As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that
whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

Yes, God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him may not
be lost, but may have eternal life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the
world; instead, through him the world is to be saved.

Reflect

If you think about it for a moment, wearing a cross or crucifix around your neck is a rather
strange thing to do. After all, the cross is an instrument of torture and death. In Jesus’ time,
it was typically reserved for those who threatened the Roman Empire. Crucifixion was
designed to be painful and humiliating as a way of dissuading others from challenging
Roman authority. The Jewish people related this manner of execution to the passage
in Deuteronomy that claimed that anyone hanged on a tree was accursed.

But we wear that cross proudly and today we celebrate the exaltation of the cross.
As God so often confounds our expectations, he does so once again. An instrument of
death becomes the tree of life. In the humiliation of the cross, Jesus is exalted above all to
the glory of God. And as we wear the cross or make the sign of the cross, we remind
ourselves that, by this cross, Christ triumphed over death and called us to share in his
triumph. As God transformed the meaning of the cross, so that cross transforms us so that
we might share eternal life.

© Copyright Bible Diary 2023