Numbers 21:4-9 / Philippians 2:6-11 / John 3:13-17
To say that God sent His only Son to die for our sins is certainly not wrong but it may not be that entirely right either.
As a matter of fact, Jesus did die for our sins and He died a cruel death by crucifixion.
Jesus was nailed to the cross and was flaunted before the face of God as if to mock God for sending His Son to earth.
If it had all ended on the cross, then evil would have scored a victory because God did nothing to prevent or save Jesus from the cruelty and death on the cross.
Yes, God did not save Jesus from death. But since God did not save Jesus from death, then how would Jesus dying on the cross save us from our sins.
Well, God did not save Jesus from death. But God saved Jesus out of death (Hebrews 5:7). And that gave the whole twist to that cruel death by crucifixion.
It is because God saved Jesus out of death by raising Him from the dead, then by the resurrection of Jesus we too are saved from our sins.
St. Paul, in the 2nd reading reiterates that when he said Christ did not cling to His equality with God but emptied Himself, and He was humbler yet even to accepting death on the cross.
But God raised Him high and gave Him the name above all other names and all creation will bend the knee at the name of Jesus.
So for St. Paul, the death of Jesus on the cross is the essence of our hope, although the cruel death on the cross seems to exclude any kind of hope.
But more than just a sign of hope, the cross is also the sign of love. Although that seems to be pushing the meaning of the cross to its limits already.
But the gospel tells us that God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son so that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.
For God sent His Son into the world not to condemn the world but so that through Him the world might be saved.
So saying that God sent His only Son to die for our sins may not be wrong but it is not the whole picture.
God sent His Son to love us and the price of that love is death on the cross.
But that love was so powerful that even the meaning of the cross was changed, for the cross of death has now become the cross of love that triumphs over sin and death.
So the holy and precious cross is now raised aloft for the Church and for all the world to see.
For in the cross is life and love, forgiveness and healing, redemption and salvation.
Let us kneel before the Holy Cross and venerate it for it protects us and the powers of evil and darkness cower and flee before it.
Let us also pray with the Cross so that we will faithfully and courageously follow Jesus in His way of the Cross and may we also glory with Him in the Cross.