Holy Cross Day - Saturday, September 14, 2019

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY

Br.  Bernard Delcourt, OHC
Holy Cross Day - Saturday, September 14, 2019

Isaiah 45:21-25
Galatians 6:14-18
John 12:31-36a

Click here for an audio version of the sermon.

In the death of Jesus of Nazareth, we witness the first act of a new creation which the Apostle Paul refers to in his epistle to the Galatians.

The second and third acts of this new creation are the resurrection and then the ascension of Jesus the Universal Christ. And I want us to focus on Act 1 of this new creation for now.

It may be nigh impossible, but I want us to focus on the crucifixion for a while without looking at it much from the perspective that the resurrection and the ascension give us nowadays.

Today, I remember Jesus’ passion and the place of the cross in his life. What meaning can we give to the cross from the perspective of a fully human Jesus coming into his passion?

To me, Jesus’ crucifixion achieves two important things that are often overlooked:
-First, it is his most powerful lesson in non-violent resistance to evil,
-Second, it fulfills the mystery of the Incarnation.

Of course, the crucifixion, and the cross as a symbol carry many more meanings than those. But I will focus on those two today.

*****

First, Jesus’ crucifixion is his last lesson in non-violent resistance to evil. In Jesus’ case, the evil is the combination of the Roman domination system, on one hand, and on the other hand, the religious authorities’ use of, and participation in that domination system.

In getting Jesus condemned and executed, the religious authorities ensured (or so they thought) the longevity of their institution (Temple Judaism). They felt they were protecting the religious and cultural identity of the Jewish people by sacrificing nothing more than a bothersome and vexing troublemaker. They had cut a coexistence deal with the Roman authorities and didn’t want it subverted by a wonder-working itinerant Galilean preacher.

The Roman authorities decided that the alleged claims to political power made by Jesus were enough of a threat to the Roman Peace in Palestine.

They also wanted to keep public quietude at the emotionally charged time of the Passover festival. And that was worth sacrificing a possibly innocent man.

Further, terrorizing the populace by showing what destiny awaited (even alleged) opponents of imperial supremacy was worth doing to consolidate their dominance.

But what about Jesus? Why didn’t he run for the hills when there was still time? Why did he not choose to continue his teaching and healing ministries in less menacing environments than Passover-bound Jerusalem? He had a faithful support base in Galilee. Why not go back and deepen the ministry there?

I suspect Jesus knew his ministry had reached a perilous tipping point (whether in Galilea or Judea). Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God was close at hand, indeed that the Kingdom of God was present.

He worked many wonderful signs that spoke of divine power. Many of his listeners, informed by centuries of hopes and expectations about a Messiah thought he would take the next step in their version of Messiahship and claim political power.

That would have involved rebellion against the Roman occupier. And such rebellion could not happen without extensive violence and bloodshed.

Many of Jesus’ followers may indeed have wanted him to be King of the Jews and a conquering and victorious King at that.

Earlier in this twelfth chapter of the gospel according to John, we have a report of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The crowds chanted: ‘Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord — the King of Israel!’

Jesus probably understood that the claim to kingship would lead to violent repression and suppression if he encouraged his followers to act out any further in this direction.

Indeed, this triumphal entry into Jerusalem very likely was enough to make the Roman authorities fear they had a risk of rebellion on their hands.

In effect, Jesus’ spiritual leading and teaching were at risk of being hijacked by an unstoppable political momentum. The populace wanted him King. He was not interested but knew it could no longer be stopped.
Jesus intuited or fully understood that his non-violent resistance to the political and religious authorities of Jerusalem would lead to martyrdom. I think that he chose to face this martyrdom to cut short the germs of violent insurrection amongst some of his followers.

In order to cement the non-violence of his ministry and maintain the spiritual nature of his teachings, he chose to remove the temptation of making him King of the Jews from the movement that supported him.

His death at the hands of the Roman occupier and his resurrection and ascension would compel his movement to focus on the signs and teachings he had given them rather than elaborate political liberation plans.

By choosing to face martyrdom, he preserved his movement from turning political and violent. He saved them from themselves and from massive retribution from the Roman authorities.

As John the Evangelist wrote: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).

*****

Second, Jesus’ crucifixion fulfills the mystery of the Incarnation. Christ is also fully human and trod this planet, as a poor Galilean itinerant preacher.

God chose to accept all of the human experience, up to and including the shame, the pain, and the injustice that is the fate of too many of our brothers and sisters.

Looked at from the point of view of the resurrection of Jesus the Christ, the cross is a promise that God will not abandon us. It is a promise that God will somehow, someway, work to bring life out of death. 

From the point of view of the ascension, it is also a promise that the trinitarian Godhead knows what it means to be human, fully human, in all its wonderful and dreadful variety and woe.

The cross makes it clear how human Jesus was and is. He did not call upon his divinity to sweep the passion away and skip carefree to the inclusion of his humanity in the Godhead.

In his passion, the very human Jesus of Nazareth did not have the benefit of hindsight on what the cross would come to mean after his death.

Jesus suffered doubt, fear, anxiety, and abandonment in the leading up to and suffering on the cross. I don’t think Jesus knew he would be resurrected. I think that would defeat the fullness and authenticity of his humanity.

Facing death as any one of us was essential to his human experience. He died as any human; taking nothing with him and with no cognitive certainty of what awaited him.

But on top of that, the cross did put a horrible fulfillment to his incarnation. There is no human trauma or tragedy that Jesus cannot relate to. In Christ, God has a fully experiential human empathy towards even our worst predicaments.

Maybe the fullness of the mystery of incarnation meant that Jesus couldn’t die peacefully of old age in crumpled sheets and surrounded by praying friends and relatives. In any case, it would have been a very different incarnation.

*****

So in our exaltation of the Holy Cross, let us remember Jesus’ teachings which he wanted to preserve to the point of accepting death.

Let us remember love of God, love of neighbor, and even, yes, love of enemies which he so beautifully demonstrated in his passion. Let us remember his preferential care for the poor whether economically and/or spiritually poor.

God became human and died on the cross, that we may hear these teachings, take them to our hearts, and embody them in our lives, regardless of how relevant the dominant culture around us finds those teachings.

“For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

Amen.