Holy Cross Day Sermon - 09.14.2025
The Cross?
Or Christ
Crucified?
1 Corinthians 1:18-25 & John 12:20-33
Holy Cross
Day – 09.14.2025
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
September 14, has historically been celebrated since 335 AD as Holy Cross Day. One legend claims that Helena, Emperor Constantine’s mother, went to Jerusalem to discover the precise location of location of the crucifixion of our Lord. Legend states that three crosses were unearthed and a dying woman touched them and only one of them healed her.
Yeah, right! Neither the healing nor Helena’s trip is verifiable. However the date of the feast marks the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 335. It was a two-day festival. The church consecrated on September 13th and the cross discovered on the site of the crucifixion was brought outside the church on September 14th so that the faithful could pray before the True Cross.
Legends and stories abound, let them. But, it did not take until 335 AD for God’s faithful to think of the cross with such high regard. Paul says in our Epistle lesson: For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Did you note something though. It
was not just the cross – two pieces of wood that form a “T” shape – that Paul
was extolling. When he speaks about the “word of the cross” is it always Christ
crucified.
He also warns why the cross as
Christ crucified will be a problem. It will be a stumbling block to Jews and
folly to Gentiles.
Jews will have a problem with it
because it does not seem victory. No first-born die at the hands of God’s
avenging angel. No sea is parted! No walls fall down! No fire comes out of
heaven consuming the sacrifice, wood, stone altar, and the water surrounding it!
As to Gentiles, all those born
outside the lineage of Abraham, a naked man whose flesh looks like raw
hamburger and whose brow is encircled by a wicked crown of thorns and who dies
transfixed to a cross is certainly foolishly considered to be God. Where is the
might and power? This is a man utterly defeated!
Of course, three days later the tomb
is empty. It is plainly obvious that death could not keep God’s Christ encased
in a stone sepulcher.
It did not take long for the world
to know the full story of His death and resurrection.
In
fact, just before His ascension, Jesus explicitly tell the disciples what they
are to preach. From Luke’s Gospel we learn: Then Jesus said to
them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with
you, that everything written about mM in the Law of Moses and the Prophets
and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened
their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to
them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on
the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance
for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to
all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
(Luke 24:44-48)
When we know what must be proclaimed
about Him, the cross takes on a greater significance. This is also what Jesus
foretells in our Gospel lesson. “Now
is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.
And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
It
is not a cross that draws the world to Jesus, it is Christ crucified – it is
the lifted up Christ upon the cross that draws people to Himself.
What
is so significant about the bronze serpent that the people bitten by poisonous
snakes could look at it and live? Was there some magical power in it? No!
To
put it simply, to look at the bronze serpent on a pole if you were bitten by a
serpent and expect healing is rather foolish. You need anti-venom, or at the
very least have the poison sucked out. Or…
How
could looking at that bronze serpent on a stick bring about life to one who is
bitten by one of these fiery serpents?
Because
God declared that is what would happen when you looked upon the bronze serpent.
When people trusted God’s Word of promise that there would be healing when they
did what He commanded, there was healing. Trusting God’s Word brought life.
Jesus proclaimed that judgment against the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh would be carried out when He is lifted up – that is, when He is crucified.
hose bit by the serpent were dying – there were no two ways about it. Trust God at His Word, look at the serpent, or die – from a serpent’s bite that felt like fire coursing through your veins.
Sinfulness is coursing through your veins and mine. But we do not like to think of ourselves as having to need someone to die in our place.
We
especially do not like to consider the awful suffering Jesus endured though His
“innocent suffering and death” by crucifixion – as something we *NEED* Christ
to endure.
The 2nd person of the Trinity gave His life on the cross – God died to remove sin, for we cannot please God of own. It is why the cross looks weak, why it is foolishness to Gentiles, and a stumbling block for Jews, for it removes all self-righteousness.
It not only
shows we are helpless in sin, but Christ crucified – a cross with Christ dying
upon it – shows the incredible depth of suffering Son of God was willing the
endure to purchase you and me from our lost condition – forgiveness is
purchased and accomplished.
When we come to the Table of the Supper Christ sets before you of His own flesh and blood, Paul declares that it is about the cross: For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. (1 Cor. 11:26)
Let us celebrate Holy Cross Day rightly. It is not just a cross, but the instrument by which your forgiveness was purchased and by which your redemption was won. Again the Cross of Christ to be portrayed before your very eyes, preached into your ears and planted in your hearts.
We rejoice this day, as we do every Sunday,
that Christ was lifted up upon the cross, gave His life unto death, and was
raised by His Father on the third day, that we might be lifted up unto eternal
life in His Kingdom.
Our sermon hymn helps us to sing these truths. (I am sorry that I cannot get the hymn to have proper line spacing. It is frustrating. But, in an effort to put out another post, I did it as is.)
1 The royal banners forward go;
The cross shows forth redemption's flow,
Where He, by whom our flesh was made,
Our ransom in His flesh has paid:
2 Where deep for us the spear was dyed,
Life's torrent rushing from His side,
To wash us in the precious flood
Where flowed the water and the blood.
3 Fulfilled is all that David told
In sure prophetic song of old.
That God the nations' king should be
And reign in triumph from the tree.
4 On whose hard arms, so widely flung,
The weight of this world's ransom hung,
The price of humankind to pay
And spoil the spoiler of his prey.
5 O Tree of beauty, tree most fair,
Ordained those holy limbs to bear:
Gone is thy shame, each crimsoned bough
Proclaims the King of Glory now.
6 To Thee, eternal Three in One,
Let homage meet by all be done;
As by the cross Thou dost restore,
So guide and keep us evermore.
In Christ crucified we have forgiveness.
In Christ crucified we are given life now and forevermore.
It is for this reason my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that like Paul, I am determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. In Him we have forgiveness and life everlasting. Amen.
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