We are free to preach our freedom all around the world because Exodus shows us the sweetness of Christ’s cross!
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Last week, we celebrated one of the Great Feasts of the Church – the Elevation of the Holy Cross.
We celebrated that which has become life-giving for us.
We were once dead, sold into slavery, but now we live.
Death once reigned supreme in our lives, but now our Lord is the living, crucified Christ.
Our sign of our victory is the cross: the cross we sign ourselves with at every prayer, the cross that we wear around our necks, the cross we venerate with joy!
And now that the Cross has freed us, we are free to proclaim the good news – through Christ crucified we have been set free!
THE FEAST HAS A LONG HISTORY
The origin of this feast goes back to the year 326 A.D.
Constantine has now become emperor of both the eastern and western Roman Empires. He fought long and hard to earn his position, but ultimately he attributes his victory to a sign he saw in the sky: the cross.
Constantine doesn’t forget the origin of his victory, so he sends his mother, Helen, to Jerusalem to find the holy sites of the New Testament – including the cross.
Helen, now perhaps the first archaeologist, finds not only one cross, but three! She determines that one is the cross of Christ, and the other two are the crosses on which the thieves hung.
But how to figure out which is which?
The answer became apparently when a dying woman touched one of the crosses and was healed. The true cross had been found.
With this miracle, the first celebration of the Elevation of the Holy Cross takes place. The Patriarch of Jerusalem, Macarius, grabs the cross, ascends the pulpit and lifts it high.
This is what’s depicted in the icon. It’s also the same celebration we partake of each year.
THE CROSS AND THE EXODUS
As we know, the feast develops. Hymns are written and biblical passages are read. Each one helps us to understand the significance of the cross.
One such passage is read at Great Vespers.
It’s from Exodus. The Hebrews have escaped slavery in Egypt, but now they wander the desert.
They can’t find any water and they fear death!
“Then Moses led Israel onward from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur; they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, ‘What shall we drink?’ And he cried to the LORD; and the LORD showed him a tree, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.” (Exodus 15:22-25 RSV)
At first glance, this seems like a random passage, completely unrelated to the cross.
But, looking closer, it all makes sense.
The Hebrews are thirsty. They’ve been in the desert for three days without water.
This is starting to get serious! If water isn’t found soon they could be facing death on a massive scale!
Then, when they think they’ve found water, it turns out to be bitter; that is, it’s undrinkable.
However, the Lord has compassion on his people. He instructs Moses to throw a tree into the water and, after doing so, the water becomes sweet.
It’s now drinkable.
The Hebrews no longer have death to fear.
THE LIFE-GIVING TREE AND CROSS
To me, this passage seems to mimic the situation we all face: the bitterness of death!
The water, in this story, is much more than water. It represents a life-giving force.
Without it, we die. We are held back from life. It slips through our fingers and we all end up in the grave. We all taste the bitterness of death.
However, through the cross – the life-giving tree – Christ enters into death, just as the tree was thrown into the water, and death becomes sweet!
We no longer have anything to fear.
Now we die in baptism, but it’s a life-giving death. The bitterness of death is now sweet and it becomes our passage to resurrection and eternal life.
A COVENANT AND RELATIONSHIP
But the biblical passage from vespers doesn’t stop there.
It continues and the Lord speaks.
“There the LORD made for them a statute and an ordinance and there he proved them, saying, ‘If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give heed to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases upon you which I put upon the Egyptians; for I am the LORD, your healer.’ Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees; and they encamped there by the water.” (Exodus 15:25-27 RSV)
The water became sweet allowing the Hebrews to drink, to receive life.
But then, the Lord speaks and it becomes a covenant of sorts.
If the Hebrews obey the law of God and heed his commandments, then God will continue to provide for them – to give them life.
As Christians, we too have entered into a similar covenant.
Through baptism we are a new creation, the old has passed away (II Corinthians 5:17).
But we have a task to do.
Before our Lord ascended into heaven after his resurrection, he gave us all this instruction:
“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age’.” (Matthew 28:18-20 RSV)
In other words, we are no longer a slave to death. We no longer have the end to fear.
“…through God you are no longer a slave but a son…” (Galatians 4:7 RSV)
But our freedom becomes the freedom to now proclaim that the crucified Christ has trampled down death by death.
Our freedom becomes the freedom to evangelize.
Our freedom becomes the freedom to go out and baptize all nations so that they too can be free!
Our freedom allows us to proclaim with St. Paul:
“’O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?’
For St. Paul tells us,
“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:55-58 RSV)
P.S. PROCLAIM FREEDOM WITH THE HISTORIC CHURCH OF CHRIST!
I now invite you to enter deeper into the mystery of Christ with the Orthodox Church!
St. Elias Services
Saturdays, 5 pm (at St. John’s Parish House, 1458 Locust St, Dubuque, IA)
Sundays, 9:30 am (at Hillcrest Chapel, 2001 Asbury Rd, Dubuque, IA)
Or find your nearest Orthodox Church by clicking here