Ash Wednesday
Joel
2:12-19
2/14/18
“Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on
my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of
the LORD is coming; it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds
and thick darkness!” That’s how the
prophet Joel began this chapter.
Joel writes because a disaster was
engulfing the land. A locust plague was
descending upon them. At the beginning
of the book he had written, “What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust
has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and
what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.” The prophet
described the insects as a foreign invader: “For a nation has come up against
my land, powerful and beyond number; its teeth are lions' teeth, and it has the
fangs of a lioness. It has laid waste my vine and splintered my fig tree; it
has stripped off their bark and thrown it down; their branches are made white.”
Joel described this event as “the day of
the Lord.” He wrote, “Alas for the day!
For the day of the LORD is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.” The prophet describes it in this way because
the locust plague was not just a case of “bad luck.” It wasn’t one of those random and
uncontrollable things we can’t explain.
Instead it had a very specific source and a very specific cause.
Yahweh had sent the locust plague. And he had done it as an act of judgment against the sin of the nation. This becomes crystal clear at the beginning
of our text as Joel writes, “‘Yet even now,’ declares the LORD, “return to me
with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend
your hearts and not your garments.”
Unlike other Old Testament books written by
prophets, we don’t really learn anything about how the nation had sinned.
That’s one of things that makes Joel difficult to date. The only thing that is absolutely clear is that they had.
This lack of specificity makes Joel a
perfect text for Ash Wednesday. Today
begins the penitential season of Lent.
During Lent we prepare again to observe the remembrance of our Lord
Jesus’ crucifixion on Good Friday. We
prepare to remember that Jesus Christ offered himself as the sacrifice for our
sin. The season of Christmas was fun and Epiphany was nice. But now things get real. Now the church year rivets our attention on
the reason the Son of God entered into our world and revealed his glory in our
midst. He did it because of sin. He did it because of your sin.
The book of Joel doesn’t provide any
details about how the nation had sinned.
It simply calls the people to repentance because of their sin. We just know that it had happened. And that general character is very helpful
for us tonight. Because the Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent confront our
sin in all the ways it is present in
our life.
It leads us back to the Ten Commandments
for they are the diagnostic tool God has provided for identifying sin. Do your actions show that you are putting
other things before God? Do you call
upon God’s name to praise him, or only when you need help? Are you faithfully receiving the Means of
Grace – God’s word – in all of its forms?
Do you obey those in authority over you?
Do you help your neighbor? Do you
look at pornography in order to lust? Do you take what is not yours? Do you gossip and hurt the reputation of
others? Do you covet the blessings and life that others possess?
There it is. There is the sin that brings
the day of the Lord for you. And in the
Old Testament we learn that the day of the Lord is not just about locust
plagues. Instead, every act of judgment
– every “day of the Lord” – points forward to the Day of the Lord. They all point to the Last Day and the day of
judgment. They point to the judgment and
damnation that all sinners will receive from the holy God.
However, that is not what God wants to happen. God takes no delight in the death of a sinner.
Instead, what God wants is to save. This is grounded in his very character and
being. We hear God say in our text, “‘Yet
even now," declares the LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart, with
fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your
garments.’ Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow
to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.”
God confronts us in our sin. He calls us to repentance – to return to
him. And he doesn’t want just
words. He doesn’t want people just to go
through the motions. He wants us confess
our sin; to regret our sin; and to return to him. Joel tells us that the reason we can do so is
because “he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast
love; and he relents over disaster.”
This statement, that Yahweh is “gracious
and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love” repeats over and over
again in the Old Testament. It is a
refrain that runs all through God’s revelation before Christ. It says that God gives us what we don’t
deserve. He doesn’t wish to be angry at
sinners. He never runs out of faithful
love. Why can you return to God in repentance? Because this is the God who
meets you. This is the God who wants you to return so that he can forgive you.
God is very serious when it comes to
forgiveness. The holy God wants to be
gracious, merciful and loving toward you a sinner. He is gracious, merciful and loving. But he is also the holy God. For you the
sinner, this holiness is like the radioactive heart of a nuclear power plant.
To come into this presence can only result in horrible death.
Because this is so, God did something to
make it possible for you to be with him.
He the holy God sent his holy Son to become flesh – to become man. Through the incarnation, Jesus Christ – true
God and true man – lived in our world.
As we will see on Sunday he was tempted in all ways as we are, yet without
sinning. He remained sinless in obedience
to the Father. He went as the sinless
sacrifice – the Lamb without any blemish – to the cross for you. God laid upon him your sin – he made him who
knew no sin to be sin – in order to take away your sin. Now through faith and baptism you receive the
forgiveness that he won. You have been
clothed with Christ and when God looks at you he does not see your sin. Instead, he sees Jesus Christ’s holiness and
righteousness.
God says, “‘Yet even now return to me with
all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your
hearts and not your garments.’ Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious
and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents
over disaster.” We repent and confess.
We return to God in the confidence that God’s gracious, merciful and loving
character has caused him to act in Jesus Christ so that we can be reconciled to
the holy God; so that we can come to him without fear because in Christ he has
taken our sin away.
We come to him knowing that he the living
God does not give us judgment. Instead,
in Christ he gives us life. Jesus died
on Good Friday’s cross. He was buried in
a tomb. But then on the third day, God
raised him from the dead. Through the work of the Holy Spirit he transformed
that body so that it cannot die again.
The risen Lord has now ascended into
heaven. And it is as the ascended Lord
that he poured forth the Holy Spirit. He
did this on Pentecost in fulfillment of Joel’s words at the end of this
chapter. On the day of Pentecost Peter said, “But this is what was uttered
through the prophet Joel: ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that
I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.’”
You now live in those last days. The Spirit
of Christ who transformed Jesus’ body in the resurrection is going to work that
same transformation for you. He will do
it on the Last Day – the final Day of the Lord – when Jesus Christ returns in
glory.
Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection
for us, the Day of the Lord is no longer something to be feared. It is instead something for which we
long. We pray, “Come Lord Jesus!” We can
pray this because in Christ we have seen that God is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
And while we wait, we repent. We confess our sin. We repent and turn to
God. We listen to his invitation: “Yet
even now return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with
mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Because of Jesus Christ
we return to the LORD our God in confidence, for he has demonstrated beyond all
doubt that he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in
steadfast love.
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