Elevation of the Cross of the Lord has been celebrated as one of the twelve Great Feasts of the Church, thereby reminding Christians of the importance of the Cross as the means of our salvation and as a symbol of spiritual victory over sin and death.

This commemoration is no small thing. On Good Friday, there is a special part of the service where we venerate the Holy Cross. Then on September 14 of each year, we have the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, which involves most of today’s scriptural passages and prayers. Three times a year, our attention is drawn to the Cross, that horrible emblem of suffering and shame, in order for us to look upon it as that tool which has helped to bring life to the world.

It didn’t take very long after finding the True Cross, but by 347 AD, one can read where St. Cyril briefly described a tradition that was followed in Jerusalem on the morning of Holy Friday. The bishop, the clergy and the faithful would gather in the Chapel of the Cross which had been constructed by Constantine near Golgotha, and there they would venerate a large relic of the true Cross which was kept in a beautiful silver and gold reliquary.

St. Cyril is the first writer to comment on the fact that relics of the true Cross had been distributed all over the world. By the beginning of the fifth century, fragments of the true Cross were found in churches, monasteries and even in homes. In fact, St. John Chrysostom (d. 407) observed that many individuals in his day wore small gold reliquaries containing particles of the Cross around their necks. And here’s a water-cooler story you can share that will make you look smart…The expression "knock on wood" comes from the time Christians touched their reliquary crosses in times of trouble.

The sign of the Cross has always been the mark of ownership by God. You might say that it is the symbol on the end of His “branding iron.” When Cain was driven out of Eden after he murdered Able, God prevented his physical death by placing a mark on his forehead. That mark, in the Greek Septuagint version of the Scriptures is spelled with the Greek letter Tau, which is the shape of a cross. In Revelation 14:1, all of the redeemed of the Lord has “the Father’s name written on their foreheads.”

By the sign of the cross with sacred chrism you have “the Father’s name written on your foreheads.” On the eve of a battle against one of his adversaries; Emperor Constantine and all his army saw in heaven a sign of the Cross which was made up of stars with the Latin words "in hoc (signo) vinces" meaning "by this sign you will conquer." Then the Lord Jesus Christ Himself appeared in a dream to Constantine with a sign on which the form of a cross was made, and commanded him to make the same as a standard for his army, promising him victory.

The promised victory by the sign of the Cross is not reserved for Emperors like Constantine, but for you servants and handmaids of the Lord, today! In one of the prayers I will pray during the Canon of the Mass in a few minutes, you will hear, “Look down, O Lord, in mercy on this our sacrifice which we offer unto thee: that we, being preserved from all the wickedness of war, and through the standard of the holy Cross of thy Son being ever stablished with the protection of thy sure defence, may tread under foot the crafts and assaults of our adversaries….”

The Greeks were searching for wisdom from the Messiah. The Jews wanted political demonstration of power. What are you looking for in the Messiah? A god who will make you rich and famous? A god who will never let you suffer a case of the sniffles, or of cancer? The Jews looked for the coming of the Messiah in the form of a man who enjoyed what can be said as “a divine state of being.” This is what Paul means in his letter to his friends in Philippi in today’s epistle reading. Jesus’ state was divine, which to the Jews meant immunity from death, but Jesus burst their bubble of expectation. Instead of running the Romans out of town, Jesus emptied himself, became powerless, as a slave, into the condition of unredeemed humanity. He was a slave to material powers which had to end in death as all who are enslaved to the world must die. He chose to die, though, in a most remarkable way and he chose to live in a most remarkable way, not wasting a moment he had on arguments or gossiping. He died fully human and totally obedient to God, this is the inevitable consequence of obedience to God, to live your life for other people in the hopes that they may live theirs for you.

His ultimate goal was the reclaiming of the entire world to God’s sovereignty and glory and Christ made Himself subordinate to that so that we might live, so that we might have life and have it to the full. Paul asks his friends in Philippi to live their lives, in this great hymn of a passage from his letter, in a selfless way, to live in Christ and be caught up in the rhythm of the ultimate victory of the Divine Plan. This is what he calls you to as well, to emulate Christ, to take strength and succour from the Cross which is the symbol and the reality and the promise of the redemption and salvation of all humanity.

The Church Fathers teach that the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, was subsumed into the earth, only to re-emerge as The Holy Cross which bore the Fruit of Mary’s womb. He now says to you, “Eat my flesh, drink my blood, or ye shall not have life within you.”

By this sign of the True Cross, he has set you free from death and bought you new life.

By this sign your faith will conquer and prevail, even through the sinful squabbles of the faithless. YOU are to have faith; do not be afraid, your redemption has been assured through the blood-soaked wood of the Cross. This is all that is asked of you. Do for each other what He did for you.

In the Name of the Father,  the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen