Third Sunday of Lent

The Adoration of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross

St. Andrew Orthodox Church, Riverside, Ca. 3/14/99

Fr. Josiah Trenham, Pastor

Introduction: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen. Imagine with me for a moment that you have never been exposed to Christianity before. You have traveled a long distance from an unenlightened country to Riverside, and are coming for the first time to Church to see why your Orthodox neighbors go there so often. Immediately, you begin to notice a particular symbol appearing everywhere you look. As you drive into the parking lot there it is on the sign. As you walk into the narthex there it is again in the icon. As you pick up the liturgy book there it is again on the cover. As you walk into the nave your acquaintance makes this sign upon himself. You witness a baptism in which the sign is made on the person being baptized with the thought that its very existence will drive out demons. The sign is made over the water, and in the water itself with oil. You notice that the sign is found on every piece of the priest's vestments. You catch a glimpse of the priest vesting before the service, and you notice that before he puts on each vestment he makes the sign over the same image sewn into the vestment and kisses it. The service begins and the sign is made with the gospel book. Soon the priest is to turn toward the congregation and makes the sign over them with his hand, or maybe he will even use a gold image of the sign to make the sign in the air over the congregation. You come up to venerate the gospel book, and notice that there the sign is again on the cover. Half way through the service you notice that the building itself is designed in the shape of this sign. At the Great Entrance you notice that all those in the procession follow behind one person who carries high on a stick this sign. You hear in the priest's prayer that what is on the altar is the actual body and blood of the God-Man Jesus Christ sacrificed on the original sign, and that everyone is about to participate in that sacrifice on the sign. You count and the people in the congregation must make the sign on their bodies at least 50 times each during the service! Then at the end of the whole ordeal you come to the front to kiss this sign again. What sign is this? Our Lord's Precious Cross is the sign, and you leave with one thing clear in your mind: whatever this sign means it is extremely important to these Christians. It is clearly their central symbol. “May it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. 6:14).

The Meaning of the Precious-Cross: Now if this friend turned to you after Church, and asked you over a cup of coffee what this symbol means and why the Church is so noticeably obsessed with it, what would you say? Would you be prepared to begin your boasting?

The cross first speaks to us about ourselves and our existence. It tells us what a mess we are all in. It puts death before our eyes, and dramatically demonstrates to us what humankind has created: sin, misery, and death. This is the fruit of our works. The Cross of Christ did not appear out of a spiritual vacuum. This was not the first time a tree had been at the heart of man's destiny. The Tree-Cross was preceded by the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. It was through that tree that our first parents brought sin and death into the world. It was through that tree that the devil and the demons first tricked our race into bondage and disgrace. Thus, when the Tree of the Cross of Christ appears it does so with reference to that first tree in the Garden. The cross before it lifts us to glory, humbles us in the dust. By the very fact that in order to redeem humanity God himself had to suffer the cross tells us that we embraced sin, helplessly become subject to the judgment for our sin which is death, had become enslaved to the demonic powers of this evil age who use the fear of death to keep us all in bondage and slavery, and WE COULD DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT IT! Had anyone avoided death before? Had anyone ever made atonement for his own sins, let alone his brother’s? Had anyone ever restored in himself that original pristine beauty of Paradise? Had anyone conquered the passions and recovered perfection? Had anyone broken the power of the devil and the demonic realm? The answer to these questions is a resounding No! The Cross tells us today that by ourselves we had reached a dead end.

What no man could not do for himself God did for man. Mankind was at God’s mercy and found there a greater love, a greater mercy, than any man or angel had ever imagined, for the Cross doesn’t simply tell us something about ourselves and our sinfulness but about God’s immeasurable and all-conquering love for us. The Cross is the fruit of God's absolute refusal to be without us. "For God so loved the world, that He gave his Only Begotten Son" (St. Jn. 3:16). "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1St. Jn. 4:10). All the havoc, despair, and destruction brought upon the world and our race by the first Adam's relationship to the tree in the Garden has been overthrown and reversed by the Second Adam's (Christ himself) relationship with the Cross-Tree. At the Cross of Christ death has been swallowed up, the principalities and powers of this evil world have been crushed, our sins have been atoned for, and the perfect sacrifice has been offered and accepted. Our hymnody today speaks of the Cross thus: "Fair Paradise of the Church...through thee the hosts of demons have been driven back...Thou art an invincible weapon, an unbroken stronghold; thou art the victory of kings and the glory of priests...through thee the curse is utterly destroyed, the power of death is swallowed up...invincible weapon, adversary of demons, glory of martyrs, true ornament of holy monks...Come Adam and Eve...the Tree of the Cross...draws near. Run with haste and embrace it joyfully...(for) taking the quill of the Cross, out of love for man in the red ink of royalty with bloody fingers Thou(Christ) hast signed our absolution."

Jesus’ Cross and Your Cross! The Church today directs our minds also to the cross that the Lord Jesus Christ has promised that each one of us will bear. This is evident in the Gospel text: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s shall save it” (St. Mk. 8:34-35). There are two crosses before us this morning beloved! Christ’s and Yours! The latter necessarily proceeds from the former in the life of the believer.

From the very beginning of our lives the Church unites us to the Cross of our Savior by giving us our own precious cross. On the day of our births the Priest comes to the hospital and signs the newly born with the sign of the Cross. The same takes place on the 8th day in the Naming Service, and in the Churching of the Mother the priest actually makes the sign of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross with the child himself. Finally, the child is really and substantially united to the Cross by being crucified and buried with Christ in the Mystery of Holy Baptism. From the font the child is raised with Christ into newness and life, and immediately with what is the child adorned? With the white baptismal garment and with a precious cross! The child has received his cross, and this cross will be throughout his life the very essence of his discipleship. How deeply significant to adorn our bodies with the sacred cross. It is our greatest honor.

Let me put before you a great irony foisted on us by the evil one, and helped by our lack of faith. Why is it- that that which we love, venerate, and adore in the life of our Savior we so often despise, abhor and seek to avoid in our own lives? Do I not speak the truth? Is it not true that often at the same time that we are venerating our Lord's Precious and Life-Giving Cross we are working like beavers to build a dam in our own lives against every form of suffering and cross-bearing? And how is this consistent? Our Lord's cross-bearing was life-producing and salvific for the whole world, but our cross-bearing is not? Does our Lord not teach us that our suffering and cross-bearing is something to be voluntarily embraced by each one of us? Does He not teach us that this is the very means of following Him? Does He not say that it is through the Cross that we obtain our life and procure eternal salvation? That if we seek to avoid our crosses we will, in fact, lose our lives? Our Lord’s joyful embrace of the Cross was the act of love par excellance, and our joyful bearing of our own crosses without complaint are likewise our chief expression of faith and love. As we bow down before Christ’s cross this morning let us also bow before our own crosses, whatever they may be, knowing that since they come from His hands and are connected to His Cross, they too are working salvation! They are not to be avoided but joyfully carried! Glory to Thy Precious Cross O Christ!