A Discourse for the Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost, Before the Exaltation of the Cross

No one has ascended into heaven but He who came down from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven (Jn 3:13).

So then, before Jesus Christ no one born of earth had ever ascended into heaven, but only He, the Son of Man who came down from heaven. No one had ascended into heaven, because it had been closed to the human race from the time of Adam’s transgression: for Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Sabaoth, and the wicked man shall not dwell with Him, nor shall the lawless remain before His eyes (Ps 5:5-6). Only the Son of Man, who came down from heaven and remains in heaven, ascended into heaven in His humanity, for by His humanity, united with His Godhead, He fulfilled all righteousness for us; and when He was baptized in the Jordan and prayed, the heavens, which had been shut by Adam’s sin, were opened first to Him; and it was He, finally, who, after His sufferings, death, and resurrection, ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God the Father, showing us too the way of ascent there. You will say that Enoch and Elijah were taken up into heaven. No: not into heaven, but only into the dwellings of the righteous, only, as it were, as though into heaven, in the language of Scripture. What, then, follows from what has been said? That heaven, our true homeland, for which we were created, has now again been opened to the human race by the Son of God, and people have become children of God in Christ. Strive, then, brothers, toward the open heaven, following the example of the saints, who from every age have pleased God and inherited the heavenly homeland; do not imagine that the earth is your homeland; live as strangers and sojourners, and be ready, every hour, to pass through death into that homeland of yours.

«And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life» (Jn 3:14-15). What is this mystery? Just as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent on a pole in the wilderness for the healing of the Hebrews bitten by serpents, so it was fitting, so it was necessary, for the Son of God to be lifted up on the cross, to be nailed to the cross. Recall the first commandment given to Adam and Eve, and their transgression: they stretched out their hands, contrary to God’s commandment, to the forbidden tree, and plucked the forbidden fruit, and, for their disobedience, for their devilish pride, for their falling away from God, for the corruption of their mind, heart, and will, were condemned to death. «You shall surely die» (Gen 2:17). By this transgression an infinite wrong was done before God—He who had given man infinitely many gifts (for man was created in the image and likeness of God), while in gratitude for all these gifts infinitely little was required of him: only that he not touch the fruit of a single tree. It would have been just to decree for the transgressor a fitting punishment—condemnation and eternal death. But man had not fallen first of his own accord (Solom 2:24): he was deceived by the devil, and, besides this, he felt remorse for his fault, and so deserved leniency. And so, before the justice of God the Father, the mercy of God the Son intercedes for the pardon of the transgressor, on the condition that satisfaction be made for his fault, for the fault of the whole human race, by the Son of God Himself, who was to become incarnate. And so, for the first humans’ stretching out of their hands to the forbidden tree, for people’s clinging to, their being nailed to, earthly things and pleasures, the Son of God, having become man, is nailed to the tree of the cross; for our attachment to fleshly pleasures, He suffers fearfully on the cross; for our being stripped of the God-woven garment, and for our passion for vain adornments, He is stripped bare on the cross; and, in place of our eternal death, He Himself tastes death, though a brief one—for even a single moment of the death of the Son of God, who has no beginning, is worth an entire eternity—that He might save us from eternal death. Such is the mystery of Moses’ lifting up of the serpent in the wilderness, and of the lifting up of the Son of God upon the cross! And just as the Hebrews, bitten by real serpents in the wilderness, were healed by a single look upon the bronze serpent, which was an image of the Lord crucified for us upon the cross, so we too, looking with the eyes of faith upon Him who was crucified upon the cross, are healed of the bite of the spiritual serpents—the demons—and of our passions, and of death, whether spiritual, temporal, or eternal.

«So must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life» (Jn 3:14-15). The death of the Son of God on the cross saves those who believe in Him from eternal ruin, and gives them the right to inherit eternal life, from which we fell away through sin: for the Son of God died for us, and by His death put our death to death, and by His resurrection granted us eternal life. So then, my brothers, do not cling to the earth, flee from attachment to earthly things, for our attachment to them nailed the Son of God to the cross; but cling wholly to God, trampling underfoot, by the free choice of your heart, your passion for the earthly, for all that is earthly is of the earth and will return to the earth, while the soul will return to God (Eccl 12:7). «For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world through Him might be saved» (Jn 3:16-17). If God loved us so, then surely we too, in answer to God’s inexpressible love for us, ought to love Him above all things. What shall be said of those who do not love Him even after He made so great a sacrifice for their salvation? What shall be said of those who do not believe in the Son of God—who crucify Him a second time—what shall be said of those who are cold toward the faith and toward the Church of Christ, who do not think it necessary to know the Gospel or to live by faith? The answer concerning them is pronounced in the Gospel: they will perish forever. For just as the believer will not perish, but will have eternal life, so the unbeliever will not receive eternal life, but will perish forever. The unbeliever «is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God» (Jn 3:18). Fearful is the fate of unbelievers, brothers! The strong enemies of faith in Christ are our own attachments to earthly things, this materialism in life which now prevails with particular force—this love of gain, this love of material things, this gluttony, this drunkenness, this dissoluteness, this passion for public amusements and games, for seizing what belongs to another, this passion for lavish living, this passion, in particular, for living brightly and merrily. For all of this nails us to the earth, while we have been called to the heavenly kingdom.

Brothers and sisters! Believe in the Son of God sincerely, believe in the Gospel, fulfill the Gospel, amend your lives, renew yourselves, do the works of repentance—and you will not perish. «For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world through Him might be saved» (Jn 3:17). Amen.