Sunday before the Exaltation of the Cross
Gal 6:11-16
John 3:13-17
Have you ever given much thought to what happens when someone dies, even someone in a state of Grace? We certainly want to see our loved ones in heaven. More often than not these days, if someone dies, people will say they’re in a better place, or people will assume that the person is in heaven. There are two problems with that.
The first thing is that Jesus tells us not to judge. He’s not saying that we shouldn’t say that certain actions are right or wrong. Rather, He’s reminding us that He is the judge of a person’s soul. Sure, we can hope that a person died in grace, but we don’t know the heart. Unless the Church tells us, we don’t know the eternal fate of a person.
But also, there’s the statement at the beginning of this Gospel. “No one has gone up to heaven except the One Who has come down from Heaven, the Son of Man”. But doesn’t Paul say that to be absent from the body is to be with the Lord? Certainly, but does being with the Lord automatically mean one is in heaven? And, at the Transfiguration, we see Moses and Elijah in glorified bodies.
How do we reconcile these facts?
On the Cross, Jesus told the repentant thief, “Today you will be with me in Paradise”. Evidently, those who die in grace enter Paradise, awaiting the Second Coming of our Lord. It’s then they will be judged and enter heaven.
The next thing that Jesus refers to is an event that happened to the Israelites when Moses was leading them in the wilderness. They got fed up with him and said, “Why are we here? We hate the food”! So, to teach them a lesson against rebellion, God sent serpents that bit the people, and many died. It was only then, when they saw the result of their rebellion, that they repented. Then Moses prayed for the people, and God told him to make a model of the same type of serpent, put it on a pole, and lift it up. All who looked to the pole when they were bitten were healed.
That serpent on the pole represents Christ on the Cross. Whenever someone sins, whenever they are bitten by the “serpent of sin”, they can look to Christ on the Cross and be delivered of that sin.
All too often, we think that by following this rule or that, we can make ourselves acceptable to God. That’s the situation that Paul is dealing with in the Epistle. At the time, some Jewish believers argued that to accept the Jewish Messiah, Gentile believers had to live by the Mosaic Law, including circumcision. They gloried in their adherence to the Law. But Paul said that he would glory in the Cross. Eventually, the Council of Jerusalem, related in Acts 15, decided that the requirements for Gentile believers were minimal, essentially a summary of the Law’s requirements for Gentiles who lived among the Israelites.
Paul said that circumcision meant nothing, and non-circumcision meant nothing. What mattered was becoming a new creation. That’s what baptism is – being born again, becoming a new creation. Earlier in the same Epistle, he says, “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek”.
Now, some may question the use of “born again” – but that’s the words Jesus used earlier in the chapter of the Gospel that we just read. “You must be born again”, He said. And then He said, ”No one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit”. Paul tells us that we are buried with Christ in baptism, and that we rise to eternal life. And Peter writes “Baptism, which saves you”. The Scriptures are clear: eternal life is received through baptism.
And what of our Protestant friends who say that “born again” refers to repentance and giving one’s heart to Christ? We certainly can’t argue against doing that. But is that all that’s required to become a Christian?
Think of it this way. When someone immigrates to the US, they accept the principles and laws of the country before they take the oath of citizenship. But we who are born here have immediate citizenship. We have to learn the principles and laws as we grow. In the same way, the person who accepts Christ as an adult, who repents, and who asks him into their life – they’re like the immigrant learning about the country, and their baptism is like taking the oath of citizenship. And we who have been baptized as infants – well, we are citizens of God’s kingdom from that point, but we still have to decide to live up to that privilege.
Eternal Life is received through Baptism, but, like the Hebrews in the wilderness had to look to the serpent on the pole to receive physical healing, to continue living, we need to continue looking to Christ on the Cross to receive spiritual healing. And in receiving that spiritual healing, we have the hope of joining Christ in Paradise when our life here on earth is finished.
As the Kontakion of the Cross says, “Willingly raised upon the Cross, O Christ our God, you bestowed your mercies on a new people bearing Your name. With Your power, grant victory to Your church, giving her victory over her enemies, with the invincible standard, Your weapon of peace, as an ally”.
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