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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
A number of congregations in our community offered the imposition of ashes on this Ash Wednesday, congregations across both the theological spectrum and the liberal-conservative spectrum. No doubt other congregations did not offer the imposition of ashes, perhaps considering the use of ashes to be too Roman Catholic, never mind that the use of ashes is “catholic” with a small “c”, meaning that it pertains to the whole Church. Of course, even some of those congregations that did offer the imposition of ashes might reject other practices as too Roman Catholic—maybe vestments, candles, crucifixes, liturgy, chanting, private confession and individual Absolution—even though, if we gave up everything salutary that Roman Catholics have we would have to give up singing, preaching, and the reading of Holy Scripture altogether.
Yet, there is a sense in which the Gospel Reading appointed for Ash Wednesday itself seems to go against the use of ashes, although properly understood only the use of ashes for the wrong reasons, or with the wrong motives. Specifically, ashes come into view in the Gospel Reading in connection with fasting, for a period of time giving up some foods or all food. Jesus speaks against the kind of fasting in which people would disfigure their faces—perhaps pouring ashes on their heads, so that they settled on their cheeks, and so made them look paler and weaker than they really were—in order that they would be visible to other people as fasting. Jesus says that truly those people have already received their reward, in contrast to the disciples who, if they fasted more privately, would be rewarded by their Heavenly Father, likely on the Last Day and then publicly.
The English Standard Version of the Gospel Reading that was read misleads us a little bit, because, in the original Greek of St. Matthew’s Divinely‑inspired account’s unique reporting of this teaching, the wording of the hypocrites’ reward and the wording of the believers’ reward differ, although the words are used together elsewhere but translated differently there (for example, Matthew 20:1-16). Despite the similar, related wording, we should not think that the believers’ fasting necessarily earns their reward from their Heavenly Father the same way that the hypocrites’ fasting earns their reward from the people who see them looking like they are fasting. Nor should we think that our receiving the imposition of ashes earns us anything at all.
Yet, at times, we might think precisely that: that by our receiving the imposition of ashes we are making ourselves more righteous, if not more righteous before God then at least more righteous before other people. For example, we who received ashes might think that we are more righteous than people who do not receive ashes, and, if we do think that, then we have wrongly turned into a sign of pride what is supposed to be a sign of our humility. Fasting and the right use of ashes both can be outward signs of inner sorrow over sin, submission to God, recognition and confession that we remember that we are made of dust and will return to dust. We return to dust not only because we are conceived and born as children of the first man and woman who sinned and earned that curse (Genesis 3:19), but also because we add to their original sin countless actual sins of our own—thoughts, words, and deeds; done and left undone. We can hardly over‑appreciate our sin and its consequences for us, both now and for eternity.
Yet, God has no pleasure in our death, but He has pleasure in our turning from our wicked ways and living (Ezekiel 33:11). So as we heard in the Old Testament Reading (Joel 2:12-19) and echoed in the Appointed Verse, the Lord our God calls us to return to Him with our whole hearts, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love (or, “mercy”). When we turn in sorrow from our sins and trust God to forgive our sins for Jesus’s sake, then He does not deal with us according to our sins or reward us according to our iniquities, but He has compassion on the frailty of our mortal nature and pardons our sins that we may obtain the promises He has laid up for those who are repentant.
Today’s Gospel Reading’s fit in the Sermon on the Mount from which it is excerpted is important, as that immediate context reminds us that the God-man Jesus Christ came to fulfill the Holy Scriptures (Matthew 5:17), both their Commandments, which properly understood show us our sin, and their promises of a Savior, Who takes away our sin. Out of God’s great love for us, Jesus died on the cross for us; He died in our place, the death that we deserved. On account of God’s grace for Jesus’s sake, we receive through faith Christ’s righteousness that by far exceeds the righteousness of the Jewish leaders and anyone else (Matthew 5:20). As we heard in the Epistle Reading (2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10), God made to be sin Jesus, Who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. In Christ we who repent and believe are reconciled to God. Our sin is forgiven: our sin of thinking that we make ourselves righteous, our sin of thinking that we are more righteous than others, or whatever our sin might be. God’s forgiveness is more than sufficient for all of our sin, no matter our sin’s number or its severity.
God forgives our sin through His Word and Sacraments. As Jesus in today’s Gospel Reading tells His fasting followers to anoint their head and wash their face, we are reminded of Holy Baptism, by which God washes us thoroughly from our iniquities and cleanses us from our sin. Ashes were a part of the Old Testament’s water of cleansing that was sprinkled with branches of hyssop to make believers then clean, and still today ashes can remind us of our baptismal cleansing. We return to our baptismal grace when we privately confess to our pastor the sins that trouble us particularly and receive individual Holy Absolution, forgiveness from the pastor as from God Himself. And, as such anointing and washing were part of preparing for eating a meal, so we who are washed and anointed come to the Sacrament of the Altar, where we feast on bread that is the Body of Christ given for us and wine that is the blood of Christ shed for us. Fasting and bodily preparation are certainly fine outward training, but we are truly worthy and well-prepared to receive the Sacrament of the Altar with faith in Christ’s words that His Body and Blood are given and shed for us for the forgiveness of our sins.
So forgiven of our sins through God’s Word and Sacraments, we do practice our righteousness with charity, prayer, and fasting, including ashes, though not hypocritically in order to be visible to other people but with true motives. Although our imposition of ashes this evening is likely too late in the day for many others to see them, our wearing ashes, not pride‑fully but humbly, can create opportunities for us to speak with others about sin and forgiveness, death and life, as I discussed with several people over the course of today. All of our good works proceed from repentance and faith, and repentance and faith not just on Ash Wednesday or only during the season of Lent with its forty‑day fast modeled after those of Jesus in the wilderness and others before Him, but repentance and faith each and every day. Faith lives in such penitence.
And, in such penitence, while we may be solemn and look serious, we do not need to be or look gloomy, for, as we repent of our sin and trust God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake, God lets us hear joy and gladness and restores to us the joy of His salvation and upholds us with a willing spirit. Such is the “reward” not of ashes alone but of the broken spirit and the broken and contrite heart of which the ashes should give evidence. In today’s Gospel Reading our Lord assumes that we will fast, not as a spectacle but modestly, whether or not we use ashes in doing so. And we certainly can and should use not only ashes but also vestments, candles, crucifixes, liturgy, chanting, private confession and individual Absolution, along with singing, preaching, and the reading of Holy Scripture. For through the pure preaching of the Gospel and the right administration of the Sacraments God leads us to worship Him using such things as we most importantly seek and receive His forgiveness here and now, until we worship Him in heaven for eternity.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +