Hearing The Word

A weekly newsletter delivering context and insight into the Sunday Gospels.

September 14, 2025

Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

John 3:13-17

Jesus said to Nicodemus:

"No one has gone up to heaven

except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,

so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,

so that everyone who believes in him might not perish

but might have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,

but that the world might be saved through him.

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Victory through Defeat

~ Rev. Thomas Whittingham

Saint Laurence Parish + Upper Darby, PA

This brief but theologically rich passage from John is not spoken from the Cross but comes from Jesus’ nocturnal conversation with Nicodemus, a Pharisee seeking light in the shadows. The setting is important: these words are not cries of agony but teachings of revelation, spoken with the calm clarity of the Word made flesh instructing a seeker of truth.

Verse 13 affirms Jesus’ unique authority and origin: “No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.” Jesus is not just a prophet or teacher—He alone has descended from Heaven and speaks with firsthand divine authority. His identity is singular and unmatched, the only mediator between God and man.

The use of “lifted up” (v.14) is a deliberate echo of Moses lifting the serpent in Numbers 21:4–9; and it is much more than a metaphor. The Greek word kathōs (translated “just as”) is critical. It signals not just a similarity but a correspondence or divine derivation. The bronze serpent is not merely a type or image but a God-ordained prefiguration of the Cross. As the serpent was “lifted up” for healing, so Christ must be “lifted up” for the healing of the world, not only physically on the Cross, but gloriously in the Resurrection and Ascension.

Verse 16, often called “the Gospel in miniature,” proclaims the motive: divine love. But the Cross is not just a sign of God's love – it is its fullest expression. And verse 17 completes the thought: Christ’s lifting up is explicitly for our salvation, not for our condemnation.

In preaching this passage, highlight the paradox: victory through apparent defeat, exaltation through crucifixion [cf. the Magnificat with all its dramatic reversals]. The Cross is not a scandal to be minimized, but a mystery to be exalted. Because in being lifted up, Christ draws all to Himself (cf. Jn 12:32).

Gazing Upon the Crucified Cross



~ Jeanette Williams

Our Lady of Sacred Heart+ Hilltown Twp, PA

Sometimes I think for us Catholics the image of the crucifix can become too familiar. We wear crucifixes around our necks and hang them on our walls, but they are a far cry from the reality of the horror of a crucifixion. Still, a sanitized-looking crucifix is better than a bare cross without a corpus.

I once had someone accuse me of “keeping Christ on the cross.” He is risen, I was smugly informed, and the cross is empty. But really, what does an empty cross represent but a torture stick? Only Christ on the cross represents salvation and forgiveness of sins. Only Christ on the cross speaks of infinite love.

I think that’s why Jesus compared His upcoming crucifixion to the odd story of the bronze serpent. Jesus’ comparison challenges me to look deeper at this strange event. The seraph serpents were a punishment upon Israel in the wilderness. The Israelites’ venomous thoughts toward God, who had done so much good for them, led to venom eating away at their lives through the snakebites. Sin does this. It turns back around and bites us, poisons our lives, and eats away at our souls.

Through the bronze serpent on the pole, the sign of their sin was publicly displayed before them, and they were forced to recognize their sin by gazing upon the serpent to be healed.

The depiction of Jesus on the cross exposes our sin, as well. Jesus took all the venom of our sin upon Himself to take away the condemnation we so justly deserve so that we might be saved. Our crucifixes don’t show even a fraction of the suffering our Lord endured.

When I behold the crucifix and reflect on the anguish Jesus endured—caused by my own sins—I begin to grasp the gravity of even the smallest transgression and the boundless love of the Father, who gave His only Begotten Son to redeem me. By meditating on the crucifix, I begin to be moved to love Him in return.