And I, when I am Lifted Up, will Draw All People to Myself
This past Saturday, we in ACTS XXIX were privileged to collaborate with the good folks at St. Gabriel Radio, Damascus Worship, and the men and women of Columbus, Ohio, to help lead a revival there at the Ohio Expo Center. It was, we believe, the start of a movement.
The Rescue Project LIVE is something that we want to bring to as many places as possible, making a crater like impact in a diocese, sparking confidence and hope. The goal of The Rescue Project LIVE is simple: to overwhelm people with the power of the gospel, move them to entrust their whole lives to Jesus in faith, and mobilize them for mission.
Some 2500 men and women gathered together Saturday, including people from Oklahoma, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland and everywhere in between. The day included Mass with newly installed Bishop Earl Fernandes, a Eucharistic procession, and incredible worship led by the amazing folks at Damascus (almost certainly the best youth camp in the country). For many of us, though, the highlight of the day was the spontaneous response to sharing some excerpts from some of the early Church preachers. Upon hearing how the early Church used to preach on Jesus, the crowd burst into rousing applause! As they heard the proclamation of Jesus’ defeat of Sin, Death and satan, you could sense that the men and women were eager not only to break into worship, but to run out of the Expo Center with newfound confidence in Jesus as Lord and proclaim Him to a world that is increasingly in need of the rescue only God can give.
The following are the quotes which roused the people:
“Here is the reason why God became a perfect man…His flesh was set before that voracious, gaping dragon as bait to provoke him: flesh that would be deadly for the dragon, for it would utterly destroy him by the power of the Godhead hidden within it. For human nature, however, his flesh was to be a remedy since the power of the Godhead in it would restore human nature to its original grace. Just as the devil had poisoned the tree of knowledge and spoiled our nature by its taste, so too, in presuming to devour the Lord’s flesh he himself is corrupted and is completely destroyed by the power of the Godhead hidden in it” (Maximus the Confessor, 7th century).
"The devil was deluded by the death of the Lord...for through the visible mortality of his flesh, Christ — whom the devil was trying to kill — concealed his divinity, like a snare in which he might entangle him like an unwise bird by a clever trick...The devil, although he attacked the flesh of the humanity in Christ that was evident, was captured as if by the fishhook of his divinity that was lying hidden" (Isidore of Seville, 7th century).
“Who is he who contends with me? Let him stand in opposition to me. I set the condemned man free; I gave the dead man life; I raised up the one who had been entombed. Who is my opponent? I, he says, am the Christ. I am the one who destroyed death, and triumphed over the enemy, and trampled Hades under foot, and bound the strong one, and carried off man to the heights of heaven, I, he says, am the Christ…I am your forgiveness, I am the passover of your salvation, I am the lamb which was sacrificed for you, I am your ransom, I am your light, I am your savior, I am your resurrection, I am your king, I am leading you up to the heights of heaven, I will show you the eternal Father, I will raise you up by my right hand. This is the alpha and the omega. This is the beginning and the end — an indescribable beginning and an incomprehensible end. This is the Christ. This is the king. This is Jesus. This is the general. This is the Lord” (Melito of Sardis, 2nd century).
“Death trampled our Lord underfoot, but he in his turn treated death as a highroad for his own feet. He submitted to it, enduring it willingly, because by this means he would be able to destroy death in spite of itself. Death had its own way when our Lord went out from Jerusalem carrying his cross, but when by a loud cry from that Cross he summoned the dead from the underworld, death was powerless to prevent it. Death slew him by means of the body which he had assumed, but that same body proved to be the weapon with which he conquered death. Concealed beneath the cloak of his manhood, his godhead engaged death in combat; but in slaying our Lord, death itself was slain. It was able to kill natural human life, but was itself killed by the life that is above the nature of man.
“Death could not devour our Lord unless he possessed a body, neither could hell swallow him up unless he bore our flesh; and so he came in search of a chariot in which to ride to the underworld. This chariot was the body which he received from the Virgin; in it he invaded death’s fortress, broke open its strong room and scattered all its treasure” (St. Ephrem, 4th century).
In many ways, the day was a most powerful illustration of what the Lord Himself promised: “And I, when I am lifted up, will draw all people to Myself” (John 12:32).
May the Holy Spirit continue to illumine the eyes of our minds to see Jesus ever more clearly as the unconquerable Lord of heaven and earth. And may we seek to joyfully, compellingly and attractively lift Him up in our words and actions.
