Monday Read: September 14 - Holy Cross Day
Today the church celebrates Holy Cross Day, also called the Exaltation of the Cross. The feast commemorates two events: the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on September 14, 335, and the recovery of the True Cross from Persian captivity in 628. Both events celebrated the cross not as symbol of shame but as instrument of salvation - the means through which Jesus conquered death and redeemed humanity.
The backstory: In 326, Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, traveled to Jerusalem on pilgrimage. According to tradition, she discovered three crosses buried near Golgotha - the place where Jesus was crucified. To determine which was Jesus's cross, they tested them on a sick woman. When she touched the third cross, she was immediately healed. Thus they identified the "True Cross."
Constantine ordered a church built on the site. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was dedicated nine years later on September 14, 335, covering both Golgotha (where Jesus was crucified) and the nearby tomb (where he was buried and resurrected). Part of the cross was kept in Jerusalem, part taken to Constantinople, part to Rome. For centuries, pilgrims came to venerate the relic.
In 614, Persian forces under Khosrau II captured Jerusalem and took the True Cross as war trophy. For fourteen years it remained in Persian possession while Byzantine Emperor Heraclius fought to recover it. In 628, Heraclius defeated the Persians and reclaimed the cross. On September 14, 628, he carried it back into Jerusalem in triumphal procession. This second September 14 event reinforced the date's significance.
Whether Helena actually found Jesus's cross is debatable. Many scholars are skeptical - three hundred years is a long time for wooden crosses to survive, and Jerusalem had been destroyed and rebuilt multiple times. The tradition likely reflects early Christians' desire for tangible connection to Jesus's sacrifice rather than historical fact.
But the historicity of the relic matters less than the theology it represents. Holy Cross Day celebrates the cross as victory, not defeat. In ancient Rome, crucifixion was shame, humiliation, torture reserved for the worst criminals. Polite society didn't mention it. Yet Christians made it their central symbol, proclaiming that what looked like shameful defeat was actually glorious victory.
Paul captured this paradox: "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Galatians 6:14). He boasted in something the world considered shameful. Why? Because the cross revealed God's power working through weakness, God's wisdom confounding human wisdom, God's love conquering through sacrifice.
First Corinthians elaborates: "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God... For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:18-24).
The cross offends human expectations. We expect God to work through power, wisdom, strength, impressive displays. God works through weakness, foolishness, suffering, shameful death. We expect victory to look triumphant. God's victory looks like defeat. We expect power to dominate. God's power serves and sacrifices.
This has practical implications. If God's power works through weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9), then your weakness isn't disqualifying - it's the very place God can work most powerfully. If God's wisdom looks foolish to the world (1 Corinthians 1:25), then following God might require choices the world considers foolish. If God conquered through sacrifice (Philippians 2:8), then Christian victory comes through self-giving love, not self-preserving power.
The cross also redefines success. By worldly standards, Jesus's ministry was failure. He died at 33, rejected by religious leaders, abandoned by followers, executed as criminal. He owned nothing, controlled nothing, accomplished nothing measurable. Yet this "failure" redeemed humanity, defeated death, and transformed history. Worldly success and kingdom success are often opposites.
Today, as you celebrate Holy Cross Day (whether you knew that's what today was or not), consider: Are you pursuing worldly success or kingdom faithfulness? Are you trying to accomplish impressive things through strength and wisdom, or are you willing to trust God's power working through your weakness? Are you avoiding suffering and sacrifice, or embracing the cross-shaped path Jesus modeled?
The cross is foolishness to the world but power to those being saved. Embrace its wisdom. Walk its path. Trust its power. What looks like weakness is strength. What looks like foolishness is wisdom. What looks like defeat is victory.
