When we think of making our way up to heaven, we must first descend into our hearts. We must stop looking down on others as not being worthy. Christ descended to our level to show us the way to heaven. He came down to lift us up with Him. Our job is to get down on the level of those around us, so that we can lift each other up, and climb to heaven together.
My brothers and sisters, in this morning’s gospel, this Sunday before Holy Cross, the gospel reminds us that we must look up to God. You could even say stare at Him, if you will. The Gospel says, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. This understanding of Moses, my brothers and sisters from the Old Testament, Moses lifting up his staff and lifting up the serpent, as long as the people looked up at the serpent, looked up at the staff, they were saved from the serpents who were biting and killing them.
But we must first come down off our high horse, as the saying goes, before we can look up to God. You see, you can’t look up from already up. You have to come down. And this is why the Gospel began this morning. No one has ascended to Heaven, but he who came down from Heaven, that is the son of man who is in Heaven. You see my brothers and sisters, our understanding of God is that he came down to us and for us. But he didn’t come down to stay down with us. He came down to lift us up to Heaven. He came down to be with us to show us the way. But most of us, I would say at one time or another all of us, spend more time looking down on everyone around us. We look down on the world, “That person is not worthy. This person is not doing this. That person is not living. Oh, I know what that person did on Saturday night.”
We spend our time looking down on people that we forget that we’re supposed to be looking up. And you can’t look up to Heaven from on high. We must first come down in our hearts, in our humility, in our love, and realize that when we look at each other, all of us are in the same boat, my brothers and sisters. God came down for all of us, not just me, not just you, but the stranger on the street, the bum begging on the street corner, the co-worker who gnaws at you every day that you don’t want to even see their face. God came down for all of us, and we will not be able to rise up to heaven so long as we’re looking down on everybody around us.
And my brothers and sisters, it begins in our heart. It begins in a life of prayer and asking God, “God show us the way.” And he has shown us the way. The way was that God condescended, God gave us the example. He gave up all the glory that he had in Heaven, and he came, was born as a human being, lived, struggled on the earth, he was hungry, he dealt with all of the temptations that we have. And all for one purpose, that when he ascended back to Heaven, he would bring us back with him.
But my brothers and sisters, we will not be able to follow God into Heaven so long as we’re looking down on everyone around us. The gospel continues. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now, here is maybe the most important verse. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. My brothers and sisters, our job is not to condemn others. Our job is to lift them up. But we cannot lift them up so long as we think so little of them, so long as we think we are so superior to them.
Now, I know this is not an easy message to hear. None of us wants to hear that we look down on other people. We like to think ourselves as the holy ones. We like to think ourselves as the good ones, and just in that moment, my brothers and sisters, is when we have to bow down even further. Because none of us is worthy of God’s blessing, and yet all of us have received it. And so my brothers and sisters, in these next two weeks, as the church draws our attention to the cross of Christ, the willingness of God to suffer for us so that we could live forever is the example of how we must now choose to suffer with each other, and for each other, because we’re all in this together.
We’re either saved together, or we are condemned together. We are not saved individually. If we think we are saved individually, we’re going to be very lonely, and we’re going to be very upset when all those people that we think are not deserving of God, all the others, when we see them in Heaven with us, we have a choice. We can either see them in Heaven and be glad, or we can see them in Heaven and think, “You mean they’re here too? God let that person in? Doesn’t God know what that person did?”
That’s our sin, because we’re looking down instead of looking up. And so my brothers and sisters, my invitation for you, not just this week for Holy Cross, but for every week and every day. Stop looking down on the world and those around you. Get down with them, and show them the way up. That’s the example that Christ has given, and that’s our challenge, and I dare say our responsibility as Christians to get in the mud with each other, so that we can all climb up with God into heaven. Glory to God for all things.
