The Exaltation of
The Holy Cross
Today, as we celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, we encounter one of Scripture's most profound revelations in John 3:13-17. Here, in Jesus's nighttime conversation with Nicodemus, we find the very heart of why Christians "exalt" the cross, not as an instrument of death, but as the ultimate expression of God's love for the world. When Jesus tells Nicodemus that "just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up," he's revealing that his crucifixion will be simultaneously his greatest humiliation and his most glorious moment. The cross becomes the bridge between heaven and earth, the moment when God's infinite love stoops down to embrace our deepest brokenness.
The beauty of this passage lies in how it transforms our understanding of what it means for something to be "lifted up." In the ancient world, crucifixion was designed to be the ultimate public shame, a warning to anyone who dared challenge the established order. Yet Jesus reframes this moment of apparent defeat as the very mechanism of salvation. Just as the bronze serpent Moses raised in the wilderness brought healing to all who looked upon it with faith, Christ lifted up on the cross becomes the source of eternal life for everyone who believes. This isn't just a historical event we commemorate, it's the ongoing invitation of God's love reaching toward every human heart, in every generation, saying "Look and live."
What makes John 3:16-17 so breathtaking is how it reveals the motivation behind the cross. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son." This isn't about an angry God demanding payment, but about a loving Father who couldn't bear to lose his children. The cross reveals that God's love isn't abstract or distant, but intensely personal and costly. When we exalt the cross today, we're celebrating the stunning truth that the Creator of the universe loves each of us so deeply that he was willing to enter into our human condition, experience our pain, and transform our greatest enemy, death itself, into the gateway to eternal life. This is love beyond anything we could imagine or deserve.
The promise that follows is equally transformative: "that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." This isn't just about what happens after we die; eternal life begins the moment we encounter this love and allow it to change everything about how we see ourselves, others, and our purpose in the world. The cross doesn't just save us from something; it saves us for something, for a life of meaning, hope, and unshakeable joy that no circumstance can destroy. When Jesus is lifted up, he draws all people to himself, not through force or manipulation, but through the irresistible magnetism of perfect love perfectly expressed.
John 3:17 completes this revelation with words that should take our breath away: "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." In a world that often feels marked by judgment, division, and condemnation, the cross stands as God's definitive "No" to despair and his resounding "Yes" to hope. Today, as we exalt the Holy Cross, we're proclaiming that the final word about human existence isn't failure, sin, or death—it's love, forgiveness, and life that cannot end. Every time we make the sign of the cross, every time we see this sacred symbol, we're reminded that we are loved beyond measure by the One who proved it in the most dramatic way possible. This is why we exalt the cross: because in it, Love himself was lifted up, and through it, all of us can rise.
© 2025 James Dacey Jr.
