John uses the whakatauki "Whāia te iti kahurangi, ki te tūohu koe
me he maunga teitei" to suggest that we keep aiming too small, too low. He then uses John's gospel reading to suggest we need to go bigger. The cross exposes our smallness of thought – thought about God, and the world, and who we are in all that. The cross exposes our preoccupation with ourselves and our own desires, dreams, hopes and aspirations. In the cross they are shown to be so petty. We are invited instead to have our imagination and our focus reoriented back to God.