The Lord said, “No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”
John 3:13-17
Happy Ecclesiastical New Year!
As we celebrated the Nativity of the Theotokos, the Church marked her new year, emphasizing the Theotokos’ role as the bearer of salvation and the beginning of God’s plan for our redemption. Through her birth, the cycle of salvation began to unfold in human history, and the Church recognizes this shift by declaring the new year.
During this time, we will pivot from our summer readings of the Gospel of Matthew to the Gospel of Luke. Still, for the next two weeks, we will find ourselves in a different inter-seasonal celebration centered on the Holy Cross of Christ.
The Cross stands at the center of our faith as the means by which salvation has taken place, and it is fitting to commemorate its finding and exaltation at the beginning of our new year.
Through the Virgin’s womb and the empty tomb, salvation has come into the world. Without the birth of the Theotokos, there is no birth of Christ. Without the offering of the Lord upon the Cross, there is no empty tomb revealing to us the Resurrection.
In this Sunday’s short reading before the Feast of the Holy Cross, our Lord reminds us that He is offering us salvation.
We are first told by our Lord and God:
“No one has ascended into heaven but He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven.”
This language of ascent and descent reveals what Christ is doing as our Savior.
He has taken on our human nature as the Son of Man, yet this same Son of Man is described as being in heaven.
In Jesus Christ, heaven and earth, divine and human, are reunited, showing God’s love for us as He descends from heaven in order to raise us through His Resurrection and Ascension.
Without descent, there is no ascent.
And so our Lord continues by reminding us of the salvation that comes from His descent into the grave through His Passion upon the Cross.
To articulate this reality, our Lord reminds us of the bronze serpent that saved the Israelites in the wilderness from the bite of venomous snakes:
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.”
The serpent is the tempter in the Garden, and at the same time, it becomes a precursor to the salvation God now offers us.
In the Garden, the serpent tempted humanity through a tree, leading to the sin of our forefathers and foremothers.
In the wilderness, a bronze serpent raised upon a pole became a means of salvation for those suffering from the consequences of their sins.
Now we see that both are types, or images seen dimly, of what has come in Christ.
For in His lifting up upon the wood of the Cross, the tree that once became associated with humanity’s flight from God now becomes the means by which salvation is freely offered.
Christ thus uses both serpent and tree to offer us redemption, for what once led toward destruction now leads us toward eternal life.
To conclude this reading, our Lord gives us the famous words of John 3:16–17 in order to make clear what He is doing for our salvation:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”
Through the serpent’s temptation in the beginning, humanity made its first choice to fall away from God’s presence into sin.
We fell to the serpent’s temptation and ate from the tree, believing in our infant state that we could be like God, knowing the fullness of good and evil.
Yet we are not God, and we could not bear the weight of knowing good and evil.
Thus, under the pressure of both, we continually see that we, as God’s people, fled from Him, leading eventually to the incident of the venomous snakes in the wilderness and Moses raising up the bronze serpent as a type of salvation.
Humanity has chosen venom over life time and again because the lie presented to us by the Devil is that the venom will somehow alleviate the pain caused by choosing evil over good.
Yet in the midst of our constant predisposition toward what destroys us, God offers us His Son, the true antidote and the means of our salvation.
It is easy for us to fixate on our sin and its consequences.
In my own life, it is all too easy for me to focus on the negative things of which I am capable. In my fixation upon sinful actions, I spiral.
I have begun to notice that the Devil wants us to spiral when we look at our sin, because that is how he distracts us from the salvation that has dawned.
We can always offer to God, through His Son, everything with which we struggle.
Yes, we choose the venom of sin at times in our lives, believing that it will alleviate our pain.
Yet the true antidote to sin is the Body and Blood of our Lord, which actively transforms us.
God so loves us that He offers the fullness of Himself to us through His Son so that, in our faithful following of Him, we may not perish but have eternal life.
He actively renews our lives so that we may experience the newness of life in His presence.
God has sent the Son into the world not to condemn us, but so that we may be saved.
I reflect on this reality more for myself than for anyone else.
I continually sin, and when I think I am not sinning, time and again I find that I am committing sins that I do not even intend to commit.
It becomes easy for me to feel despondent and hopeless when I see this cycle in my life.
Then, when I remember to open my heart to God and call out to Him, I realize that He has been there all along, providing what I truly need.
Only then do I begin to see clearly, time and again, that God offers us these reminders of the work He is doing not only in my life but in all of our lives, so that we can recognize that He is always working within us, giving us what we need to become full participants in the salvation He offers.
God reunites us with Himself by offering us the whole of Himself.
As the Son of Man, He takes on our human nature so that we may be raised into His divine presence.
He offers us His Body and Blood through His being raised upon the Cross, redeeming the serpent, the tree, humanity, and the whole of His creation.
Our God so loves us that He offers us the fullness of Himself through His Only-Begotten Son so that, in faithfully following Him, we may have true and eternal life in His loving and saving presence.
God offers us the whole of Himself not to condemn us, but so that we may fully partake of salvation.
This is the good and loving God in whom we believe.
So, as I remind myself, when we sin, as we all do, and continue to face the temptation of despondency when we see our helplessness in the face of sin, let us remember that God is the One redeeming us, and let us call out to Him for aid in prayer.
God offers us redemption by meeting us where we are and mending the wounds our sin has inflicted.
God offers us His Body and Blood to renew and transform our own in His loving and saving presence.
God grants us what we need to be saved, so all we need to do is turn toward Him and receive the gifts He has offered us.
Let us be intentional in calling out to Him and recognizing the gifts of true life He offers us through the birth of His Mother, the Cross that becomes the pathway toward salvation, and all the gifts He continually gives us.
Salvation is a free gift He continues to offer us through His creation, of which we are all a part.
It is our calling to turn toward Him so that He may continue to raise us to the heights of His loving and saving presence.
For truly, to Him be all glory, honor, and worship, now and forever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
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