Sermon: Ash Wednesday - 2021

17 February 2021

Text: Matt 6:1-6, 16-21

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

There was no internet or social media when our Lord preached the Sermon on the Mount.  The average person didn’t dream of “going viral” and merchants didn’t tell people to “be sure to like us on Facebook and Twitter.”  The average person was busy trying to earn a living, raise a family, tend to the animals or to the family business to get involved in fundraising for people who put glue on their heads or did something stupid for “clicks” and “views” and “likes.”  There were no YouTube personalities and Instagram celebrities.

But even though technology has changed, human nature hasn’t.  Our old sinful Adam craves attention, and loves to be seen by other people to be praised, seeking our reward not from God but from others.  And this was true in the first century as well. 

Our Lord preaches about “practicing your righteousness” and the motivation behind it.  If you are only doing such things “to be seen by [other people],” then “you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”  For if the goal is a dopamine hit for someone noticing you, well, you have your reward.  And dopamine only makes you feel good for a few minutes.

The righteousness that our Lord offers to us instead of this phony kind of righteousness is not a dopamine hit, but rather eternal life.  Instead of minutes, it lasts forever.  Jesus came to give us this righteousness as a free gift.  And as a result of this gift, we are freed up to do good works for the right reasons.

The Old Adam, that is, the Old Man, wants the praise of others.  He is a hypocrite who only does good works to be seen and praised.  The Old Adam doesn’t do good works out of love for his neighbor.  He doesn’t give to the needy because his neighbor is in need, rather he does it in order to “sound the trumpet before [him], that is to say, to “toot his own horn.” 

As we learned from Sunday’s epistle reading, love is not self-seeking.  And so an act done in order to be seen by others is done in a loveless way, or at least in a way in which love is curved in on itself, a kind of perverted self-love that ignores the real need of our neighbor in exchange for the Old Adam’s craving to be the center of attention.

Our Lord came to drown the Old Adam and give us a New Man in his place, a renewed self that is motivated by true righteousness and actual love, a New Adam with a new spirit.  For why do the Scriptures talk about the “Old Adam”?  Why Adam? 

We are pointed to Adam because he is the source of our sin.  We have inherited our sinful nature from him, from the first man.  And the name of this first man is “Adam,” from the Hebrew word “adam,” which means “man,” which itself comes from “adamah” – meaning “dust.”  Remember, O man, that Adam was created by God from the “dust of the earth.”  And remember, O man, that because of Adam’s sin, God told him that to dust he would return.  And remember, O man, that we too have this nature of the Old Adam in us, which is why we are mortal, which is why we too will return to dust.

We try very hard to forget this.  Of course, we want to live a long and healthy life, free from pain, free from worry, free from trouble.  But we are sinners living in a fallen world, and we need to be reminded that we are indeed dust, and to dust we shall return.

Ashes are a symbol both of death, and of repentance: a turning away from the sin that leads to death.  Ashes symbolize our return to dust, and they make us remember, but they also symbolize the humility needed to turn from our sins.  These ashes are in the shape of a cross: a symbol of death.  But they also symbolize Christ’s death upon the cross, which is for us, a symbol of life.

And so the ceremony of placing an ashen cross on our foreheads is both law and gospel, both a reminder of the “wages of sin,” which is death, as well as the “free gift of God” which is “eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

And far from being a work of righteousness to parade before men, this mark on your forehead, properly understood, dear friends, is not something to be proud of.  It is not virtue signaling, but an act of humble honesty.  It is an admission of guilt and a cry for help.  For we stand at the edges of our own graves, teetering between life and death.  And so we cry out to Jesus: “Jesu juva, Jesus help!” And He does, dear friends, He does!

And so the Lord teaches us not to strive for clicks and likes, not to blow the trumpet or signal our virtue before men.  He calls us to an honest humility, an admission of helplessness, a confession of sin, and an acknowledgment of our deserved mortality.

And in making this good confession, dear brothers and sisters, and in calling upon the name of the Lord, He comes to our rescue.  For He redeemed you and called you by name, when His name, the name of the Triune God, the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit was placed upon you when, not only your face, but your very soul itself was washed in baptismal water, cleansed, and given the gift of eternal life.

And in the Church, we have not only the ancient custom of ashes being made in the sign of the cross upon your forehead, we also have the ancient custom of tracing that sign of the cross on your forehead at your baptism, as we say in the baptismal liturgy: “Receive the sign of the holy cross both upon your forehead and upon your heart to mark you as one redeemed by Christ the crucified.”  So remember, O man, not only His cross, but that you are marked and signed and redeemed by that very cross as well.

It is also the custom for the pastor to make the sign of the cross upon your forehead on your deathbed.  And he will also make the sign of the cross on your casket, often reaching into your tomb itself, bridging time and eternity, tracing the sign of the holy cross upon you one more time until the Crucified One rouses you from your body’s slumber and raises you in the flesh to everlasting life, according to His promise, by His blood, by means of your baptism, and through your faith, dear friends.

This is why we see the sign of the cross in the Divine Service: at the invocation of the Trinity, when we are absolved, when we receive the elements of Holy Communion, when the pastor dismisses us from the communion rail, and at the end of the service when we receive the blessing.  The cross is always and ever before our eyes.

It is so that you can remember, O man, yes, you are dust and to dust you shall return, but also that you are redeemed, and to flesh you shall return – no more bearing the weight of sin, and no more carrying the ashes of death.

And in light of the magnificence of the Gospel, the good news that in spite of our sin and our mortality, we have the promise of eternal life – who cares about clicks and likes and the praise of men?  Let us embrace the humility of repentance and the joy of our reward from God, and in so doing, let us love our neighbors in true righteousness, in secret, and in truth, and rejoicing in our reward that is ours, not because we love, but because we are loved by God!

Remember, O man!

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.