Ash
Wednesday
“Marked
with Death; Marked for Life”
Text: Genesis 3:19; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21;
2
Corinthians 5:21; Joel 2:12-19
In
the Name of the Father, and of the … Son, and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
I didn’t know what it
meant, at first. I saw a big, beautiful tree marked with an ugly X. The tree,
outwardly, looked healthy and strong. But inwardly it was not. To my untrained
eyes, everything looked fine. But to the trained eye of the tree expert who had
marked it, this tree was diseased and rotten. In fact, I was told, it was
probably completely hollow on the inside, and near death. And if not cut down,
it would soon fall down.
Today, that’s our story.
We’ve been marked. Because while we may look good and healthy, even young
and beautiful, on the outside, inwardly the truth is quite different. We
are rotten with sin. We are dying. The words we heard today said that,
too. Dust you are, and to dust you will return. But we could say it
better. That makes it sound as if the returning is sometime off in the future.
But the reality is that the returning is happening even now. Just like with
that tree. The disease is doing its awful work now. Dust
you are, and to dust you are returning. That’s more accurate.
Each day that goes by, we dry up a little more. We are a little more dust. We
are a little weaker, a little more rotten.
And that would be true
even if we were not marked. Not everyone received ashes tonight, and we’ll all
wash them off either tonight or tomorrow. But the rottenness of sin is the same
and remains. And that is true no matter how good we try to make ourselves look
on the outside; no matter how much we want others to think we’re not so
diseased and rotten. Maybe if they can see how serious I am in spiritual
matters. If they can see how much I give. If they can see my fervent
prayers. Yet maybe it’s not only others we want to see and convince . . .
maybe I am also trying to convince myself. And maybe, just maybe, God,
too.
But such people Jesus
calls hypocrites. It’s not wrong to do those things, just to do them to
impress. That’s what makes one a hypocrite - a pretender, a deceiver. And while
we may get the reward of others thinking well of us, that’s like me admiring
the beauty of the diseased tree without knowing the reality that lies within.
But the reality is still there. In us. And the expert, our Creator,
knows it.
So instead of trying to
practice our own righteousness before others - which really isn’t righteousness
at all - better to receive a real righteousness, a real
rightness, a real healing. Which is what we receive, St. Paul said,
through Jesus. The one who knew no sin, but for
our sake was made to be sin, so that in him we might
become the righteousness of God.
You will receive that
righteousness as you come forward here, tonight, again, and this time, instead
of being marked as one diseased, you will receive the Body and Blood of the one
who was cut down for your sin, and then raised from the dead. Raised for
your righteousness. And you will receive Him because He marked you as His own
when He baptized you and marked you with the sign of His cross. And it is that water
that truly washes off the mark of our disease and heals us - not only in
appearance, but from the inside out. That water gives the life
of forgiveness to those who are returning to dust. A life then fed with His
Body and Blood. Water, blood, and Spirit testifying to the One who has
come with life, with life for all (LSB #597).
So we come here tonight to
repent; to enter into this season of repentance; to acknowledge our sinful
rottenness and our rotten sinfulness. And we’re marked. But more than that, we
leave with much more than a mark - but with righteousness. A righteousness
which isn’t ours, but is given to us. Because Jesus is given to
us. The one who takes our sin and gives us Himself. The one who, as
the prophet Joel said, is gracious and merciful, slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love. The one who, as we sang, comes to us with a love unknown. With
love for the loveless, that we might lovely be (LSB #430).
So you’ve been marked:
marked with death, but marked for life. And
while in this world death has the last word, it will not always be so. For
while this season of Lent will end with death on Good Friday, that death will
itself be ended with life, with the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. And
that’s how your death will end as well. With life. Jesus’
life. Given to you.
So tonight is a solemn
night, but not a somber one. We repent, yes, but are happy to do so. Because
here is the forgiveness we need, here is the life we need, here is
the righteousness we need. For here is the Jesus we need. And you the sinners He
wants.
In
the Name of the Father, and of the … Son, and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
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