Holy Cross Day – What Does This Mean?

Encore Post: Shortly after she joined her son Constantine’s Roman imperial household, she came to faith in Christ. Her son commissioned her to tour the holy lands and identify places connected with the life and ministry of Jesus. From 326-328 AD, she toured Syria and Palestine at the empire’s expense, interviewing residents and Christian leaders to learn what she could. Almost all the sites on modern tours were identified by her. She had churches built on the location of the birth of Jesus and his ascension.

On the spot traditionally believed to be his tomb, a pagan Roman emperor had a temple built to Jupiter. Helena had it demolished and excavated. According to tradition, on September 14th, there she found the remains of the cross on which Christ died. At the command of Constantine, a basilica was constructed that by and large remains to this day. It was dedicated on September 14th. From that day forward, the Christian Church has celebrated September 14 as Holy Cross Day.

Lutherans favor this minor festival because it calls attention to the means of our salvation. On the cross, the wisdom of God defeats all the wisdom of human beings. Our modern scientism insists something is not real unless it can be measured. You have to be able to see it, touch it, taste it, hear it or smell it — directly or by instruments we can sense. So a God who is invisible cannot be real. Our contemporary focus on feelings makes us the center of the universe. My truth is real for me, your truth is true for you. My feelings are king. If I am convinced I am female although I am objectively male, no one may contradict me. A God who makes me and redeems me offends me. Our spirituality, which makes only abstract, mystical thoughts valid, is offended by the idea that God who made the world would become man, much less die for us. The idea that we have anything to be forgiven is itself foolish.

Yet God’s wisdom is wiser than the wisdom of humanity. God is not the watchmaker, who made the world, wound it up and lets it do its work. He is not a high God who leaves the world to its own devices. God loved us, got down on his hands and knees to fashion us from the dust and breathe life into us. Knowing we would sin and be lost forever left on our own, he chose us to be his and rigged things so that we would be saved. In the person of Jesus Christ, he became a man, lived the perfect life he demands in our place, suffered and died to pay for our sins and rose again so that one day he will call us from our graves to live forever.

So it is that we preach Christ crucified and glory in it, because it is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana