He Draws All Things to Him
sermon reflection for the week ending September 14, 2025
This week I decided to write my sermon reflection on BZ’s Holy Cross Day sermon.
Today BZ preached on the Day of the Holy Cross, specifically, he preached on what the cross means for each of us in our lives, and for society as a whole.
From Wikipedia: “The Feast of the Holy Cross, Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, or Feast of the Cross, commemorates the True Cross. On 13 September, 335, the Constantinian Basilica over the Holy Sepulchre was consecrated in Jerusalem.”
Today marks the discovery of the True Cross by Saint Helena, mother of Constantine. The historical legends says that Saint Helena went to Jerusalem in search of the True Cross, and razed a pagan temple said to sit atop the Holy Tomb of Jesus. Constantine built The Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre on that spot, and in the ruins they found three crosses. They identified the Cross of Jesus by it’s healing property, specifically a dying woman received healing by touching it. Prior to Constantine’s adoption of Christianity, the cross symbolised ugliness and death and decay, as a cruel and gruesome means of execution. Imagine an electric chair. After the edict of Constantine declaring the Christian faith the official faith of the Roman Empire, the cross became a universal symbol of Christianity. Jesus took something ugly and gruesome and transformed it into something beautiful and filled with mercy.
You can read the Bible passage which BZ preached on, (from John), below.
John 3:21 :: Jesus Teaches Nicodemus
3 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
Note: I’ve included the sermon in full below my reflection.
What does the cross mean for you and me today, reader? BZ begins by describing the plague of the serpents in the desert in Numbers 21. The Israelites find themselves in the wilderness, they begin to grow demoralised and they despair, wishing to return to Egypt, complaining that their bondage would feel better than this freedom in the middle of nowhere, with nothing. Serpents appear and many Israelites sustain bites and die. Moses receives instructions to create a bronze statue in the likeness of the serpent plaguing the people, place it on a pole and raise it up, and when the people see it, all who sustained bites shall live. That shall serve as their salvation. Jesus had a late night conversation with Nicodemus, the greatest Torah scholar of his time. In this conversation Jesus explains the importance of being born again.
“Look upon that which is your sin and you will see, not your sin, but your salvation.”
The poisonous serpents come as a result of the murmuring and complaining and the self-idolatry of despair. In this case, the Israelites wanting to deny the grace of g-d that’s delivered them from bondage, and return to the familiar “comfort” of that bondage. Jesus tells Nicodemus that, as Moses lifted up the serpent for the salvation of his people, so will The Son of Man lift Himself up for our salvation. G-d sent Jesus to us to save us, not for condemnation. BZ notes that the posture of crucifixion we see Jesus adopt in the Byzantine iconography reminds us of that conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. The cross represents a kind of condemnation, and Jesus transforms that condemnation into forgiveness and love. “Forgive them, for they know not what they do”, said Jesus minutes for His death on the cross.
In John 12:32, Jesus said, “and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” The stained glass depicted above comes from St. Etheldreda’s Church in London, a 12th century church. BZ highlights the contrast between the power and wisdom of the world versus the power and wisdom of G-d. The power and wisdom of G-d live in Jesus on Cross.
“I will draw all things unto Myself,” said Jesus.
What cannot be drawn to Christ cannot exist. Being drawn to Jesus involves a purging of that which cannot exist. Jesus draws us into a holy atmosphere. The detritus of our selves—pride, arrogance, sin, uncleanness, lust, to name a few examples—burns away as we draw closer to Him, out of the outer darkness. We get drawn into the atmosphere of Christ, like a shooting star — the debris gets burned away, leaving a solid and indestructible core. The closer we get, the hotter we feel, and the pride and arrogance burns away, replaced by humility and grace. BZ reminds us that heavenly time and earthly time have different scales. No scientific or mathematical formula exists to calculate our eschatology, we cannot compute this mystery.
BZ says can resist the temptation to despair, knowing this is not the end, that we find ourselves at present in the waiting time, in the weeping time, in the dying time. What’s the end? I will draw all things to Myself. Look to the sin and see your salvation.
BZ reminds of two truths —
G-d is with us in our weeping and waiting and dying time
The waiting weeping dying time is not the end.
Salvation, not condemnation, has the last word. To continue with BZ’s atmospheric allegory, the sin coalesces into a hideous mass and gets burned away as Christ draws all things to Himself. That which cleaves to Christ becomes saved and redeemed and cleansed and made whole and beautiful.
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Often in the nature of empires to switch allegiances to different gods as a way of keeping the show on the road. Jupiter and Zeus to Jehovah and Jesus to steam and the scientific method and now to ChatGPTn and artficial intelligence.
Moot whether the old ones still have any gas left in their tanks ...