Reflection on the Sunday of the Cross
This past Sunday, the 3rd Sunday of Lent, the Orthodox Church commemorates the precious and life-giving cross. Placed halfway through this Lenten season, it’s our reminder that we are called to pick up our cross as we continue towards Christ’s passion. Given the state of our world at the moment, I’ve spent time reflecting on my faith, salvation, and the narrative surrounding the cross. The cross is life-giving. The cross is essential and the very foundation of our Christian faith. It is steady, unchanging, and brings me comfort in the face of so much uncertainty. So here is my reflection on the cross and salvation that has come to the world because of it:
Salvation is being united with Christ. It’s holistic, you cannot be united with Christ if you are at odds with Him. So it starts with simple repentance and forgiveness of our sins. We ask God to forgive and He forgives us. However If our opposition to God was the only thing we suffered from, this sort of simple repentance would be sufficient for our salvation, for God wholeheartedly welcomes such simple repentance. However, our sin has brought death into the world, into our lives and into our hearts. It is Christ’s overcoming of death which is our salvation. He has overcome death by His own death and we participate in His death and receive His immortality through humbly receiving the sacraments in repentance. Thus for this reason, Christians work out their salvation through simple repentance, obedience to God’s command, humbly receiving the Sacraments, and in anticipation of the day He will return, bringing our salvation into completion.
St Paul asserts that there is a natural relationship between sin and death in Romans 6. The wages of sin is death. When we sin, death comes into the world and we die. The bond between sin and death is so unshakable, that St Paul speaks about it as a law that governs creation. Sin requires death. Period.
From Adams first sin, this unshakable law of creation has been in effect. Who now can save us from death? Who can over turn the unbreakable law of sin and death? Christ came not to overturn the law but to fulfill it- to die once for all (Matthew 5:17).
By dying and subsequently raising from the dead, Christ established a new law- if we die with Christ we will subsequently be raised with Him. We destroy sins claim on our lives by dying with Christ and become inheritors of Christ’s life. ‘For if we have been united with Him, in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His’ (Romans 6).
For this reason, a Christian’s aim is to participate fully in Christ’s death in anticipation of His resurrection. We first and foremost participate in Christ’s death through the Sacraments, beginning with baptism (Romans 6:4). Partaking in Holy Communion is similarly a participation in Christ’s death, for it is His broken body and shed blood which we partake of (Luke 22:19). Through these Sacraments God empowers us to pick up our cross daily. In this way we participate in Christ’s death in our homes, at our work, and among our families and friends.
Though there is much more than could be said there is one more thing that must be said: salvation is impossible apart from love - God’s love for us and our love for God. God moved first in love for us, and in turn, we are moved in love towards him. The heroic work of Christ on our behalf is the revelation of God’s heart. In Christ we come to know the deep things of God, and what we see in Christ is a love greater than any that can be conceived. It is because of Christ that St. John can truly proclaim, “God is love” (1 John 4:8).
I thank God for the cross of Christ! It’s through the salvific work of the cross that our God made a way for us to be united with Him once again. So let us repent and believe, for the kingdom of God is at hand (Mark 1:15).
- Destinie