Holy Cross Day

St. John 12.20-33

September 14, 2025

Before other horrific events took over the news cycle, the outrage du jour was a Philadelphia Phillies fan who demanded a home run ball from a little kid. The so-called Phillies Karen got her way, but proceeded to get torched on social media.

Why do people care about things like a home-run ball? You can buy a baseball anytime you want. But a particular baseball, a home-run ball in a particular game hit by a particular player becomes not just any baseball. It becomes the token of the event. It becomes a connection to the history. We look at it and remember.

For decades I kept a baseball from a little-league game when I was twelve. I hit a home-run off my nemesis, a kid who routinely bullied me. That particular ball meant a lot to me.

We all have stuff we keep for sentimental reasons. A ticket stub, a wedding program, a graduation tassel.

Now imagine we had items from the life of Jesus. Peter’s fishing boat, or the nets he was cleaning when Jesus borrowed the boat; one of the coins Judas threw on the temple floor; the chalice from the last supper; the purple robe they put on Jesus. If we had any of those items, we would put it in a museum, charge tickets, and then we could fix the HVAC in no time!

Regardless of the economics, we would look at those objects and remember the events they were part of, and what those events have to teach us.

That’s what this day is about. On September 14 in the year 320, St. Helena supposedly discovered the wood of Christ’s cross. Helena was the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, who decriminalized Christianity in Rome.

Did Helena really find the wood of the true cross? I don’t know. There were many such claims. Luther once joked that if you gathered all the pieces of the true cross in Germany, you’d have enough wood to build a barn!

I do know one thing, though: If I found a piece of the true cross, I would keep it. It would be important, because the history is important. Christ is the center of all human history. The Christian faith is grounded in history.

Regardless of what happened to the wood, we have the eyewitness testimony that there really was real wood of a real cross on which Jesus really hung and really died. Christianity is not a philosophy or an ethical code. Christianity is not an idea. Christianity is the objective fact, verified by the testimony of many witnesses, that Jesus of Nazareth died on a cross of wood outside the city of Jerusalem, when Pontius Pilate was governor and Caiaphas was High Priest. And Christianity is the objective fact, verified by the testimony of many eyewitness, many of whom confirmed their testimony with their own blood, that the same Jesus of Nazareth who died on that cross rose again on the first day of the week; and forty days later ascended into the heavens.

Real nails pierced real flesh being affixed to real wood to crucify Jesus the incarnate God. So today, whatever we make of the claims of St. Helena, we remember and rejoice in the holy cross. Nothing is more important to us than the cross. That’s why when we process with our parish crucifix, we bow. We aren't idolizing a wooden pole and brass cross. When we bow, we are not worshipping that cross, but the Jesus whom that cross signifies.

That's what the hymn to the cross we just sang means: Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle; Sing the ending of the fray. Now above the cross, the trophy, Sound the loud triumphant lay; Tell how Christ, the world's redeemer, As a victim won the day. That is what today, Holy Cross Day, is really about. That is what every Lord's Day, is about. And that is what should shape all of your days and inform who you are: you are a disciple of Jesus, and on that cross, as a victim, He won the day for you, He defeated death for you, He atoned for sins for you, He destroyed hell for you.

By the Holy Cross, the LORD has made known His salvation; by the Holy Cross, He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations. For His salvation comes by His sacrifice; His righteousness is revealed in showing mercy, pity, kindness to those who murder Him.

In today's gospel, Jesus reveals to us the mystery of the cross. He said that two things would happen "when [He] is lifted up":

1. The ruler of this world, the devil, would be cast out; and

2. On the cross, all people would be drawn to Jesus, the way a battle flag draws and rallies the troops on a battlefield.

Jesus calls the Devil "The ruler of this world.” Demonic ideology holds sway. The demonic ideology revels in murder, lies, deception. Demonic ideology destroys family, rejoices in division, turns us to worship the creature rather than the Creator. The lord of the demons is the “ruler of this world.”

Knowing that helps us understand the hard saying, "He who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life." God made you. God loves you. He doesn’t want you to hate yourself. He doesn’t want you to hate your life. But He does want you to hate your life in this world. You are called to hate the devil’s lies and empty promises.

In the ancient languages of the Bible, love and hate are not emotions, but values. It’s not about what you feel, but about what you value, what you treasure. Where your treasure is, there your heart is. We treasure (love) the wrong things, and we devalue (hate) the good things.

Repent. Retrain your loves. Love what God loves. Hate—count as not worth anything—the things of darkness and death.

The cross is the great revealing point for all this. All that the world loves is judged on the cross.

Jesus says in today’s Gospel, which takes place during Holy Week, "Now is the judgment of this world.” Here He is saying that by His death on the cross, the entire world of sin—all false loves—will be judged in Him, and punished, executed, put to death. And in that death is the world’s healing.

That leads to the second mystery of the cross in today’s Gospel: By means of the cross, God invites, draws, all people to Himself. People are drawn to power and prestige: celebrities, politicians, athletes. People are drawn by sex and success. People want to touch greatness, see beauty, be close to wealth and power. They’re always grasping for the home run, and someone else’s home run ball. But when the game is done, when the election is over, when the credits are rolling, when the moment of purchase has passed, when the erotic experience has run its course, all is revealed to be a sham, full of empty promises and broken lives.

What is different about Jesus? Why have we been drawn to Him, and why should we be drawn closer to Him and His cross? Today’s first reading foreshadows it. Serpents had bitten the rebellious Israelites. It symbolized how all people are poisoned with the venom of sin. There is only one remedy: to say with them, "We have sinned against the LORD.” Then the LORD tells Moses to do a bizarre thing: set up a pole, and on it put a bronze serpent. When the people look at it, they will be healed.

Wouldn’t it be better to give them some medicine, an antidote? But the problem was not really snake-poison, but the sin coursing through their veins. The execution pole showed the judgment of sin, anticipating its ultimate judgment and punishment on the cross. Looking at the pole wasn’t a magic trick; the people were given a word from God: Look, in repentance and faith, to sin’s judgment, and you will be healed. Medicine didn’t come through the eyeballs. Looking at it was an act of faith, of believing that what God said was true.

Jesus uses that piece of Jewish history to explain what He was about to do: "So must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life." The cross of Jesus is the banner God raised up for us, that we might look and be healed. It is our standard to rally around. We are called to lift that standard high, in this city and in this nation, inviting all people to look and be healed.

So if I found a piece of the true cross, I would keep it. I would look at it and think about Jesus and what He’s done for me. But we don’t really need it. We have something better, even more objective. We have the Holy Scriptures, which do not lie to us. We have the Sacraments, which give us no relic, but Christ’s true and living body and blood. In them is your healing. In them is your life.

So when you get up in the morning, make the sign of the cross and say, “I am baptized. Jesus’ life is my life.” Hang up a crucifix in your home, and look at it when you are troubled by your sins, or when you are afraid. Then do the work God has given you to do in this life with a cheerful heart. For the ruler of this world is judged. Death is defeated. The demons are shorn of their power. In this sign we are more than conquerors. On this cross Christ is king.