14 September: The Exaltation of the Holy Cross: Numbers 21:4b-9; Philippians 2:6-11; John 3:13-17
The Son of Man is first mentioned in the Book of Daniel as a heavenly figure riding on the clouds to ascend further to the very throne of God. And Jesus explains himself to Nicodemus as the Son of Man. But he then amplifies that figure with a contradictory image of the serpent Moses made of bronze and set on a pole to heal the people bitten by serpents.
Instead of a sublime heavenly figure, the serpent is chthonic, earthy, a creature deep in the soil, associated with its fertility, its hidden secrets, the wealth of mineral deposits, as well as decay and the buried dead. From the riches below ground and its hidden resources, from the mysteries of death and life, the serpent is a healing figure.
This is no polite or comfortable symbol; but as an amplification of the Son of Man, there is a wholeness, so typical of Jesus yet rarely found in his followers. After all, the serpent can kill and is shunned and rejected.
Jesus himself is the stone rejected by the builders which can be a capstone for building the salvation of some or a stumbling block for the downfall of others. Jesus presents each of us with a choice: do I embrace him, or do I stumble over him?
And his cross is the place of that encounter.
Do I, risking rejection, misunderstanding and abandonment, join him on the cross to ascend to God with unassuming trust? Or do I settle for a truncated identity with social approbation, in a slow death of compromised hopes and desiccated beliefs?
The choice is mine.