A homily for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, September 14, 2025
Numbers 21:4b-9, Philippians 2:6-11, John 3:13-17
A symbol is defined as “a thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract.”
Our lives are chock-full of symbols. The American flag, and flags of all the other nations on Earth. Stick-figure women and men on restroom doors. Stick-figure people in wheelchairs. Smiley faces.
Crosses and crucifixes.
And the simpler and clearer the symbol may be, the more complicated our understanding of it and our relationship with it becomes.
Some of us elevate the symbol to the status of what it represents, treating the object with the same reverence or homage that the underlying concept deserves.
Some of us treat the symbol as a mere cultural touchstone or fashion accessory.
And, as Americans who can be driven to excess, we sometimes go overboard in how many and how often we display or carry our symbols.
Do we ask ourselves what we’re trying to say by parading around with dozens of flags or crosses? Banners flapping in the breeze; medallions clinking on chains?
Are we trying to make some sort of statement, telling every onlooker how much we embrace a particular belief or point of view?
Are we trying to look cool for a particular crowd, especially a crowd we’re trying to be accepted by?
Have we forgotten — or never fully understood — what the symbol stands for?
Or do we fully embrace the meaning of that symbol?
Do we fully embrace the meaning of the Cross of Christ?
Today, as the calendar aligns a Sunday with this feast, and thus brings more of us together in worship to commemorate it, let’s take even only a minute or two to consider what ✟ deeply means.
Our Gospel today ends with the bumper-sticker-favorite verse of John 3:16.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
Yes, I said bumper sticker.
This core to our faith straddles the space between rainbow-wig pop culture and a full understanding of the meaning of God’s gift. I’m glad the passage is spread far and wide; I wish it hadn’t become as hackneyed as it has.
Because, to a world whose biblical ancestors dating back to Adam and Eve had repeatedly shunned God’s perfection and perfect ways, the Father Almighty did send his divine Son to be a hundred percent human like us in every way but sin. To clean up the innumerable messes our imperfection, stubbornness, disobedience, know-it-allness rained down on this fragile planet. And all the messes that continue to flood us, physically, politically, emotionally and spiritually. And any other possible ways they can pollute us.
To clean them up by dying on a wooden cross, an innocent victim of ugly politics.
To clean them up by rising from the dead by his own divine power, which no one ever did before or since.
We’ve seen crucifixes. We’ve seen artwork. We’ve seen movies. We know what a body strapped or nailed to a crossbar looks like. We may even have become a little numb to the whole thing.
But have we truly considered the agony of crucifixion? The crushing of your internal organs? The slow, horrible suffocation caused by the weight of your own body stealing from you the power to take a breath?
Christ endured — and defeated — this cruelest form of execution to apologize to our Creator for every dopey stunt every mutton-brained human ever pulled off.
Us.
We who are still making the mistakes we know to be sins.
That’s why we take this day to recognize and exalt the Cross of Christ.
That’s why we take this day to ponder the deep meaning of this ubiquitous symbol.
That’s why we take the opportunity to reassess why we may wear the Cross of Christ as jewelry or display the Cross as an icon in our homes.
The Cross of Christ reminds us — and everyone who sees it — that somebody up there loves us very, very much. Always and everywhere, with merciful and forgiving arms wide open, welcoming us back every time we stray or stumble.
Yes, somebody up there loves us all very, very much.
And we should wear his Cross with humility, love and gratitude.
