looking at the cross

There is an old story you might have heard more than once already, a Chinese story of a farmer who used an old horse to till his fields. One day, the horse escaped into the hills and when the farmer's neighbors sympathized with the old man over his bad luck, the farmer replied, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?" A week later, the horse returned with a herd of horses from the hills and this time the neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good luck. His reply was, "Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?"
Then, when the farmer's son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone thought this very bad luck. Not the farmer, whose only reaction was, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?"
Some weeks later, the army marched into the village and conscripted every able-bodied youth they found there. When they saw the farmer's son with his broken leg, they let him off. Now was that good luck or bad luck? Who knows?


I believe this is the only way we can appreciate what Jesus is saying to us today in the gospel when he said that the son of man will be lifted up - He will be lifted up on the cross, and only then would they come to believe that Jesus is the I AM, that Jesus is God. Jesus will reveal himself as God when he is seen hanging, dying and dead on the cross. For the Jews the cross was a source of embarrassment, a cause for shame. For the Greeks the cross was a scandal, a stumbling block and a foolishness. How can one claim to be coming from God when the goal of his mission is to be lifted up on the cross? How can one claim that he is the favored son of God when he ends everything in a shameful death? How can one claim power by hanging powerless on the cross? This confusing ways of God is further elaborated in our first reading today when the very image of the source of their ills becomes also the source of their salvation, that to avoid death from the snakebite they have to look at the image attached to a pole of the same snake that bit them.

The cross of Jesus in the gospel of John is looked upon not from the perspective of foolishness, or pain that needs to be avoided, or a destructive event or problem that we need to steer clear from. Rather we look at the cross of Jesus as the source of victory and triumph something that he needs to embrace so that he can come out triumphant and victorious over evil. This is how Jesus looked at his cross. Is this how we look at our crosses? Are my crosses malas or debuenas, bad luck or good luck? Is my cross a blessing or a curse. Are the tragedies and crisis in my life a source of rich faith or a stumbling block in my faith in God?
A week ago I came upon a well known personality in a town who just lost everything in her life. She had everything in life until a reversal of fortune occurred now that she was at the age of 85. And as her things were carted off right before her eyes she looked at us and said, “it hurts me to see these things go.” She was pointing to her heart as she said this. “But I realized,” she continued, “that in the end all these things are passing, ang tanan nga ini malipas gid man.” Now is this good luck or bad luck?
It was how she came to look at that cross, that disability, that frailty that can change it from pain to triumph.
This week we covered the crosses and the images of saints on our churches. On good Friday next week the cover of the cross will be opened part by part. Then we will worship it. Then we will kneel before it. Then we will kiss it. The liturgy of good Friday may be sober but it is not a day of gloom. It is a day of triumph, a day of victory. Is this also how we view our crosses in life?