Ash
Wednesday
Mt
6:16-21
2/22/23
“Beware
of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be
seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in
heaven.” These words begin the portion
of the Sermon on the Mount in which we find our text for Ash Wednesday. In this section of the sermon, Jesus proceeds
to talk about three activities that were key parts of first century Jewish
piety: almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. In
each, he applies this truth that we are not to do righteous things in the
effort to be seen by others.
Our
text focuses on fasting, but before this Jesus has said, “And when you pray, you must not be like the
hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the
street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they
have received their reward.” Jesus
criticizes those who make a show of their prayer in order to be seen by others. He says that when prayer is done in this way,
the only benefit a person is going to receive is the attention itself. God does not reward it.
Instead, our
Lord gives the instruction, “But when you pray, go into your room and shut
the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who
sees in secret will reward you.” Jesus
says that prayer should not be done to put on a show. Instead, it should be the
private approach to our heavenly Father.
So what does
this say about prayer outside an abortion facility? I mention this because I have encountered
those who say that such action violates Jesus’ words in Matthew chapter 6.
Certainly, standing on a sidewalk outside an abortion facility and holding a
sign while in prayer does call attention to oneself and the location where
prayer is taking place. That is, after
all, the reason for this action. It is
intended to bear witness to God’s gift of life and the sin that is taking place
at that location. The prayer offered in silence then asks for God’s rescue of
children and for the end of this sin in our area and state.
Our Lord’s
words don’t in fact forbid such an action.
Throughout this text, the public practice of righteousness is condemned because
of its motivation. A person gives
alms in a way that is meant to call attention to the individual. A person prays
in a way that is meant to call attention to himself or herself. What is wrong
is not the public nature of the action, but the goal. When public prayer is offered to bear witness
against evil and in order to ask for God’s help, there is nothing wrong with
the action in itself.
In our text the
Lord continues to treat this topic by saying “And when you fast, 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.” Jesus says that those who fast and make a
show of it have received all the reward they are going to get in the attention
itself. They should not expect any benefit from God.
Instead, he
provides the instruction, “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.” Jesus describes a practice that seeks to hide
the fasting that is being done.
The topic in
this portion of our text is probably not an issue for most of us … because we
don’t fast. It should, however, catch our attention that Jesus’ statement assumes
we will. This is a practice that
came out of the Old Testament and continued to be done by the New Testament
church. It has been an important part of
life for Christians during most of the history of the Church. It combines the disciplining of the body with
time for prayer and study of God’s Word.
On the surface
of things, Jesus words about the practice of righteousness sound easy. When you give something, don’t tell
anyone. When you pray, do it in
private. When you fast conceal this fact
so that others don’t know. Yet at the
end of our text we find words that alert us to a deeper truth.
Jesus says, “Do
not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and
rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where
thieves do not break in and steal.” Our
Lord tells us not to store up earthly treasures – wealth and all that goes with
it.
After all these
are perishable. Our financial
investments make our future seem secure … until the market tanks in a historic
fashion. Our house with its beautiful
kitchen and décor is a source of satisfaction – until we return from that vacation
and find that a pipe burst and poured out water while we were gone.
Our Lord says
that instead we are to lay up treasures in heaven. We are to give the study of God’s Word a
central place in our life. We are to give of our resources in order to support
the work of the Gospel, and to help those in need. We are to give prayer a key
role in our daily routine. We are to do
good works that serve others. These things done in faith are what God values.
They demonstrate that God stands at the center of our life – that he is number
one. As Jesus says at the end of our
text: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Our Lord deals
with the state of our heart. And here we
learn that simply doing things in secret does not mean that we are keeping
Jesus’ word. Our heart can take pride in
the money we give. It can feel
self-satisfied with the piety of our spiritual life because we are going that
extra mile where others are not. Yes,
even praying outside an abortion facility can become an exercise in
self-righteousness when our heart is not in the right place. After all, we are
doing something in an important cause when many other people who are doing
nothing at all.
When we look at
things from this perspective we find that we all sin. It is not just that we sin in overt ways like
speaking angry words and gossiping about our neighbor. We have the ability to
sin even when externally we are doing the right thing. We can do these
things in order to be seen by others. We
can do these things in spiritual pride as we look down on others.
Our problem is
a heart problem. Jesus said, “But what
comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For
out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual
immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” As fallen people, these are the things that
are naturally inside of us.
On Ash Wednesday the
church year causes us to pause and get a spiritual echocardiogram. We are forced to look inside our heart and
see the sin that is present. We sin in thought, word, and deed. We sin when we
do the right thing for the wrong reason. We sin because we are fallen people.
There is no one who can claim otherwise. On this we are all the same. Paul told the Romans, “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God.”
God knows who we really are, even when we try to fool ourselves. God knows us, but in his mercy he also still loved us. Rather than leave us in sin and damnation, he did the unthinkable. St. Paul put it this way: “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die-- but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Jesus declared about his mission, “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve,
and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Christ – the One who had no sin – took our
sin as his own. In fact Paul can say “For
our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might
become the righteousness of God.”
Jesus received God’s judgment in our place.
God’s
judgment brought death. But death that
simply ended there could not be victory over what sin produces. So on the third day, God raised Jesus from
the dead. He raised our Lord with a body
transformed so that it can never die again. He raised Jesus as the beginning of
our resurrection that we will receive when he returns in glory on the Last Day.
When
Jesus began his earthly ministry he said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand.” When we must face the sin in
our heart, his call to us is the same: “Repent!” We do not make excuses for sin. Instead, we confess it. We confess our sin before God, and believe in
the Lord who died and rose from the dead for us. We believe his word in which he declares that
through baptism we have shared in his saving death. In this way we have received
the kingdom of heaven – the saving reign of God.
We are God’s forgiven children who
are freed to live in ways that demonstrate what God has done for us. We do not practice our righteousness before other
people in order to be seen by them.
Instead, we live to fulfill the words found at the beginning of the
sermon when Christ said: "You are the light of the world. A city
set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a
basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same
way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good
works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
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