Text: Matt
6:1-6, 16-21
In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
To many tourists in our area, today is Wednesday of Mardi Gras week: a continuation of the celebration of Carnival. But to us Christians, today is Ash Wednesday. We have put the feasting behind us, and now is the time for fasting. For life in this fallen world goes back and forth between the feast and the fast. “To everything there is a season,” says King Solomon, “and a time for every purpose under heaven.”
Contrary to what many think, Carnival and Mardi Gras are Christian festivals. It is a period of godly rejoicing in anticipation of godly fasting. And now is the time in which we fast, we mourn for our sins and plead for God’s mercy in preparation for Good Friday and Easter. We symbolically spend forty days in the desert with Jesus in self-denial, waging war against the world, the devil, and our sinful flesh. Lent is a reminder of the very real combat in which we are engaged against the forces of evil.
Our Gospel today comes from our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. Jesus says, “When you give to the needy,” “when you pray,” and “when you fast.” He doesn’t command us to do these things. Rather, He just assumes that this is what Christians do. And when we do these things, we are not to do them “in order to be seen by others.” For that motivation will be rewarded with a temporary good feeling that we have impressed someone. And that is a shallow and short-lived reward compared to eternal rewards from our heavenly Father, who knows our hearts.
“And when you fast,” says our Lord, “do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Some people refuse to participate in the rite of ashes for fear that it is showing off and doing just what our Lord says not to do. Rather, we should wash our faces and keep our piety hidden. But, dear friends, the ashes don’t represent fasting. For what did I say to you when I imposed the ashes on your forehead? “Remember, O man, that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” The ashes are not a sign that you are fasting, dear brothers and sisters. Rather they are a sign that you are dying.
Every year, I put ashes on the foreheads of my beloved parishioners, and every year, some of them die. The ashes remind us of what we often try to forget. And the ashes are applied to the newborns, the elderly, and everyone in between. For we all suffer the mortal ailment known as sin. We have been returning to dust since the days of Adam.
Remember, O man.
It is a sobering thing for a pastor to impose ashes and pronounce this remembrance upon everyone, especially the blissfully ignorant children. And to look out at all of you and see a visible manifestation of your mortality staring me in the face is sobering and jarring – even after nineteen years of marking you with ashes.
The ashes, which symbolize both sin and repentance, are placed on you in the shape of a cross: an ancient symbol not only of death, but of suffering and shame. This torture was invented by the Romans. And although they understood it differently than we, the Romans did connect death with sin, as the cross was used as capital punishment for crimes. St. Paul would later write to the Christians in Rome that “the wages of sin is death.”
Remember, O man.
But when Jesus was crucified, dear brothers and sisters, this symbol of death became a symbol of life. For out of love for His creation, God took on our mortal flesh, He suffered, He shed His blood as a sacrifice, and He died for us upon the cross. And because His death atones for our sins, curing us of death, and because He rose from the dead – we now see the cross as a symbol of life!
What’s more, the ashes are mixed with oil – a symbol of baptism. For it is an ancient custom to trace oil in the sign of the cross on the newly baptized person’s forehead. Christ, the anointed one, is put on by the baptized person. This is why some people call baptism a “christening.”
And because Jesus exchanged our sinfulness for His righteousness, and because we have been baptized into the name of the Most Holy Trinity, and because He has promised us everlasting life – St. Paul can complete his sentence to the Roman Christians: “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The sign of the cross is also made over the elements of Holy Communion. And we often cross ourselves upon receiving the body and blood of Christ. We also make the sign of the cross when we are forgiven in the name of the same Triune God into whose name we are baptized. What a dear and beloved symbol this cross has become. And what a joy that the ashes are applied in the shape of this symbol of life!
And so, dear friends, being forgiven, being drawn into our Lord’s cross, we can now truly give alms to the needy – not trying to earn salvation from God or the praise of men, but rather because we have been made rich by grace. We can share our abundance – material and otherwise – with others.
And also, whether we are in a time of feasting or fasting, we have the privilege to pray, to call God our Father, to present our petitions before Him as His dear children, to pray, praise, and give thanks, not to impress God with our piety to earn His favor, nor to be seen by others, as the hypocrites do, who pray for show on the street-corners. It is not just our duty to pray, but our joy.
And also, we can fast, as a means of self-discipline, to help us better appreciate what we have been blessed with, to offer our bounty to others in need. We take up our cross, deny ourselves, and follow Jesus. We do not fast to try to impress God with our works, nor do we put on the face of a person who is suffering for want of food, in order to be seen and praised by men, like the hypocrites. No indeed.
We give to the needy, we pray, and we fast because that’s just what Christians do, always in gratitude to God for what He has first given us in Christ Jesus. For in this ashen remembrance of death, we also remember His death. We remember His cross. We remember that we are baptized into His name.
For when the Lord bids us to remember, we also call to mind the entire span of history, of how He comes to His people, in love, in sacrifice, in service, rescuing us, restoring us, recreating us.
And He is doing that to you, dear brother, dear sister, right here and right now, by the mighty power of His Word. That remembrance continues in the present. He is recreating you in the midst of whatever crosses He calls you to bear – even the cross of our mortality.
Remember, O man.
Calling to mind our mortality – which to the Christian is not destruction, but rather the portal to eternal life – also calls to mind the promise of the resurrection, that we are moving toward a new heaven and a new earth, and toward living in flesh that will never return to dust.
And this dust we bear now in this life is also a reminder of the futility of storing up treasures here on earth, dear friends, “where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal.” Rather the ashes in the shape of the cross remind us to lay up for ourselves “treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal.”
In remembering that we are dust, and to dust we shall return, we are also reminded that “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Our hearts are not fixed on the dust and ashes of this dying and decaying world, but rather our hearts are fixed upon the crucified one, whose blood forgives our sins, whose baptism renews us, who gives us the free gift of eternal life, and whose grace and mercy endure forever.
So, dear friends, let us begin this journey with Jesus, this fast, this time to repent and look forward not only to the feast of the Easter Season, but also the never-ending feast to come in eternity, where fasting will be no more.
Remember, O man.
Amen.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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