Mid-Lent and September 14

Introduction

When we begin discussing the rites of the Syriac Orthodox Church, especially with regards to her feasts and fasts, we should remember and contemplate that these rites are for our spiritual benefit. The study of their meaning gives life to the Syriac liturgy as a whole.

The Feast of the Cross

Feast Days, or Holy Days, are days which are celebrated in commemoration of the sacred mysteries and events recorded in the history of our redemption, in memory of the Virgin Mary Mother of our Lord, or of His apostles, martyrs, and saints, by special services and rest from work. A feast not only to commemorate an event or a person, but also serves to re-awaken the spiritual life by reminding us of the event it commemorates.

At certain hours Jesus Christ invites us to His vineyard (Matthew 20:1-15); He is born in our hearts on Christmas; on Good Friday we nail ourselves to the cross with Christ; on Easter we rise from the tomb of sin; and on Pentecost we receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Every religion has its feasts, but none has such a rich and wisely profound constructed system of festive seasons as the Apostolic Churches.

The Feast of the Cross is celebrated twice a year, on the mid great Lent and September 14th.

On Wednesday of the Mid-Lent the church celebrates the feast of the lifting up the Holy Cross as it is mentioned by the Lord in chapter 3 of the gospel of John "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:14-15; 8: 28; 12: 32; Nu 21:4-9).

By saying "as Moses lifted up the serpent" - He shows the reason why He descended from heaven, that He might be lifted up, i.e. crucified, for the salvation of mankind, and be, by the appointment of God, as certain remedy for sinful souls as the brazen serpent elevated on a pole (Num. 21:9), was for the bodies of the Israelites, which had been bitten by the fiery serpents in the wilderness.

The book of Wisdom says: "they were troubled for a small season that they might be admonished having a sign of salvation ... for he that turned himself toward it was not saved by the thing that he saw, but by Thee that art the Savior of all." (Wisdom 16:5-12)The brazen serpent typified the Son of man, in that:

(1) the brazen serpent had the form without the venom of the deadly serpent; just as Jesus was "in the likeness of sinful flesh" yet "without sin" (Rom. 8:3), "made sin for us" though He "knew no sin" (2 Cor. 5:21); the brazen serpent seemed the most unlikely means of curing the serpents' bites; so the condemned One (Jesus) seemed most unlikely to save the condemned.

(2) The brazen serpent lifted up on the pole so as to be visible with its bright brass (which also is typical: Re 1:15) to the remotest Israelite answers to Jesus "evidently set forth before the eyes, crucified" (Gal. 3:1), so that "all the ends of the earth" by "looking unto" Him may "be saved" (Isaiah 45:22), "lifted up from the earth," and so "drawing all men unto Him" (John 12:32-34).

(3) The cure of the body by looking naturally typifies the cure of the soul by looking spiritually; faith is the eye of the soul turned to the Savior (Heb. 12:2), a look from however far off saves (Heb. 7:25; Eph. 2:17; Acts 2:39); the bitten Israelite, however distant, by a look was healed. The serpent form, impaled as the trophy of the conqueror, implies evil, temporal and spiritual, overcome. Wisdom (of which the serpent is the symbol) obeying God is the source of healing; as wisdom severed from God envenoms and degrades man. Moses' serpent rod was the instrument of power overcoming the magicians' serpents (Ex. 7:10-12).

Christ having instructed Nicodemus in the doctrine of regeneration in the former verses, here He instructs him in the death of the Messiah and in the necessity of faith in His death. The Son of man must be lifted up; that is, upon the cross, and die; that whosoever believes in Him should not perish.

The antitype or the substance of what that type did shadow forth: the brazen serpent's lifting up upon the pole, prefiguring Christ's exaltation or lifting up on the cross. So must the Son of man be lifted up.

Learn hence, that the Lord Jesus Christ is of the same use and office to a sin-stung soul, which the brazen serpent was of old to a serpent-stung Israelite.

Here in the occasion of their institution; they were both agreeing: brazen serpent and Christ, appointed for cure and healing.

Were they serpent-stung? we are sin-stung; devil--bitten. Was the sting of the fiery serpent inflaming? Was it spreading? Was it killing?

So is sin, which is the venom and poison of the old serpent. They agree in this; that they both must be lifted up before cure could be obtained; the brazen serpent upon the pole, Christ upon the cross.

They both must be looked unto before cure could be obtained; the looking up of the Israelites was as necessary unto healing, as the lifting up of the serpent.

Faith is as necessary to salvation as the death of Christ. The one renders God reconcilable unto sinners, the other renders him actually reconciled.

Again, did the brazen serpent heal all that looked upon it, and looked up unto it, though all had not eyes alike, some with a weak, others with a stronger eye? In like manner does Christ justify and save all, that with a sincere faith, though weak, do rely upon him for salvation; Whosoever believes in him shall not perish.

Further, the brazen serpent was effectual for Israel's cure after many stings; If after they were healed they were stung afresh, and did look up to it, they were healed by it. Thus the merit of Christ's death is not only effectual for our cure and healing at our first believing or after baptism, but after involuntary relapses and backslidings, if by faith we have recourse to the blood of Christ, we shall find it effective for our further benefit and future healing.

In a word, as the brazen serpent had the likeness of a serpent, the form, the figure, the name, the color of the serpent, but nothing of the venom and poison of the serpent in it; so Christ did take upon him our nature; but sin, the venom and poison of our nature, He had nothing to do with: though Christ loved souls with an invincible and insuperable love, yet He would not sin to save a soul. This was the similarity and resemblance between Christ and the brazen serpent.

The disparity or difference between brazen serpent and Christ is that the brazen serpent had no power in itself, or of itself, to heal and cure: but Christ has a power inherent in Himself, for the curing and healing of all that do believe in Him.

Again, the brazen serpent cured only one particular nation and people, Jews only; Christ is for the healing of all nations, and His salvation is to the end of the earth.

Farther, the brazen serpent cured only one particular disease; namely, the stinging of the fiery serpents; had a person been sick of the plague, or leprosy, he might have died for the entire brazen serpent: but Christ pardons and forgives all the iniquities, and heals all the diseases, of His people (Ps 103:3).

Yet again, though the brazen serpent healed all that looked up unto it, yet it gave an eye to none to look up unto it; whereas Christ does not only heal them that look up to Him, but bestows the eye of faith upon them, to enable them to look unto Him that they may be saved.

In a word, the brazen serpent did not always retain its healing virtue, but in time lost it and was itself destroyed (2 Kin. 18:4); but now the healing virtue and efficacy of Christ's blood is eternal.

All believers have and shall experience the healing power of our Redeemer's death to the end of the world.

Lastly, The Israelites that were cured by looking up to the brazen serpent, died afterwards; some distemper or other soon carried them to their graves; but the soul of the believer that is healed by Christ shall never die more: Whosoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life

And the 14th of September the church celebrates the feast of discovery of the Holy Cross. Regarding the finding of the Holy Cross by Empress Helen the Syrian. The pagan Roman emperors tried to completely eradicate from human memory the holy places where our Lord Jesus Christ suffered and was resurrected for mankind. The Emperor Adrian (117-138AD) gave orders to cover over the ground of Golgotha and the Sepulcher of the Lord, and upon the hill fashioned there to set up a pagan temple of the pagan goddess Venus and a statue of Jupiter. Pagans gathered on this place and offered sacrifice to idols. Eventually, 300 years later, by Divine Providence, the great Christian sacred remains -- the Sepulcher of the Lord and the Cross were again discovered and opened for veneration. This occurred during the rule of Emperor Constantine the Great (306-337AD) after his victory in the year 312 over Maxentius, ruler of the Western part of the Roman Empire, and over Licinius, ruler of its Eastern part, becoming in the year 323AD the sole-powerful ruler of the vast Roman Empire.

In the year 326AD, ardently desiring to find the Cross on which our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, Constantine fulfilled his mother’s desire and sent his pious Empress Helen to Jerusalem, having provided her with a letter to the Jerusalem bishop Macarius. The empress gave orders to destroy the pagan temple and idol-statues overshadowing Jerusalem. Searching for the Cross, she made inquiry of Christians and Jews, but for a long time her searching remained unsuccessful. Finally, they directed her to a certain elderly Hebrew by the name of Jude who stated, that the Cross was buried there, where stands the pagan-temple of Venus. They demolished the pagan-temple and, having made a prayer, they began to excavate the ground. Soon after they detected the Sepulcher of the Lord and not far away from it three crosses, a plank with inscription having been done by order of Pilate, and four nails, which had pierced the Body of the Lord. In order to discern on which of the three crosses the Savior was crucified, Bishop Macarius alternately touched the crosses to a corpse (dead body). When the Cross of the Lord was placed to it, the dead one came alive. Having beheld the rising-up, everyone was convinced that the Life-Giving Cross was found.

Christians, having come in an untold crowd to make veneration to the Holy Cross, besought Saint Macarius to elevate, to exalt the Cross, so that all even afar off, might reverently contemplate it. Then the Bishop and other spiritual leaders raised up high the Holy Cross, and the people, saying "Lord have mercy," reverently made prostration before the Venerable Wood. On her way to Jerusalem, Helen left one of her servants on a mountain. Once the cross was discovered, she ordered her men to light a fire on top of a nearby mountain. Having seen the fire, the servant staying on the next mountain lit another fire, and in this manner the news of the discovery of the Holy Cross reached the capital, Constantinople.

This solemn event occurred in the year 326 AD. During the discovery of the venerable wood of the Holy Cross there occurred also many miracles, the elder Jude and many other Jews believed in Christ and accepted Holy Baptism. Jude received the name Kyriakos (i.e., lit. "of the Lord") and afterwards was ordained Bishop of Jerusalem. During the reign of Julian the Apostate (361-363 AD) he accepted a martyr's death for Christ (commemoration of Priest-Martyr Kyriakos is 28 October).

The empress Helen journeyed round the holy places connected with the earthly life of the Savior - the reason for more than 80 churches -- raised up at Bethlehem the place of the Birth of Christ, and on the Mount of Olives from whence the Lord ascended to Heaven, and at Gethsemane where the Savior prayed before His sufferings and where the Mother of God was buried after the falling-asleep. Saint Helen took with her to Constantinople part of the Life-Creating Wood and nails.

The Emperor Constantine gave orders to raise up at Jerusalem a majestic and spacious church in honor of the Resurrection of Christ, which contained also the Sepulcher of the Lord, and Golgotha. The temple was constructed in about 10 years. Saint Helen did not survive until the dedication of the temple; she died in the year 330. The church was consecrated on September 13, 335AD. On the following day, September 14, the festal celebration of the Exaltation of the Venerable Cross was established. It has become a day for recognizing the Cross as a symbol of triumph, a sign of Christ's victory over death, and a reminder of His promise, "And when I am lifted up, I will draw all men unto Me." (John 12:32).

by Peter Lockhart

Gospel: John 3:14-21

Lift high the cross
the love of Christ proclaim
Till all the world adore
his sacred name.

Many of you may recognise the words of this hymn by Michael Newbolt. And no doubt many of you would want to sing along gustily agreeing with the sentiment.

Yet the question that I have is what kind of cross do we envisage being lifted.

The hymn goes on:

"Come Christians follow
where our captain trod
our King victorious Christ the Son of God.
Led on their way by this triumphant sign
the hosts of God in conquering ranks combine."

For me the image that immediately comes to mind with these words is that of an army marching off on a crusade. It is militaristic and imperialistic depiction of the faith and of what lifting high the cross might mean.

I find this imagery deeply disturbing because for me it creates an image of the cross which is the antithesis of what we actually find in the scriptures.

In his book, "Crucified God", Jurgen Moltmann asserts, "In Christianity the cross is the test of everything which deserves to be called Christian."

Yet the cross which Moltmann describes in his book is one far removed from such imperialism and militarism.

To understand then what it means to lift high the cross I think the reading from John 3 sets us off in a very different direction to understand what it means to contemplate the cross.

Of course the segment that we read today from John 3 is a part of a longer dialogue between Jesus and the Pharisee Nicodemus and it is valuable to read the whole story. Rather than do that own I would leave that for your own time.

But the vital point is the connection Jesus makes:

"And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life."

It is commonly accepted that what Jesus is referring to here is him being lifted up on the cross and what he is saying to Nicodemus is that to understand the meaning of the cross involves understanding what Moses did in lifting up the serpent.

So let us take a moment to look at that story.

It is helpful to fill in a little bit of background to the people's whining about the bread and wanting to return to Egypt. The bread they are complaining about was a miraculous gift, manna from heaven, when the people were hungry. Not only had God provided bread but God had also led Moses to split the rock at Meribah where the Israelites had quarreled with God to provide water for them. And just prior to the incident that we read today God had given the Israelites a victory over the Canaanites, so great was this victory that the place was named Hormah which means destruction.

The Israelites had been cared for and provided for and protected by God and their response is ungratefulness - "sorry God the bread's a bit bland, Egypt was better."

Now God's response may seem a little extreme as God sends fiery serpents among the people, biting them and even killing some of the people.

When the people go to Moses and plead that the snakes be taken away Moses approaches God. God's response is not to take the snakes away but to provide a means of grace. It is a brass snake mounted on a pole, a symbol to be looked upon and a person would be healed.

What is interesting for us today is that it is the source of the problem, the serpent, which becomes the symbol of their healing.

Let's bring this into comparison with the Son of Man being lifted up.

If looking at the serpent was looking at the source of the problems then looking at Jesus on the cross is at some level doing the same thing.

Jesus is the symbol, like the snake, of the source of our problems.

Now this may sound a little uncomfortable and it should be because this is the confrontation with our own humanity.

In Deuteronomy we read that the one who is hung on the tree is cursed by God. So in looking at the Son of man lifted up we see that the things which are not of God in this world, the world's turning away from God, our turning away from God, are tied up with the our human existence.

We are the snake biting ourselves!

The temptation for us who are Christians is to forget just how confronting this image of the cross is and that it continues to apply to us.

When we lift high the cross we are confronted by the way in which as human beings destroy our very humanity and so therefore God's will and way.

Let me explore on three levels.

As a person I know that there are times that I fail to honour others as I should and this most obvious in the intimate relationships that I have.

In an angry word or dismissive gesture I can cause hurt to my wife or children. I can disregard me parents or in-laws and by my apathy I can fail to show the love I should to my siblings. In each moment that I do these things I destroy something of their humanity and mine - I fail to live as God intended. We all do it and like it or not it is what sin is all about - being less than God created us to be, destroying the life given to us or others as a gift. It is an intensely personal and at the same time an entirely universal thing.

Personally I would argue sin is not on a sliding scale, sin is simply what it is sin, whether it is these simple personal interactions or something more dire: sin is sin! It is our turning away from God and so also, and maybe inevitably, each other.

What we do in our intimate relationships carries through into our communities; whether in the church or in the locality. Our Australian urban culture is typified by the building a bigger fences between or neighbours. We often don't even know their names. As people we are becoming more isolated and independent from one another.

And yes even as the church we fail. The existence of the many denominations is a sign of our inability as followers of Jesus Christ to be faithful. It is not simply that we like different things and express ourselves differently, which we do, but that we do not know how to love one another.

Even internally, no congregation I have ever been with or had association with has been free of tensions and disagreements.

This is what the cross reveals about humanity that we are the source of our own problems - we are the serpent that bites itself and the consequences and implications are far reaching.

In a world full of inequality the lifestyle we live is propped up by countries in which people are working in what any of us would say are intolerable conditions. Much of our coffee and chocolate is picked by children, sometimes dealt with as slaves. Many of the clothes we wear come from the sweat shops in other countries. We out source our manufacturing of technology to the places we can find the cheapest labour. We pick up our next bargain and it does not cross our minds as to where it has come from. Ironically, we do all this whilst vocalising our concerns for the poor of the world.

We are a paradoxical people.

Lift high the cross - what we see is that we human beings are very much the source of our own misery.

So where is hope? Where is God in all this? The answer is to look to the cross. Returning to Jurgen Moltmann's book the title gives it away "The Crucified God". God in Christ takes this ‘god forsakeness' into his death and transforms it.

The triumph of the cross is as Paul says foolishness - God identifies with us in our turning away and all of its consequences and says I am with you and I will lead you home.

As Paul writes to the Ephesians, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God."

Despite our ignorance, despite our deliberate waywardness, and despite our plain stupidity the cross says to us that God is with us and that God has not forsaken: even we who would nail God to the cross. This is grace.

As people we are drawn into this grace as we lift high the cross and as we are lifted into living again with hope. Living with hope that sees past our human predicament and the paradox of our rejection of God and seeks to live again led and empowered by the good news that has been revealed to us.

Renewed constantly in our relationships with one other we learn to forgive each other as we indeed have been forgiven and we live as forgiven sinners, not perfect, yet witnesses to a hope in God's love.

As Paul says, "For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life."

This is the good news: the Son of Man has been lifted up just as the serpent was lifted on the pole in the desert and in the source of our affliction we also find our healing.

by Rick Morley

The following is a reflection on John 3:14-21.

The scene of the brazen serpent (in Numbers 21:4-9) immediately makes me recall the serpent in the Garden of Eden. That the Israelites were punished for their thanklessness with deadly biting serpents, and then forced to look upon the image of another serpent to find a cure, makes me think that God was trying to get the Israelites to remember what had transpired in Eden. However, scholarship and archaeology tells us that serpent images were used in ancient Israel, during the time of the unified monarchy, as a symbol of fertility, and that similar images were used in ancient Egypt as a talisman to repel living snakes. (See: Joines, Karen Randolph. "Bronze Serpent In The Israelite Cult." Journal Of Biblical Literature 87.3 (1968): 245-256.)

That the Israelites had recently evacuated Egypt, what we may have here is a recollection of Egyptian practice. They were going to ward off the snakes in the same way as their captor Egyptians had done.

If one were going to preach on the brazen serpent, I think this would be a decent place to start - or at least have in the back of one's mind.

However, when this scene is referenced in the third chapter of the Gospel of John, I don't think this that this is what Jesus had in mind at all. It has nothing to do with fertility, Egyptian practice, or even the history of the Exodus. It seems that the brazen serpent is used here to speak about Jesus' crucifixion in two ways:

As a way to highlight the crucifixion as a "lifting up," and
As a way to say that the passion of Christ provides a remedy, and the promise of life.

Unlike the synoptic Gospels, John's Gospel presents the crucifixion not as an event of horror and humiliation, but as exaltation. There are no great drops of sweat. No crying out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

No, in John it's an enthronement. It's the moment of coronation where Jesus' kingship is fulfilled and proclaimed.

And, in this moment, Jesus is lifted high for everyone to behold. In the words of Simeon in the Gospel of Luke: "My eyes have seen the savior whom you have prepared for all the world to see; a light to enlighten the nations, and the glory of your people, Israel."

But, the event of the cross isn't just an advertisement, or a show. It actually does something. The cross is effectual.

Just like when the Israelites looked at the brazen serpent they were able to be healed, the cross has the power to heal and give life too. But, according to John, gazing upon it isn't enough.

You need to have faith. You need to be moved to believe. Which is, of course, what the entire third chapter of John is all about.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

This conversation that begins with Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night becomes a sermon on the reign of God which is made manifest on Calvary, and what the reign of God calls us to be in response: people of faith. Not like the Israelites in the wilderness, complaining that the manna was bland - but people feasting on the manna that God provides with thankfulness and faithful recognition of Our King.

Lenten Reflection for Mid Lent

Mid Lent and Erection of Golgotha

Mid-Lent and the Holy Cross