Homily 656 – 14 APE
Holy Transfiguration, Ames, Iowa
September 14, 2025
Epistle:  (125) 1 Corinthians 1:18-24
Gospel:  (60) John 19:6-11, 13-20, 25-28, 30-35

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God.

Today we remember the finding, the uncovering, of the true Cross.  It is a solemn day, a fast day, tempered by allowing fish and oil and wine, since it is on a Sunday.  This is also the only time, to my knowledge, that the hymns to the resurrection from the Octoechos are not sung, because this feast falls on a Sunday.

We may assume we understand the Cross.  We place the Cross in a central place in everything that we do.  We sing hymns that remind us of the Cross.  We call it precious and life-giving.  We have icons for it.

Do we really know what it means, though?  Stauros (σταυρός) is the Greek word, meaning “stake” or “pole”.  In the original Greek, in context, it was used to describe any stake or pole driven into the ground, and held a variety of meanings – like, for instance, a piling for a structural foundation, or a fence post.  It very likely didn’t include a crossbar, nor certainly not a footrest.

Our current depiction of the Cross upon which our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ was crucified evolved over time.  One theory, which I believe fits particularly the Orthodox understanding, is that in antiquity, Christ was presented as praying on the Cross.  The normal position for one praying in that era, particularly in Judaism, was standing, with arms outstretched.

Since the scripture tells us that they nailed Christ’s hands and feet to the Cross, the crossbar was added to depict Christ in that manner; nailed to the cross, but still at prayer.  It illustrates the voluntary nature of Christ’s suffering as well.  When you look at the icons of the Crucifixion, Christ doesn’t hang from the cross, but appears rather to support it.

The earliest depiction of the Cross of Christ as something other than a pole in the ground was the Greek letter Chi, the first letter in Christos, which takes an “X” shape.

The Cross is also represented by the Greek letter Tau.  This letter is like an English capital T, which provides a Cross shape.  It is interesting to me, and probably to very few of you, that the earliest instance of this use of the Greek letter Tau was not by Christians, but by a Greek writer named Lucian, who wrote a story about the letter Sigma suing the letter Tau in court, with Greek vowels as the jury.

Men weep and bewail their lot and curse Cadmus over and over for putting Tau into the alphabet, for they say that their tyrants, following his figure and imitating his build, have fashioned timbers in the same shape and crucify men upon them ; and that it is from him that the sorry device gets its sorry name (stauros, cross).

One interesting use of the word stauros is as a boundary marker.  The same concept the American western pioneers had when “staking a claim” or “staking a homestead”.  Metaphorically, the word is used in the phrase “I’d stake my reputation on it.” Or even “pulling up stakes.”

This puts the statement Christ made to his followers well before His death make a good bit more sense.  We read, “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.”  Many of you know that is one of my favorite passages.  I believe it to sum up the entirety of the Christian life in one sentence.

Yet, the nuance this revised understanding provides is striking.  We may very well translated the passage as “If anyone wishes after me to come, he must reject himself and lift up that stake of his and be guided by me.”

In other words, that stake that defines a willingness to move from where we are settled, to where Christ would like to take us.  It is, in short, giving up our own will and beliefs, and following Christ rather than determining our own path.  It is, crucifying our ego, our will, our ideas of self-determination.  However you’d like to state it.  It is the destruction of our position, beliefs and thoughts on anything.

The people of the day would likely have questioned the use of “Cross” if it was recognized as an instrument of execution.  But as a support for a tent, called a “booth”, as they raised annually on the feast of booths, or Sukkot, that was very familiar.

Now, with the benefit of hindsight, it is very much also an instrument of execution, the instrument on which the Son of God sacrificed His human life, for our redemption from death.  But that meaning would have been lost on the listeners of Christ’s day.

So practically, for us, what does it mean?

It means that Christ’s voluntary ascension of the precious and life-giving Cross was the crucifixion of His humanity, also voluntarily assumed.  He crucified His will in the garden of Gethsemane, allowing the will of the Father and the plan of the Father to be done.  And we have to do the same.

We need to set aside what we think about things.  Set aside our intellect, our will, our ego.  In order to follow Christ.  If we follow Christ, we can expect to move.  Christ never staked His home except in one place – the faith of the Apostles, expressed by St. Peter.

Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”  And Jesus said to him, “On this rock I will build my Church.”  That’s where Christ places His stake.  And that is where we have to place ours.

We can continue to read, as Christ tells the Apostles of His betrayal, and death.  He relays to them the statement for them to take up their stake and follow Him.  He takes Peter, James, and John to Mount Tabor and reveals Himself to them in the Transfiguration, as far as they can bear it.

We need to be mobile, but focused on hearing the words and teachings of the Church, Christ’s body.  The Church that gives us the Scriptures, the Ecumenical Councils, and all the other words we can follow.  The collective wisdom of the entire Church, relayed to us.

Leading us to the place of our salvation.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God.  Glory to Jesus Christ!