This is a copy of my talk given at Ayia Kyriaki and Saint Luke’s in the Anglican Church of Paphos on Holy Cross Sunday 14 September 2025. The Lectionary Bible Readings were: Numbers 21:4-9, Philippians 2:6-11, John 3:3-17.
Prayer
Heavenly Father,
I thank You for Your word.
By the power of Your Holy Spirit,
May You speak to my heart,
And change my life.
In the precious name of Jesus I pray.
Amen
There is, I think, an innate desire within us as human beings to mark places of significance. We do so in part to ensure that we don’t forget things that shouldn’t be forgotten. This impulse to mark places is especially powerful for those we consider to be holy. Examples from Scripture abound. The book of Genesis tells us that following his vision of a ladder extending to heaven Jacob takes the rock on which he had laid his head, sets it up as a pillar, pours oil over it, and marks it, believing it to be none other than the ‘house of God and the gate of heaven’ (Genesis 28:17).
In a similar way, after Joshua leads the Israelites across the Jordan River, he takes twelve rocks from the river and sets them up as a monument to mark that spot as the place where God had led the Israelites to safety (Joshua 4:20-22). The monument was to remind the Israelites, their children, and their children’s children that the Lord had provided and protected them in the past and would continue to do so in the future.
In the early fourth century the fortunes of the fledgling Christian church were radically changed with the decision of the Emperor Constantine to extend religious tolerance to Christians in the Roman Empire. This decision would, within a very short period of time, shift Christianity from the religion of an often-persecuted minority to the religion of the establishment.
According to tradition, a few years after Constantine’s declaration, his mother Helena went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem during which time – reputedly on 14 September 326 – she discovered the remnants of the cross on which Jesus had been crucified An order was issued by Constantine that a church be built over this site – believed to be the place where Christ was crucified. Nine years later, 335, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was dedicated, with a portion of the ‘True Cross’ remaining in the new church.
This church, for obvious reasons, soon became a place of great devotion and pilgrimage for Christians, especially during Holy Week. Good Friday and, in some traditions, the Veneration of the Cross, remind us of Christ’s suffering and the instrument of his death.
Holy Cross Day reminds us of the unique feature of the Christian. What do David Beckham, Madonna and Bishop Sean have in common (sounds like a joke!)? The answer is: they all wear a cross as jewellery. How many of us here wear a cross as an item of jewellery? It’s amazing how many people, who are not Christians, wear a cross on a necklace or a bracelet. A form of execution used as a piece of jewellery! We are so used to seeing this that we are not shocked by it. What would you think if Pandora started producing electric chair earrings; or lethal injection cufflinks or a hangman’s noose necklace for those ‘Unforgettable moments!’
And whilst the cross is a symbol of a torturous death, it is also a symbol of love. Today is a day to recognize the cross as a symbol of salvation and life. But have you ever wondered why it is that the cross is a symbol of the Christian faith? Why isn’t it a cradle to remind us about the much-loved Christmas story? Or a scroll to remind us of Jesus’ amazing teaching? Or a crown, because Jesus claimed to be a king? No – it’s a cross, to remind us of his death. It’s a reminder of what happened when Jesus died.
In John 3:13, we read: No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. Heaven is where God resides, but earth is the place where God reveals himself. God wants to be known, and he wants you to know him. But because no one can ascend into heaven God descended from heaven to earth in human form.
Isn’t that what Saint Paul is saying in our reading from Philippians? That the cross is a display of God’s wisdom and power! If you want to know who God is just look at Jesus Christ and him crucified. The theme is heaven, but the place of insight is earth, through Jesus, through the cross.
The author of the gospel of John, is also the author of Revelation and these two books provide us with a wonderful image of how the cross reveals heavenly truth on earth. At Golgotha, John is at the foot of the cross with Jesus’ mother Mary. Looking up he beholds the crucified body of Jesus. In Revelation the same John writes about a vision that he was given. He looked into heaven and sees the Lamb who was slain seated upon the throne.
This descent of heaven to earth is totally and absolutely unique to Jesus Christ. He is God’s only begotten Son. “No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.”
Jesus Christ has no contemporaries, no peers, no colleagues. Likewise, the gospel is not simply one religious message among many that are all designed to bring you to the same end. Jesus is the way, the only way, to the Father. We cannot ascend into heaven apart from the one who has descended from heaven. We may have all sorts of interesting ideas and opinions about God, but Jesus is the only one who can speak with any authority on the subject. Therefore, we should listen to him.
And what is it that he has come to say? John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God loves the world. So, while the means of God’s grace is particular to Jesus Christ the effect of God’s grace is universal: everyone who believes! And for thousands of years people have been drawn to its warmth and its light.
It’s the same love that appeared to Israel in the desert in form of a bronze serpent. You heard part of the story this morning from Numbers 21. All that wandering around in the desert had made the Israelites forget who delivered them and they turned against God and against Moses. Their poisonous words became poisonous snakes that bit them, and many died. But the Lord instructed Moses: “Make a poisonous serpent and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” And that’s what happened. Whenever a serpent bit someone that person would look at the serpent that Moses lifted up on the pole and live. The thing that was the enemy has become the remedy.
That’s what happens on the cross. We’ve been bit by the power of sin. John 3:14-15: 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. The thing that was the enemy, sin and death, becomes the remedy, Christ crucified for the sin of the world. And now anyone that looks at him lifted up on the cross, seated on his heavenly throne, will live. That’s the power and the wisdom of God! That’s the truth of the gospel.
Whether you’re in twenty-first century Cyprus or first century Palestine the Truth that all other truths are talking about is the heavenly truth of God’s saving love poured out on earth in our Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified.
That’s the truth that Christians all over the world confess in every liturgy and in every life that points to the cross. And it’s the most important truth in the world: that God loves the world so much that he sent his only Son to save the world from itself and everyone – anyone at all – who simply trusts him will be saved.
That is how much God loves us. You only have to look at the cross to see that. Jesus is God’s greatest gift. We can be forgiven and we can go free. And so, John can write in verse 17: For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. And it was on the cross that Jesus paid the price to save the world. That’s how deep the God’s love is for us is. One man dying in the place of others so that they might live.
Father Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish Franciscan Friar during the Second World War. In September 1939 the Nazis invaded Poland and within eighteen months Kolbe found himself in Auschwitz on the charge of publishing unapproved materials, which were in fact sermons. Maximilian Kolbe set about trying to help the other prisoners in the simplest of ways, praying with them, sharing what meagre food he had, and in the dire conditions that the prisoners found themselves in, such love was a huge boost.
One day a prisoner escaped and was successful. But the remaining prisoners would have to pay the ultimate price. Ten would have to die by forced starvation. Ten were chosen, including a man who had three young children. But at just the moment when the men were being taken away, the unthinkable happened. One man stepped forward out of line, an execution offence in itself. It was Maximilian Kolbe. He offered to take the place of the man with three children and die in his place. The officer agreed and they were led away.
Maximilian Kolbe faced a slow and painful death, and yet he was willing to pay it so that another might go free. He gave his life so that one man might not perish but instead have life. It was an act of incredible love.
It is an incredible story, and yet more amazing is what Jesus did for us on the cross. He gave his life so that we could go free. He bore what we deserved so that we could be forgiven.
Do we really believe this? Are we passing on the faith that we have received to others, like it’s the most important thing in the world? Jesus Christ has come from heaven to earth to make the love of God known to all. O that he might be lifted up in this church and parish so that others might see and believe and enter into the life God has for them. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Prayer
Almighty God, who in the passion of your blessed Son made an instrument of painful death to be for us the means of life and peace: grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ that we may gladly suffer for his sake; who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER The text contained in this sermon (except where stated) is solely owned by its author, Revd Paul A. Carr. The reproduction, or distribution of this message, or any portion of it, should include the author’s name.
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