Ash Wednesday
Joel 2:12-17; Matthew 6:16-21
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I.
Who are you impressed by? Are you impressed by people you think are holy and good? Those who seem to be morally superior?
Okay, maybe not “morally superior,” but somehow better than you are?
This could be for two reasons. The first is that they are genuinely better than you in some way. The second is that they might be hypocrites, showing off. In either case, your sense of “not measuring up” is something that you should pay attention to because it’s probably true. What are you going to do about it?
Maybe they don’t lie, cheat, steal, the way you do. Maybe they have slept with fewer people. Maybe they go to church on Sundays. Maybe they drink less and get up earlier. Maybe their children have turned out better than yours.
These are all standards by which we judge and judge others, are they not? Go ahead and think of the ways in which you judge others.
Now, we’ve inverted things, haven’t we? Now you are thinking of ways in which you are better than others.
That’s usually what happens when we’re caught short by someone else’s goodness. We find ways to tear them down and build ourselves up.
This is called self-justification.
The Bible does not teach self-justification. It is not a self-help book or any other kind of selfish book written to appeal to a self-seeking, self-serving, self-justifying people.
The Bible is written to those who feel like they don’t measure up to others and offers the only escape from the rat race to the bottom that ensues.
II.
Today’s readings for Ash Wednesday are talking about repentance. Repentance means to turn around, to reverse course, to put the brakes on that race to the bottom.
The readings are saying that repentance is more than a transaction, a reconciling of accounts. Both the prophet Joel and Jesus teach us that repentance must be done with eternity in mind.
Joel is likely speaking to the exiled Jewish community, after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., and their deportation to Babylon.
You might think, “What is the point of repenting? Their judgment had already happened. The worst had already occurred.”
But this is good news, this call to repentance. The call to repentance means there is still time to turn around. You haven’t quite hit bottom — yet.
So it is with Ash Wednesday. The traditional service for this day is called “A Commination or Denouncing of God’s Anger and Judgements against Sinners.”
What a dreadful name for a service! Or, at least, that’s what our modern liturgists think, and that’s why it’s been expunged from modern prayer books.
But I find it hopeful. I take courage from a God who gets angry. It means He cares. It means He cares enough about me to denounce me for the sinner that I am.
(And I would rather by denounced by God than by liars and hypocrites.)
Joel says:
“Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sanctify a fast;
call a solemn assembly;
gather the people.
Sanctify the congregation;
assemble the elders;
gather the children,
even nursing infants.”
There is no dismissing the children for Sunday school here and if the people are too old and weak to come then the young and strong ones better go and carry them to the assembly. Nursing is no excuse for not repenting. Everyone needs to show up for this communal act of regret.
(By the way, children belong in church. By all means if they are disruptive, take them out, but they are part of Jehovah’s assembly. They belong in the pews.)
A trumpet is a loud, brash instrument. It is used to sound the alarm, which is Joel’s meaning here, to sound the alarm of judgment, but a trumpet is also used to herald good news. Joyful news.
It’s time to gather the assembly to repent because there is still a chance.
There is still hope!
There is still something we can do!
We can repent.
We can return to the Lord with all our hearts.
III.
Restoration did occur. The prophecies came to pass and some of the exiled Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple and their nation.
But, by the time Jesus came, men’s hearts had once again grown cold. They had drifted away from God.
A professional religious class took over the communal and individual business of repenting. Why get down on your knees before God and the ones you’ve wronged and beg for mercy when you can pay a Pharisee or a priest do it?
Jesus here doesn’t even bother to call them by their offices, He just calls them hypocrites. He says:
“When you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.”
Dismal and hypocritical. That’s both the look and the character of any priest whose ever peddled religion or sold forgiveness.
And what was his reward?
His reward was that he got to look down on you. After all, you let him. You thought for a moment that he was better than you. For a brief moment you thought he had something on you, something you didn’t have, something you couldn’t obtain on your own.
He made you think you needed him to get right with God, and that made you resent him, even if you still thought you needed him.
But Jesus says, “Not true!”
Religion isn’t some kind of public display of piety. It’s not some parade with cymbals and drums and statues and pictures and all kinds of hysterics. There’s no wailing and putting on sackcloth and wearing ashes.
This is what the hypocrites do. Now, if the churches all decide they want to go and do this too, well, then what message are they sending?
They’re saying you can walk down the street, with murder in your hear and lust in your loins, but if you’ve got the ashes on your forehead then it will all be just fine.
God’s bound to forgive you. After all you’ve made a big show of repentance, haven’t you? You’ve put the Almighty in your debt. He owes you now.
Jesus says:
“But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by men but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Why do we take the plain meaning of these words and do the exact opposite?
IV.
Christians are expected to fast. Jesus’ words are “when you fast…” not “if you fast.”
And when we fast we’re supposed to look the better for it. Ash Wednesday is the day you get a haircut and a shave. You put on good clothes. You look happy and excited.
Why?
Because when a believer fasts he’s doing it with eternity in mind.
He is joyful because he’s heard the judgment trumpet sound and he knows that the day of Jehovah is here.
He’s excited to see God’s judgment on His enemies — which are the believers’ enemies too — he’s excited to see the long night of wrong finally come to an end and the day of righteousness dawn.
He’s face is glowing as he walks down the street, past the abortion clinic, and the brothel, and the smut peddler, and he sees they’ve all been shuttered and put out of business.
He reads the morning paper and it tells the truth for once.
He walks by the courthouse and sees the corrupt judges being led away to prison (along with the thieves and the murderers they let off) while the falsely imprisoned and prisoners of conscience are set free and reunited with their families.
The words of David are on his lips and he walks into a church, which is full and bright, not empty and dark and sings the words of Psalm 94:15:
“Judgment will again be founded on righteousness, and all the upright in heart will follow it.”
This is why a Christian believer fasts. This is the day he is looking forward to.
The cause of our Lenten joy is found in this eternal Day of the Lord. Our faces shine because even now the beams of that eternal dawn are breaking upon us.
V.
Repentance must be done with eternity in mind.
There is a wrong way to repent. The wrong way is to beg for mercy, as if God were some human potentate that likes to watch us grovel.
The wrong way is to bargain with God. “I promise I will never do such and such again, if you will only let such and such happen.”
These are empty promises God knows we can’t and won’t fulfill.
When a believing Christian repents, he is returning to God, he is redirecting his emotion, will, and his whole being towards eternity.
This is what Jesus means when He says:
“Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.”
Heaven, in contrast to the earth, means the sky above. In other words, put your treasures out of reach. But the context tells us Jesus is speaking figuratively of eternity.
Eternity is not infinite time. Time is just another one of God’s creations, but eternity is an attribute of God Himself. He is eternal. To put our treasure in heaven is to lay up God in our hearts.
But we don’t do this through an elaborate show of religion or personal piety.
We don’t say to God, “I fasted, God, now you owe me forgiveness.” In fact, we don’t do anything to lay up God in our hearts, as if by some priestcraft we could conjure Him or summon Him there.
Instead, we have to understand that all of the promises of God’s steadfast love, mercy, and kindness are not promises that were made to us (and that we could refuse to accept).
All of God’s promises were made to and are fulfilled by His Son, Jesus Christ who said, “not my will, but thine, be done.”
This is what Paul means in 2 Cor. 1:20 when he writes:
“For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why we utter the Amen through him, to the glory of God.”
We fast today, we might even wear ashes today, not to call down God’s forgiveness in the hope that He will spare us.
We fast today, we celebrate today, knowing that when we set our hearts on Christ, when we are united to Him in our Amen, then we know that He is ours and we are His.
We know that no sin or evil can ever separate us from His steadfast love.
We know that God’s promised day of judgment and vengeance has dawned.
We know that our vindication is near.
We know that we will be restored. Amen.
Questions for reflection and discussion:
1. Tearing down others to build ourselves up is called ____________.
2. The Bible is not a ____________ book.
3. Repentance must be done with ____________ in mind.
4. Joel is likely speaking to the exiled ____________ community.
5. The traditional service for Ash Wednesday day is called “A Commination or Denouncing of God’s ____________ and Judgements against Sinners.”
6. Explain why Joel wants to gather the Jews for repentance after judgment has already befallen them.
7. We can repent by returning to the Lord with all our____________.
8. Who are the hypocrites Jesus is referring to?
9. Religion isn’t some kind of public display of ____________.
10. Christians are expected to ____________.
11. Explain why the Christian fast is a fast of joy.
12. How do we unite our hearts with Christ?
Parents and Grandparents, you are responsible to apply God’s Word to your children’s lives. Here is some help. Young Children – draw a picture about something you hear during the sermon. Explain your picture(s) to your parents or the minister after church. Older Children – Do one or both of the following: 1) Count how many times the word fast is mentioned. 2) Discuss with your parents the relationship between cause and effect. Can we cause (or make) our friends do something for us? Can we cause (or make) God do anything for us?
(1) self-justification; (2) self-help; (3) eternity; (4) Jewish; (5) Anger; (6) because an opportunity to repent is always an opportunity for a second chance; (7) hearts; (8) Pharisees and other officials of Jewish religion of His day; (9) piety; (10) fast; (11) the Christian fast is the effect in time caused by God’s judgment in eternity, which leads to vindication and the restoration of justice and righteousness; (12) by saying “Amen” to all of God’s promises which have found their “yes” in Jesus Christ
Look good while fasting