13th Sunday After Pentecost – Orthodox Homily on the Elevation of the Cross

The Gospel for this Sunday after the Elevation of the Cross confronts us with the paradox of our salvation: the instrument of Christ’s death has become the means of His victory over sin and death. The cross is, in the theology of the Church, “the trophy invincible, the weapon of peace because by it we gain eternal peace. In this way, the instrument of Roman torture, laid upon Christ, has become the all-powerful tool and witness of sin’s healing and death’s downfall.

But on this Sunday, in particular, we ask ourselves, “what does the power of the cross mean for me personally, living in the world today 2,000 years since Christ won that victory? Sadly, for many in today’s secular world, its meaning, both personally and corporately, is lost. The secular world thinks in temporal terms. It goes something like this: all I experience in the here and now, everything I can see and touch, is the extent of my existence as a material being, so, “eat, drink, for tomorrow, we die” (I Cor. 15:32). In part, for this reason, the world urges focus on self, ego, “me first,” it urges us not to deny ourselves anything and encourages spiritual lethargy.

A world which doesn’t believe in God and His revelation, that denies the bodily Incarnation, miraculous, and life-saving historic events of Christ and His power is a world where there are no real consequences for evil or the darkness and violence of the evil one: it’s a world where the way to healing from passions and the worst that mankind is capable of, will be forgotten.

The cross is our answer to the fallen world and its hopelessness, to those who deny God and His loving calling on their lives. The cross is always a reminder of the ultimate victory and reality of the Kingdom of God; the cross is always a reminder of self-emptying (kenosis in the Greek)—Christ willingly, voluntarily offers Himself to defeat sin and death on our behalf and make possible a new race of Adam that will in Him likewise gain the victory over sin and death. In His “dying to self,” we regain our true humanity, our God-given purpose in this life, and ultimately, are made fit for the Kingdom of Heaven, eternal life with Christ.

But here’s the truth: we cannot follow Christ and become fellow partakers of His victory if we are not likewise willing to empty ourselves of all that is worldly. As Christ says, we cannot serve God and mammon. Instead, we are called to be “in the world, but not of the world.” This isn’t something we can just decide to forego. We challenge ourselves every day to live for Christ, to submit ourselves to His will, to seek to reflect the Kingdom of God in all that we are, all that we do, everything we are about. Remember, as St. Paul says, “we have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27). Well, if we’ve truly “put on Christ” in baptism, then we must be about Christ’s work even as we are being made more and more into His likeness, the likeness of the new Adam, who is Christ Jesus. For each of us, in a sense, is through our action or inaction on this account, deciding for God and His Kingdom or for the world.

For this reason, Christ speaks to us through today’s Gospel, reminding us of this truth: “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”

St. Paul reminds us the Sunday prior to the Feast that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, even as it is the power of God to those who are being saved (I Cor. 1:18). To the world, self-denial, even true love itself, is alien because the world seeks to understand love apart from God, the Author of love, Who, in turn, teaches us what love is and how to love: “We love Him because He first loved us,” St. John declares in his first Epistle (I Jn. 1:9). And this Love directs us to the cross, to the ultimate sign of God’s love for us, manifested in the Incarnation and then in Christ’s saving Passion. Love is both sacrificial and holy; true love becomes life-giving because it further unites us with God and with each other as we learn to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Christ, not only outwardly in our acts, but inwardly as we’re transformed and grow in unity with Christ, as we partake of the Divine Nature (II Peter 1:4). When Christ stands at the center of our lives, our priorities, He’s at the center of our love too because always, there stands the cross! To this end, Fr. Arsenie Boca reminds us, “he who makes the sign of the cross, must also be prepared to carry his cross.

The cross is then, the power of God, because signing ourselves with the cross, we come to ‘own’ Christ’s victory for ourselves: we proclaim Christ’s victory inwardly and outwardly, we guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus from the demons and their vices, we witness to those around us the truth that His victory is for all mankind because all are loved by God and called to holiness and new life through communion with Him. As St. John Maximovich says, “The Cross then will save from eternal perdition all who conquered temptations by the Cross, who crucified their flesh with its passions and lusts, and took up their cross and followed their Christ.”

Hence the paradox: in order to gain the victory with Christ over this world and also that is passing away, we humble ourselves to become not just Christ-like but what Christ is; in order to gain the victory and become fellow heirs with Christ, we die to ego and to the world, to secular demands that we keep the cross hidden to ourselves, that we not sign ourselves or pray in public, and we come outside ourselves, we give of ourselves to be witnesses of Christ in this world, we don’t shrink back from those opportunities to share the truth of our Faith with those around us. Why? Because the love of God compels us, because loving Christ, we learn to love our neighbors and desire salvation not just for ourselves but for the whole world, certainly for those whom we know personally. This too is a cross, a great denial, in a world where we are told to keep our faith to ourselves and where the truth of Christ is an affront to the demands of secular humanism that abounds around us to keep faith and religion outside the marketplace of ideas.

Those who have denied themselves, who have taken up their cross and followed Christ will gain the victory as fellow heirs of Christ’s Kingdom. This is our Lord’s great promise of love to us this day: “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”

We proclaim this love, this hope, to a world that no longer knows what love is and how to love, or how or why to deny themselves or any gratification. We give of ourselves to build up the Church and her ministries, we give of ourselves to witness to the truth in word and action, how we live our lives. In taking up our cross daily, we proclaim the reality of Christ’s life and victory over sin and death to the world around us. We who are struggling with our sins and persevere to the end with that struggle, always returning to Christ and bearing the fruit of repentance, bear witness of the victory of the cross. We loudly and undeniably proclaim to an otherwise hopeless world the Truth and Reality that Christ is, that life in Him is our sure hope and healing.

So, brothers and sisters, examine your life this day. Are you denying yourself, taking up your cross to follow Christ? Renew your commitment this day to deny yourself what the world says your focus should be, prioritize your life in Christ, your communion with Him who is Life above all else, take up your cross, follow Christ, and know that He will be with you every step of the way. Fear God and you will have no need for the fear of men. And then, we can truly affirm with St. Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Sunday After the Elevation of the Cross
September 18, 2016

Epistle: I Cor. 16:13-24; Galatians 2:16-20
Gospel: Matt. 21:33-42; Mark 8:34-9:1