Word XVI. On the Day of the Glorious Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord in Jerusalem, Found in the Depths of the Earth by the Equal-to-the-Apostles Empress Helen, Almost Three Hundred Years After the Crucifixion of the Savior of the World Upon It

Nearly two thousand years ago, upon the earth, men committed, out of malice and envy, a fearsome crime, at which the sun was darkened, the earth was shaken, the rocks were split, the tombs of the dead were opened, and the dead were brought to life, went out, and entered the city, appearing to many in Jerusalem. This crime was the murder, by the Jews, of the Savior of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who willed of His own accord to take upon Himself, from the justice of God, the punishment for the sins of the world. This murder was accomplished by means of crucifixion. It was the most shameful, most agonizing punishment, devised by the men of that godless world for slaves, who were valued less than any dumb animal.

And so the cross was the instrument of the God-Man’s execution. And this cross, which before had been accursed, became, after the crucifixion and death upon it of the God-Man, a tree of blessing for Christians, because through it the curse of God that lay upon us has been destroyed, and blessing given to all believers; through it universal death has been conquered, and resurrection and regeneration (a second birth) given to the human race.

This wood of the cross was hidden deep in the earth by the Jews, and, for its greater dishonor, a pagan temple was built over the place of its concealment—so that the place of the burial of the life-giving cross fell into oblivion.

When the Christian faith triumphed over paganism and Judaism, and there appeared upon the throne of the Caesars the Equal-to-the-Apostles, wise Emperor Constantine, together with his mother Helen—the thought came to this Empress to find the true cross on which the Lord Jesus Christ shed His redeeming blood and died. After a long search, a certain aged Jew, who by tradition knew the place where the cross was hidden, revealed to the Empress the place of its location, and it was found and solemnly brought up out of the earth, and was recognized as the cross of Christ by a miracle that came from it—by the resurrection of a dead man upon whom it was laid. Then, at the Empress’s wish, it was shown to the people, that is, it was lifted up toward all four sides by the hands of Macarius, Patriarch of Jerusalem. The people, in joy and repentance, wept, and repeated again and again: Lord, have mercy! This is why we celebrate the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord, and why we repeat many times, on this occasion: Lord, have mercy!

Since the Lord endured the cross for the sins of each and every one of us, we must all earnestly repent of them, weep, and say: Lord, have mercy, for we all sin without number.

But why are we saved from sin, the curse, and death precisely by the cross, and not in some other way?

Why was the execution upon the cross, in the flesh, of the Son of God Himself, necessary? Let us reflect on this. The reason why the righteous judgments of God required the crucifixion of the Son of God in the flesh is explained in one of the church hymns for this feast. This hymn reads thus: come, all you nations (peoples), let us worship the blessed tree, by which (was accomplished, was satisfied) eternal righteousness: for the devil, who deceived our forefather Adam by a tree (through the eating of the forbidden fruit), is himself deceived by the cross (having, in his ignorance, slain not a mere man, but the all-righteous God-Man, guilty of no sin and no death), and falls, cast down by a strange (pitiable) fall—he who tormentingly held in his claws the man made in the image of God; by the Blood of God the venom of the serpent is washed away, and the curse of the just condemnation of man is destroyed, when the all-righteous Jesus was condemned to death upon the cross by the unjust judgment of the Jews; for it was necessary to heal, through the sufferings of Jesus upon the wood of the cross, the wound of the transgression caused by Adam’s eating of the forbidden tree in paradise, and, through the innocent sufferings upon the cross of the passionless God-Man, to destroy the passions of the condemned (Adam and all mankind). Glory, O Christ, to Your wise dispensation (providence) for us, whereby You have saved us, as the only Lover of mankind. (Stichera of the feast at «Lord, I Have Cried»).

This church hymn, composed by an inspired hymnographer, is filled with a sincere and profound meaning. Let us try, with God’s help, to explain it somewhat.

The disobedience of the first-created pair to the very lightest, testing commandment of their Creator and Benefactor—a commandment for the keeping of which, moreover, every means was given them—and their thoughtless obedience to the cunning adversary of God, the rational serpent, and their entering into alliance with him, cast man and mankind away from God to an infinite distance, and subjected him to the yoke of sin, to the righteous curse, and to eternal death. Man fell into an unpayable debt before the Creator, having trampled upon all His benefactions, and showed himself ungrateful, proud, and evil, taking upon himself the spirit of his new master—the devil.

Mankind found itself in a fearsome captivity in the whole of its threefold being of soul—reason, heart, and will together; it was entirely possessed by the dark, hellish power: for what fellowship has light with darkness, righteousness with lawlessness (2Cor 6:14), pride and disobedience with humble obedience? — Fallen mankind had, by the love of God for man, to be redeemed from this fearsome captivity, from sin, the curse, and death.

But who could redeem the countless human race, as numerous as the sand of the sea, but God Himself? No creature could redeem it, no advocate, no angel; for every rational creature, however righteous, even an angel, is righteous not of itself, but by the grace of God, and does only what it is bound to do. Only the one righteous, perfect God-Man, Christ, the Son of God, could redeem men by His own infinite righteousness; but for this He had to become Man, uniting manhood inseparably and unconfusedly with His Godhead, in one Person; He had to fulfill all righteousness for mankind and on behalf of mankind; to enlighten it, to teach it repentance and the fulfillment of the will of God; to give it grace upon grace; to suffer for men, voluntarily accepting punishment for them; to die, and by His own innocent death to deprive of his power him who had the power of death—the devil; to conquer death, which men had brought upon themselves through their bold disobedience; and to rise, in His own manhood, from the dead, and to grant to all the greatest gift of the resurrection!

Here, then, is the boundless mercy of God toward the fallen human race! Here is the righteousness of God, satisfied at its proper price!

How, then, did the devil bring about such dreadful sufferings upon the cross and the death of our Redeemer Jesus Christ, when these very sufferings and this very death were to be the final conquest of himself, the enemy of God, the destruction of hell and its fearsome prison, and the crushing of the very head of the serpent? The devil, out of malice and pride, lost his senses, and himself prepared for himself the almighty Conqueror of death and hell, and was compelled to release all his captives, whom he had hoped to hold forever in his tormenting power. Thus, by the wood of the cross, sin, which entered the world through the tree of disobedience, was destroyed, and mankind’s debt to the righteousness of God was paid through the innocent sufferings and death of the Son of God. Men were given the greatest of blessings—repentance, and the grace that disposes a believing man to repentance—and every means was given them to become a new creature in the Lord, to become righteous, and to attain their place in the ranks of heaven together with the angels.

Make use, then, sinners, of the mercy of God, of the merits of the cross of the Son of God, and be saved without delay through repentance and works of mercy. Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching. Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation. Amen.