Holy Cross Day 9/14

Today is Holy Cross Day, known in other Christian traditions sometimes as the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. It is a feast (a way church people describe special days) in the church that commemorates the Cross of Christ. Without going into all of the background of the day, just know that it's a moment in the church year when we stop to think about the cross itself. The readings for today are centered around this particular theme of the cross and it's purpose. The Gospel reading for today was John 3:11-17, and it speaks to the purpose of the cross without referring to the cross itself (in other words, it's not a story about Jesus's crucifixion, which is what we might expect on Holy Cross Day).

Some of you may be familiar with John 3:16. I'll quote from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV-it's what we use on Sundays in church) today because it's such a well-known passage and it may jog your memory: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." I've heard this quoted ALOT. Church folks would quote it left and right. It even seeped into popular culture: when I was in high school, pro-wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin's fans would hold up signs saying "Austin 3:16" in a reference to a victory speech he made. So this whole 3:16 thing must be a big deal.

Often John 3:16 is used as a verse of exclusion--I've heard many people quote this verse to explain that they are saved, because they are one of the "everyone who believes." The emphasis then moves to the everyone else who doesn't believe. The verse becomes a verse about those who don't believe and not about the hope of those who do believe. Because of this kind of background, I sometimes struggle when I hear this verse quoted so often. But then I remember what comes next, and I feel that you can't really take verse 16 without verse 17: "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." Thus this verse that is used to provoke conflict and controversy--a verse that is used to create an "us" and a "them"--is followed by Jesus's words that he did not come to condemn anyone, but to help everyone! How cool is that? All of a sudden, in one sentence, this passage moves from being one of potential condemnation and exclusion to one of radical hope and welcome.

Throughout Jesus's life we see this kind of hope and welcome--welcoming those whom society had cast out as worthless: the poor, the weak, the orphans, the widows, the women, the children, the everyday working person...these were all people embraced by Jesus in his lifetime, a lifetime of radical love and welcome. After all, isn't that what the cross is all about? The fact that God loves us so much that God became human in Jesus and then died so that death would no longer have a hold on us? Seems pretty hopeful and welcoming to me...