If, when you think about the Holy Cross of Jesus Christ, you only remember His suffering and death then you have not triumphed with Christ through the cross, yet.  

I like to look at it this way:  anyone can be tortured, crucified and die.  Anyone can achieve death in this way.  What no one else can do is rise from the dead on the 3rd day and continue to move among the living as a living being and continue to perform good works and miracles.  Only one man ever overcame a death like this and that one man is Jesus, the Christ.  If you are saying to yourself, “Well, what about Lazarus?  He rose from the dead!”  Of course it was Jesus who raised Lazarus from the dead, a foreshadowing of things to come for all mankind and a monumental example of the power of Jesus, who is our Lord and God.  

So, as the serpent was lifted up by Moses in the desert, the serpent that became a sign of great healing, so too Jesus is lifted up and becomes for us a new sign of great healing! Nicodemus, to whom Jesus is talking in the Gospel today, would know very well what the lifting up of the serpent means to the Jewish people and so he understands the simile Jesus speaks, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”   

The most important message of the Gospel today is the revelation that God did NOT send Jesus to condemn the world, but to SAVE the world.  Jesus could not do that had he not triumphed over the cross.  Because he triumphed, we have hope of salvation and eternal life.  Hopefully we hold the image of the cross in our hearts and minds not as tool of great suffering and death, but as a transition into salvation, hope, and life everlasting!  All must pass from this life into new life in Christ Jesus – one of the most important reasons there is to let go of earthly ties.  Do not bind yourself to what is passing; instead bind yourself to what is everlasting and eternal!

The Psalm this week is Psalm 78:  Do Not Forget the Works of The Lord  Lead Sheet Link  MP3 Demo Link

Have a blessed week!  Rejoice in the triumph of the cross!