Our readings today make the link between a story from the time the Israelites spent in the desert, when they lost patience with God since their salvation from slavery in Egypt wasn’t working out as they expected (Numbers 21:4b-9), to Jesus referencing this incident in relation to his own coming death (John 3:13-17). In both cases the symbolism of something being held up in front of the people is clear.
That was then. We don’t hold up bronze snakes, or crosses to crucify people, or even monstrances with the Eucharist very much these days. But we certainly haven’t lost our taste for displays, most often on big screens in huge arenas, but sometimes just royalty at a distance, or a winning sports team, or even military equipment.
So what is this particular display of the cross of Christ supposed to do for us, if we can get past feelings of distaste or irrelevance?
Perhaps one of the most striking features of the Christian story, the Easter story, is that the humiliation of the cross, the apparent failure of Jesus, is a very public act, literally on display for everyone around. The “success” of the Resurrection on the other hand is totally private, an event only experienced between Jesus and his father. This is why Paul refers to the scandal of the cross (1 Cor 1:23), a scandal we are so used to that we have lost the ability to feel shocked by it.
This once in 7 years reminder in today’s Feast tells us that the central object of our faith is this brutal piece of execution equipment (maybe imagine instead an electric chair to force a comparable reaction). Then Paul’s explanation for the significance of this scandal, as we hear it in our second reading (Philippians 2:6-11), may have renewed force. God achieved our salvation by a death, not because it was a humiliating public execution, but because it was an act of complete and total humility. Humility and humiliation have the same root. The humiliation of the slave can be transformed by humility into a transcendent victory. Because Jesus became humble to the point of death, death on a cross, we are rescued from death and the fear of death.
So the cross is not a sign of failure, it is the sign of success, a triumph. It was by dying that Jesus changed everything. The Resurrection then is a follow-on consequence (as Paul explains), not a proof, nor a happy ending to what seemed like a sad story at the end of the first act.
This is why the one item that is required to be centrally displayed in a Catholic church is a cross. Regardless of the style, whether Jesus is shown in horrific gory detail, in resurrected triumph, or by the slightest suggestion, it is a cross. The Cross, the cross that saves us.