The Elevation of the Holy Cross

Tuesday, September 14, 1999

Strict Fast

Back Home

Readings for the Day: Epistle: 1 Corinthians 1:18-24

Gospel: St. John 19:6-35

(Commentary taken from DYNAMIS! A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral Wichita, KS )


The Power of Thy Cross: St. John 19:6-35, especially vs. 11, "Jesus answered, "You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore, the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin." A right intuition led Pontius Pilate to hesitate in the judicial proceedings when the Lord informed him that his power was both finite and derived from God (Jn. 19:11). The power of the Cross of Jesus Christ plainly is the power of God. The Church is most blessed, for we know what Pilate only sensed.

Knowing this truth, we address the Cross in personal language, adore it, greet it and fall down before it as the footstool of our Almighty Lord, God and Savior, recognizing its great power to guide, heal, raise the dead, and deify men. To further reveal the truths of the Cross, God has given us the record of the Lord's Crucifixion and Resurrection. Let us examine this record, especially the words of the Lord Jesus, that God might grant us His salvation.

We begin with the Lord's statements quoted above (vs. 11), and the only statement He made in response to the charge of blasphemy, to the accusation that "...He made Himself the Son of God" (vs. 7). The Jewish leaders did not actually deliver Him to Pilate on this basis. Rather, they insinuated that He was "an evil doer," a criminal (Jn. 18:30). Only when they had mob pressure pushing for His crucifixion did they accuse Him of claiming to have Divine sanction.

The Lord Jesus posed a problem. He did not fit any popular model of the Messiah, and, furthermore, the Chief Priests in no sense perceived Him as such. However, by politely accepting their question, "Are you the Son of God" (Lk. 22:70), He gave them cause to conclude that He was in fact blaspheming (Lk. 22:71).

In a similar way, His answer to Pontius Pilate implied that He accepted both the title, "Son of God," and the claim to be the Messiah. However, for Pilate any suggestion that He was the Messiah was a purely political issue fraught with potential for rebellion and popular uprising. For our part, Beloved, we read the Crucifixion accounts with the Church. Our Apostolic leaders produced these records of the Lord's arrest and execution, and these Holy Scriptures affirm that men crucified the incarnate God, our Lord Jesus the Christ.

The Crucifixion record shows that the Jewish leaders prevailed over Pilate's hesitation (Jn. 19:12,15), being determined to be rid of Jesus of Nazareth (Jn. 11:53). However, the next word the Lord of the Universe spoke was delivered from the Cross, His "footstool" (Jn. 19:26).

He says to His human mother, "Woman, behold your son," and to St. John, "Behold, your mother" (vss. 26, 27). Thereby, He tells us, "I was "born of woman, born under the Law, to redeem..." all who are under the Law (Gal. 4:4). He silences any gnostic who would spiritualize the Gospel and remove the objective, physical reality that "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself" (2 Cor. 5:19). How greatly God values our humanity even to share our death!

To make clear that all was according to His plan, when He was dying, He says, "I thirst" (vs. 28; and Ps. 69:21). As St. John Chrysostom observed: "this Death was of a new kind...in the power of the Person dying, and death came not on the Body before He willed it....Therefore also He said, 'I have power to lay down My life; and I have power to take it again'" (Jn. 10:18). Understand, God has the power of life and of death as He wills.

Finally, being God and knowing when His great redemptive work was completed, He added, "It is finished!" (vs. 30). "Today, as the Cross is elevated, evil spirits are driven away; today the whole creation is delivered from corruption...all gifts have shone forth upon us."

O Lord, save Thy People and bless Thine inheritance, granting to Thy People victory over all their enemies; and by the power of Thy Cross preserving Thine estate.