The Precious Cross
Fr. John Maxwell
Let us now meditate on
the precious Cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I would like to begin by
paraphrasing Saint Cyril of Jerusalem’s instruction on the Cross. Every deed of
Christ causes us great rejoicing. But the deed that our Lord performed when He
stretched out His loving arms upon the Cross gives us cause to rejoice to the
uttermost. It was a great day of rejoicing when the woman who had been bound by
the devil for eighteen years was loosed from her infirmity. But what a far
greater day was it when our Lord, hanging on the Cross, loosed us all from the
chains of sin, death and the devil. It is wondrous when we hear in the Gospel
that a man who was born blind received his sight. But what is this in
comparison to the spiritual blindness of the whole world, and the spiritual
illumination that our Lord brings to it? It is a great thing that Lazarus rose
from the dead on the fourth day. But even this pales before the raising up of
us all who were dead in trespasses and sin? It was astonishing that the Lord
should take five loaves of bread and two small fish and feed the multitude of
5,000 men not counting women and children. But how much more is this miracle
surpassed when we think of how the Lord feeds the Church with His broken body,
which is ever eaten yet never consumed?
O Great wonder, my beloved in
Christ is the precious Cross! Even nature itself was affected when Christ hung
upon the tree. The Sun was darkened when it beheld the setting of the Sun of
Righteousness. The Earth trembled and quaked when The Maker of the Earth
entered into its lower regions. The rocks parted at the parting of the
Spiritual Rock. Even the tombs opened and the dead arose when the giver of life
entered the grave.
So great is the Cross that all of
sacred history is centered around it. Throughout the Old Testament, the Cross
was foreshadowed in types. In the primordial garden, it was through a tree that
man was banished from Eden. And now it is through the tree of the Cross that
man returns to paradise. It was in the Garden that the Sword was wielded to
kept man out of paradise and it is through the piercing of His side the Garden
was made accessible to man again. It was in the cool of the evening that God is
said to have walked with Adam, and it is in the cool of the evening that He
walks with the thief in paradise. It was through a tree that man was quickly
banished from paradise and it was through a tree that he was quickly pardoned.
It was Noah, who through wood, was saved from the destruction of the flood. And
it is the wood of the Cross which saves us from the judgment which will come
upon this world. It was Abraham whom God prevented from sacrificing his only
son Isaac on Mount Moriah. And it was on this same mountain, centuries later,
that God’s only Son was sacrificed upon the Cross. It was Joseph who was sold
by his brothers into slavery and found himself falsely accused and cast into
prison who later ascended to the right hand of Pharaoh. And it was Christ who
was sold by His disciple, falsely accused, suffered and died, who later
ascended to the right hand of God the Father. It was through the applying of
the lamb’s blood in the shape of a Cross that the death angel spared the first born
Israelites in Egypt at the first Passover. And it is blood of the Lamb of God,
shed upon the Cross, which delivers us from death. It was Moses who proclaimed
to Pharaoh, “Let my people go,” who showed himself to be from God when he
turned the water into blood. And it was Christ who proclaimed liberty to the
captives when His side was pierced and out flowed water and blood. It was Moses
who parted the Red Sea with his wooden staff, which brought deliverance to
Israel and at the same time, destroyed the tyrant in the sea, and divided them
from Egypt. And it is the Cross which delivers us from the pursuer of our soul and
separates us from the world and the world from us. It was Moses who cast a tree
into the bitter waters of Marah and the water immediately became sweet. And so
it is the tree of the Cross which frees the world from the curse and makes life
sweet again. It was Moses who lifted up the brazen serpent in the wilderness
that whosoever looked up to it was delivered from the poison of the snake bite.
And it was Christ who was lifted up on the Cross that whosoever would look to
Him for salvation would be delivered from our adversary, the Serpent and his
venom. Again it was Moses who struck the rock and water gushed forth. But then,
when he was commanded by God to simply speak to the rock, he struck it, and for
this disobedience, he was kept from entering the promise land. This was to show
us that Christ the Rock of Ages, from Whom flows the water of life, was to be
struck down in death only once. It was the high priest who would take and make
atonement for the people of Israel through the sacrifices of bulls and goats,
and it was Christ our High priest, who was the sacrificed Lamb of God, who died
once and for all, bringing us at-one-ment with God. It was Elijah the prophet
who threw a wooden stick into the water and caused an iron axe head to float to
the surface. Is it not through the wood of the Cross that we who were weighted
down with sin should be raised to newness of life?
Not only is the Old Testament
filled with prophetic types of the Cross, but it also has many prophetic words
concerning it. Some of these prophecies are so clear and precise that it is
surprising that the Jews, by and large, did not discern what our Lord was doing
for them on it during the time of that Passover season. I will only speak of
some of the more prominent prophecies. King David graphically describes the
crucifixion. Keep in mind, when you hear this, that the Jews before Christ came
understood this to be a messianic Psalm (Read Psalm 22). Isaiah speaks clearly
of the reason for the suffering of Christ (Read Isaiah 53). Daniel tells us
when the crucifixion would take place (Read Daniel 9:24-26). Zechariah
describes the return of the Jews to God and prophesied their encounter with the
crucified Lord (Read Zechariah 12:10, 13:6).
Not only did the whole history of
the Old Testament look forward to the Cross, but the entire New Testament looks
back to it as the crossroads of human affairs. Christ constantly spoke of the Cross
as the purpose for which He came into the world. Paul gloried in the Cross and
refused to know or to preach anything but Christ and Him crucified.
So great is the Cross that it is
timeless. It is timeless because He who died on it for our salvation was the
eternal Son of God. This is why Christ is called, in Holy Scripture, the lamb
slain before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). And this is also
why His once and for all sacrifice 2000 years ago is made present to us at
every liturgy.
So great is the Cross that even
its symbol causes the demons to flee for it reminds them of their defeat. The
sign of the Cross is a powerful weapon against the enemy of our souls. This is
one of the reasons why we make the sign when we wake up in the morning, when we
lie down at night, over our food, and when we leave or enter a dwelling place.
So great is the mystery of the
Cross that words can never exhaust its meaning or thoughts contain its full
purpose.
Great is the transforming power
of the Cross. "When I behold this love of His in reverent silence, I see
more than a perfect example, rather it has a live-giving effect on me, transforming
my own heart and will, releasing me from bondage, making me whole, rendering it
possible for me to love in a way that would lie altogether beyond my powers, had
I not first been so loved by Him. Because in love He has identified Himself
with me, His victory is my victory."
Great is the accomplishment of His
suffering. He offered Himself as the once and for all sacrifice for sins
(Hebrews 10:10). Because He was a man, He was able to suffer death, and as God
He was able to take upon Himself all of man’s sins. Now, not only is
forgiveness possible, but also cleansing and deliverance. He is truly is the
Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). The man in the
Old Testament was given provision for forgiveness. The man in the New Testament
has the hope of being delivered from his sins. They can now be taken away. He
no longer needs to be terrorized by sin and the Devil. Christ has freed man
from the slavery of sin and has overthrown the Devil. And this is why Christ shouted,
"It is finished!" - it was not the shout of defeat but of the
Victory." And not only this, but also the barrier of death is removed by
Christ’s death and Resurrection. By dying and going to hell, He identified
Himself completely with our condition, so that He could save us to the very end
(Hebrews 7:25). He tasted death for every man so that anyone who would believe
in Him would never die (John 11:26). Death, man’s formidable enemy, is now conquered
by the death of God (Hebrews 2:14-15). When the Author of Life (the Divine Person)
suffered death in the flesh, it was not possible that death could hold Him
captive (Acts 2:24), His divine nature could not suffer death. Therefore He
rose victorious from the dead raising our humanity with Him. This death was
then a unique death. It was not the result of sin. Instead it was the gift of
God for the life of the world and its salvation. Death now becomes a bed of hope, a new birth
to a better life.
Great is the Cross. But greater
still is our God who suffered on it for our salvation and is greatly to be praised.
Let us in imitation of His great love for us, take up our Cross and follow Him.
Let us willingly suffer and sacrifice for others, just as He willingly laid
down His life for us all. Let us forgive one another, just as He has forgiven
us. Let us love one another even as He has loved us to the very end.
