Looking Forward to Sunday at St. Thomas—Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Start Here: Looking Forward with Issues, Etc.
Each week, the Lutheran radio program Issues, Etc. features an hour long conversation that walks through the propers for the upcoming Sunday in the Church Year. This is a helpful way to prepare your heart and mind to hear God’s Word and receive His gifts.
Listen Now—”Looking Forward to Feasts and Festivals: Exaltation of the Holy Cross”
The Bach Cantata for This Sunday
Johann Sebastian Bach composed sacred cantatas for nearly every Sunday and feast day in the Church Year. These cantatas proclaim Christ through the same Scripture readings and themes appointed for each Sunday.
NOTE: While Bach did not compose a cantata specifically for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, his Christ lag in Todesbanden (BWV 4) is a fitting meditation in preparation for this day. The Feast lifts our eyes to Christ’s cross as our salvation: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to Myself” (John 12:32). Just as the bronze serpent was lifted up for Israel’s healing (Num. 21), so Christ was lifted up for the life of the world. He humbled Himself to the point of death on the cross (Phil. 2:8), and in that very act triumphed over sin, death, and the devil.
Bach’s chorale cantata, built on Luther’s hymn Christ lag in Todesbanden, proclaims this victory with power and clarity: Christ’s cross and resurrection are our life, and in Him we live forever.
This Week’s Cantata:
BWV 4—“Christ lag in Todes Banden”
Watch the Performance:
Read the English Translation:
From BachCantataTexts.org—Texts and Historically-Informed Translations for the Music of Johann Sebastian Bach
Sacred Art: The Gospel in Image
Saint Helen and the Finding of the True Cross
Gerard Douffet, 1624
Brief Commentary
This painting depicts the discovery of the True Cross by St. Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, in the early 4th century. According to tradition, Helena traveled to Jerusalem and, through her search, the cross of Christ was miraculously identified. Constantine later built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre over the site, and on September 14, 335, the cross was solemnly lifted up and exalted before the people. From this event the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross entered the church’s calendar.
The feast directs our eyes to Christ and the salvation accomplished by His cross. At the same time, it reminds us that God often works His saving power through physical means. A man was raised to life by touching the bones of Elisha (2 Kings 13:21). The sick were healed when Peter’s shadow passed over them (Acts 5:15), or when handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched Paul’s body were brought to the sick (Acts 19:11–12). Above all, Christ Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree. We rejoice in these examples as testimonies of God’s gracious use of created things to bring His saving help, while also remembering that the sure promises of His Word alone guide our faith and confidence.
So the church sings in praise of the cross:
On whose hard arms, so widely flung,
The weight of this world’s ransom hung,
The price of humankind to pay
And spoil the spoiler of his prey. (LSB 455:4)O tree of beauty, tree most fair,
Ordained those holy limbs to bear:
Gone is thy shame, each crimsoned bough
Proclaims the King of Glory now. (LSB 455:5)
The cross of Christ is both the instrument and the proclamation of salvation: the place where the ransom was paid, the victory won, and the very wood once marked by shame is now exalted in glory.
The Propers for the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
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Galatians 6:14a; Liturgical Text; Psalm 67:1
But it behooveth us to glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is our salvation, life, and resurrection, by whom we are saved and set at liberty.
God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause His face to shine upon us.
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O God, who makest us glad this day by the yearly solemnity of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross: grant, we beseech Thee, that we who on earth have learned the mystery of our redemption may attain to its rewards in heaven.
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Numbers 21:4–9
In those days: The children of Israel journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.” So the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
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Philippians 2:8b, 9
Christ became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name.
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1 Corinthians 1:18-25
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 it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
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Liturgical Text
Sweet the wood and sweet the nails: sweet the burden that thou bearest; which alone was counted worthy to bear the King and Lord of heaven.
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John 12:20-33
Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast. Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”
Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus.
But Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.
“Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.”
Then a voice came from heaven, saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.”
Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to Him.”
Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” This He said, signifying by what death He would die.
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Sing, My Tongue, the Glorious Battle, LSB 454
1 Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle;
Sing the ending of the fray.
Now above the cross, the trophy,
Sound the loud triumphant lay;
Tell how Christ, the world’s redeemer,
As a victim won the day.2 Tell how, when at length the fullness
Of the_appointed time was come,
He, the Word, was born of woman,
Left for us His Father’s home,
Blazed the path of true obedience,
Shone as light amidst the gloom.3 Thus, with thirty years accomplished,
He went forth from Nazareth,
Destined, dedicated, willing,
Did His work, and met His death;
Like a lamb He humbly yielded
On the cross His dying breath.4 Faithful cross, true sign of triumph,
Be for all the noblest tree;
None in foliage, none in blossom,
None in fruit thine equal be;
Symbol of the world’s redemption,
For the weight that hung on thee!5 Unto God be praise and glory;
To the Father and the Son,
To the_eternal Spirit honor
Now and evermore be done;
Praise and glory in the highest
While the timeless ages run.Text: Public domain
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Liturgical Text
Protect Thy people, O Lord, by the sign of the holy cross, from all their enemies that lie in wait for them, that we may render service pleasing unto Thee, and that our sacrifice may be acceptable in Thy sight, alleluia.
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Galatians 6:14a
But it behooveth us to glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, alleluia.
Lectionary Theme Summary
This Sunday’s readings center on:
The Exaltation of the Holy Cross
“Sir, we wish to see Jesus” (John 12:21). Then look to His holy cross. For just as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the wilderness, so Jesus, when He is “lifted up from the earth, will draw all people” to Himself (John 12:32). “He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” to save us (Phil. 2:8). “Everyone who is bitten” by the ancient serpent’s venom of sin, “when he sees” Christ “shall live” (Num. 21:8). The true holy cross is lost to history, and we cannot return to Calvary to find our salvation. So, Christ brings the New Testament in His blood to us. “We preach Christ crucified …. the power of God and the wisdom of God,” though foolishness to the unbelieving world (1 Cor. 1:23–24). It pleases God, “through the folly” of the cross we preach, “to save those who believe” (1 Cor. 1:21). We find the fruit and benefit of this holy cross poured out in Holy Baptism, spoken in the preaching of Holy Absolution, and delivered in the body and blood given and shed there for us. Thus are we strengthened to take up our crosses, sanctified by His (John 12:25–26).
Collect:
Merciful God, Your Son, Jesus Christ, was lifted high upon the cross that He might bear the sins of the world and draw all people to Himself. Grant that we who glory in His death for our redemption may faithfully heed His call to bear the cross and follow Him, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Voices of the Church: Fathers and Confessions
Each Sunday, the Church gathers to hear Christ in the Scriptures, and she has always confessed that Word with one voice. This section features brief excerpts from the Church Fathers, the Lutheran Confessions, usually the Large Catechism and the Formula of Concord. These selections highlight how the Church in every age has confessed the same faith drawn from God’s Word. Use them for meditation and instruction as we prepare to receive Christ’s gifts anew.
From the Church Fathers
PETER DAMIAN (SERMON 48)
But why do we endeavor to collect into one the types of the Cross which are contained in Holy Scripture, when every page is subservient—the Holy Spirit so ordering it to this terrible sign? This is the Mercy-seat to which the two cherubim look with their faces turned towards each other: because the two Testaments, the Old and the New, concordantly, and without any difference, point to Him who hung upon the Cross. For John says, “And He is the Propitiation for our sins”; and Peter, speaking of the ancient Fathers, affirms, “By the grace of Christ we trust that we shall be saved, even as they.” The Cross, then, is the concord of Scriptures, and, as it were, the boundary and the borderland of old and new things. The Cross confederates heaven and earth; the Cross rejoins men and angels in the unanimity of their ancient concord. The Cross is the death of vice, and the fountain and life of all virtue. The Cross is the path of the unwise, the high-road of them that are earnest in the race; the rest of those that have attained the goal. The Cross is the earnest for those that are enlisted; the strength of those that are engaged in war; the reward of those that have been discharged from service. The Cross is the courage of those that are fighting bravely; the recovery of those that are fallen; the crown of those that are victorious. The Cross subjects us to a momentary death, and recompenses us with eternal life. The Cross strips us of earthly goods, that it may enrich us with heavenly possessions; teaches us to hunger, that it may satisfy us; disciplines us to humility, that it may exalt us; accustoms us to patience, that it may crown us. The Cross is the rule to those that live in Christ; is the perfect pattern of righteousness; is the example of all good practices. The Cross terrifies the Devil, and he flies; invites good angels, and they enter; represses the vain fantasies of our thoughts, and introduces the Holy Spirit to chaste and pure hearts. The Cross refreshes the weary; strengthens the weak; and comforts those who have already begun to despair.
And what shall I more say? It was by the Cross that the King of Glory delivered us from the fetters of the cruel tyrant, and penetrated by His might into the dungeons of hell. He absolved all His elect from the chains of their ancient condemnation; whom also He raised with Himself by the glory of His resurrection.
From the Large Catechism
SECOND ARTICLE OF THE CREED (II.28-31)
For when we had been created by God the Father and had received from Him all kinds of good, the devil came and led us into disobedience, sin, death, and all evil [Genesis 3]. So we fell under God’s wrath and displeasure and were doomed to eternal damnation, just as we had merited and deserved. There was no counsel, help, or comfort until this only and eternal Son of God—in His immeasurable goodness—had compassion upon our misery and wretchedness. He came from heaven to help us [John 1:9]. So those tyrants and jailers are all expelled now. In their place has come Jesus Christ, Lord of life, righteousness, every blessing, and salvation. He has delivered us poor, lost people from hell’s jaws, has won us, has made us free [Romans 8:1–2], and has brought us again into the Father’s favor and grace. He has taken us as His own property under His shelter and protection [Psalm 61:3–4] so that He may govern us by His righteousness, wisdom, power, life, and blessedness.
Let this, then, be the sum of this article: the little word Lord means simply the same as redeemer. It means the One who has brought us from Satan to God, from death to life, from sin to righteousness, and who preserves us in the same. But all the points that follow in this article serve no other purpose than to explain and express this redemption. They explain how and by whom it was accomplished. They explain how much it cost Him and what He spent and risked so that He might win us and bring us under His dominion. It explains that He became man [John 1:14], was conceived and born without sin [Hebrews 4:15], from the Holy Spirit and from the virgin Mary [Luke 1:35], so that He might overcome sin. Further, it explains that He suffered, died, and was buried so that He might make satisfaction for me and pay what I owe [1 Corinthians 15:3–4], not with silver or gold, but with His own precious blood [1 Peter 1:18–19]. And He did all this in order to become my Lord. He did none of these things for Himself, nor did He have any need for redemption. After that He rose again from the dead, swallowed up and devoured death [1 Corinthians 15:54], and finally ascended into heaven and assumed the government at the Father’s right hand [1 Peter 3:22]. He did these things so that the devil and all powers must be subject to Him and lie at His feet [Hebrews 10:12–13] until finally, at the Last Day, He will completely divide and separate us from the wicked world, the devil, death, sin, and such [Matthew 25:31–46; 13:24–30, 47–50].
SACRAMENT OF THE ALTAR (V.66-70)
Here He offers to us the entire treasure that He has brought for us from heaven. With the greatest kindness He invites us to receive it also in other places, like when He says in St. Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” It is surely a sin and a shame that He so cordially and faithfully summons and encourages us to receive our highest and greatest good, yet we act so distantly toward it. We permit so long a time to pass ‹without partaking of the Sacrament› that we grow quite cold and hardened, so that we have no longing or love for it. We must never think of the Sacrament as something harmful from which we had better flee, but as a pure, wholesome, comforting remedy that grants salvation and comfort. It will cure you and give you life both in soul and body. For where the soul has recovered, the body also is relieved. Why, then, do we act as if the Sacrament were a poison, the eating of which would bring death?
To be sure, it is true that those who despise the Sacrament and live in an unchristian way receive it to their hurt and damnation [1 Corinthians 11:29–30]. Nothing shall be good or wholesome for them. It is just like a sick person who on a whim eats and drinks what is forbidden to him by the doctor. But those who are mindful of their weakness desire to be rid of it and long for help. They should regard and use the Sacrament just like a precious antidote against the poison that they have in them. Here in the Sacrament you are to receive from the lips of Christ forgiveness of sin. It contains and brings with it God’s grace and the Spirit with all His gifts, protection, shelter, and power against death and the devil and all misfortune.
From the Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration
THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF FAITH BEFORE GOD (III.9-10)
We unanimously believe, teach, and confess the following about the righteousness of faith before God, in accordance with the comprehensive summary of our faith and confession presented above. A poor sinful person is justified before God, that is, absolved and declared free and exempt from all his sins and from the sentence of well-deserved condemnation, and is adopted into sonship and inheritance of eternal life, without any merit or worth of his own. This happens without any preceding, present, or subsequent works, out of pure grace, because of the sole merit, complete obedience, bitter suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord Christ alone. His obedience is credited to us for righteousness.
These treasures are brought to us by the Holy Spirit in the promise of the Holy Gospel. Faith alone is the only means through which we lay hold on, accept, apply, and take them for ourselves.
THE PERSON OF CHRIST (VIII.44-45)
Dr. Luther also says in his book On the Councils and the Church [1539]:
We Christians should know that if God is not in the scale to give it weight, we, on our side, sink to the ground. I mean it this way: if it cannot be said that God died for us, but only a man, we are lost; but if God’s death and a dead God lie in the balance, His side goes down and ours goes up like a light and empty scale. Yet He can also readily go up again, or leap out of the scale! But He could not sit on the scale unless He become a man like us, so that it could be called God’s dying, God’s martyrdom, God’s blood, and God’s death. For God in His own nature cannot die; but now that God and man are united in one person, it is called God’s death when the man dies who is one substance or one person with God. [LW 41:103–4]
Thus far Luther.
It is clear that it is incorrect to say or write that the above-mentioned expressions (“God suffered, God died”) are only verbal assertions, that is, mere words, and that it is not so in fact. For our simple Christian faith proves that God’s Son, who became man, suffered for us, died for us and redeemed us with His blood.
GOD’S ETERNAL FOREKNOWLEDGE AND ELECTION(XI.28)
If we want to think about our eternal election to salvation helpfully, we must in every way hold strongly and firmly to this truth: just as the preaching of repentance is universal, so also the promise of the Gospel is universal, that is, it belongs to all people. For this reason Christ has given these commands:
Repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations. (Luke 24:47)
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son. (John 3:16)
Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)
The bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh. (John 6:51)
The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)
[Jesus] is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2)
Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)
For God has consigned all to disobedience, that He may have mercy on all. (Romans 11:32)
Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)
The same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing His riches on all who call on Him. (Romans 10:12)
The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ [is] for all who believe. (Romans 3:22)
For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life. (John 6:40)
It is Christ’s command that this promise of the Gospel also should be offered to everyone in common to whom repentance is preached (Luke 24:47; Mark 16:15).
Devotional Suggestions for the Week
Pray the Collect.
Read aloud at least the Gospel text one evening as a family and discuss the sacred art.
Sing a stanza of the Hymn of the Day before dinner or bedtime.
Listen to the Cantata on Saturday night or Sunday morning before church.
Review the Voices of the Church section connected to this Sunday.
Stay Connected
Join us for the Chief Divine Service on Sunday at 9:00 AM and Family Catechesis at 10:30 AM at Klein Funeral Home in Magnolia (14711 FM 1488). All are welcome to hear Christ’s Word and receive His gifts.
To learn more about St. Thomas Evangelical Lutheran Church and our mission in Magnolia, visit our homepage.
