Today is Cross Veneration Sunday, the Third of Lent.
The Cross is not a symbol of worldly power or political triumph.
Today, we sing this first hymn (i.e., tropar or apolotikion): "O Lord, save Your people, and bless Your inheritance. Grant Orthodox Christians victory over their enemies, and protect Your people with Your Cross."
The "enemies" are not other nations or people at all, despite that often being said. The true and only enemy is death and corruption.
"My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight," Jesus said to Pilate (John 18.36). "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?" (Matthew 26.53).
When Constantine saw his vision of the Cross in the sky, he mistook it as an insignia for imperial power. If what he saw in his vision before his military victory at the Milvian Bridge (312 AD) "In hoc signo vince" [i.e., “in this sign conquer”] has any meaning at all, it means to conquer the very same enemy that Jesus did on the original Cross.
The Cross has nothing to do with violence. Nothing to do with domination, coercion, self-aggrandizement, wealth expansion, or any venue of worldly power. The Lord makes this very clear:
"Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20.25-28).
The Cross should not be thought of as a sword, and it never ever should have been thought so.
The Cross is, rather, like a “sharp” -- a syringe and hypodermic needle.
Surprised? But think about it. The Cross really is an injection of divine eternal life into the soil of decay, the earth of corruption, the base of death.
Where humanity (and all creation) was languishing in death, by the Cross – by Jesus suffering and dying – God’s divinity destroyed death in His humanity.
That is why there is no Cross without the Resurrection, no Good Friday without Easter. Just because of that “injection” of divinity into our humanity, we are no longer destroyed by sin and death: we will live forever in His fellowship.
Our second hymn (i.e., kondak) for this Sunday of Cross Veneration insists on this point – that just because of the Crucifixion we are saved, because God is destroying sin and death:
“Now the flaming sword no longer guards the gates of Paradise; has been mysteriously quenched by the wood of the Cross! The sting of death and the victory of hell have been vanquished; for You, O my Saviour, did come and cry to those in hell: ‘Enter again into Paradise.’”
Look at what this hymn says:
- The flaming sword of the cherubim no longer prevents humanity from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3.24)
- The power of death and hell have been destroyed (Revelations 20.14)
- Jesus invited everyone in hell to enter into Paradise – exactly what He said to the Good Thief on the Cross (Luke 23.43)
This goal was what God had been planning and working for all along: “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13.8).
And this: “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2.9-11).
Jesus was exalted at the Resurrection only because He was humiliated on the Cross.
The Cross cannot be and should never have been exploited for the use of force, coercion, or political opportunism, which is happening today – which is totally un-Biblical and actually anti-Christ.
Instead the opposite is true. The Cross is all about kenosis, all about Jesus pouring out His divine life for the sake of us. The Cross is the Self-denial of the Son of God, the voluntary suffering of the Son of Man.
And that is exactly why Jesus said "He that would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me" (Mark 8.34).
Then, and only then, will that person "not taste death" and "see the kingdom of God come with power" (Mark 9.1).
Enter the self-denial, humility and meekness of taking up your own cross, and then you can enter Jesus’ Paradise.
This is the "foolishness of God" (1 Corinthians 1.23), which is contrary to the worldly wisdom of wealth and power: "We preach Christ crucified … “
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