Ash
Wednesday
Mt
6:16-21
3/5/25
Why
are you doing it? That’s what Jesus’
words in this portion of the Sermon on the Mount lead us to consider. Our Lord begins this chapter by saying, “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.”
“Practicing
your righteousness” means the way people live the faith – the habits and
actions by which the people of God live because of faith. Jesus takes up three different practices that
were part of the piety of Judaism. Just
before our text he addresses the giving of alms to the poor, and prayer. Here
in our text, he takes up fasting.
Jesus
says that in each case, people should not do these things for the purpose of
being seen by others. They should not be
done in a way that is meant to draw attention to oneself, and so gain honor in
the eyes of others.
So,
people are not to make a show of giving to the poor. Jesus says, “But when you give to the needy,
do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your
giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward
you.” Believers are not to make a show out of praying in public. Our Lord says,
“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.”
Christ
says in our text: “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 people should not try and
call attention to the fact that they are fasting. They should not try to advertise their pious
behavior in order to get noticed by others.
Instead Jesus says, “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’
words have sometimes caused Christians to question what we have just done
tonight. Ash Wednesday, of course,
derives its name from the ashes that were just placed on the foreheads of many
of the people who are here. You will
leave church wearing on your forehead a visible display of Christian
piety. When people receive ashes at a
service during the day, they display the ash in form of the cross as they are
at work or go to the store.
God’s
Word certainly teaches us that we are to practice the faith in ways that are
meant to be seen by the world. We
confess Jesus Christ before others by what we do and say. Christians wear jewelry such as a crucifix or
a cross in order to confess faith in Christ.
Christians pray aloud before a meal at home and in public for the same
reason. The ashes on the forehead in the
form of a cross confess that a person’s sins are forgiven because of Jesus
Christ. That is something we should
never be hesitant to confess before the world.
When
Jesus says, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people
in order to be seen by them” he is addressing the matter of the
heart. He raises the question of the
true motivation for the action. Are acts
of piety done in order to confess Christ, or in order to call attention to
ourselves?
This
matter of the heart becomes clear in the second half of our text. There 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 warns against seeking to
gain treasures on earth. He points out
that the rewards of this world are all temporary and perishable. They can be
destroyed or lost. Instead, Christ says
we should lay up treasures in heaven. We
should invest in those things that are eternal – we should focus our attention
on the Means of Grace. We should seek to bring forth the fruits of faith by
which we give thanks and glory to Christ.
Jesus explains the reason for this
when he says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” What you treasure shows the true orientation
of your life. It shows what really
matters. Ultimately, the Lord sets
before us the First Commandment, “You shall have no other gods.” Our actions tell the true state of our heart. The things we value most; the things that
occupy our thoughts the most; the things in which we invest the most time and
money, these are our true gods.
As Christ says just after our text, “No one can serve two masters, for
either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the
one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
Our Lord reveals to us that we have
a desperate heart problem. He says later
in the Gospel, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder,
adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” Ever since the Fall, these are the things
that are inside of us. These are the things that come out in what we think, do,
and say.
We are eager to downplay the
presence of sin in our life. But Jesus,
the holy Son of God, leads us to a true diagnosis. He says, “You have heard that it was said to
those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be
liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with
his brother will be liable to judgment.” Our Lord says that it is not
merely the action of harming another that is sin, but the presence of angry
thoughts.
Our Lord says, “You have heard that
it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you
that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already
committed adultery with her in his heart.” Adultery and sexual immorality occur
not simply by the physical act. Sexual
sin occurs when we look upon the opposite sex with lustful desire and
intent. And of course, this is the case
anytime we choose to view pornography.
Ash Wednesday is a day of repentance
which begins Lent - a season of repentance. During Lent we prepare to remember
the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. We
prepare for Holy Week which will culminate on Good Friday when Jesus died on
the cross and was buried in a tomb.
Paul told the Colossians that in
Jesus, the Son of God, we have redemption – the forgiveness of sins. Jesus died on the cross as the Lamb of God
who takes away the sins of the world. He
was the sacrifice that has given us forgiveness before God. As we prepare to remember this death, we
confess the reason why Christ died for us.
We repent and confess our sins.
We admit our sins before God.
Just before the Sermon on the Mount,
Matthew tells us that Jesus took up residence in Capernaum as the base for his
mission work. Then we read: “From that time Jesus began to preach,
saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” Jesus called
people to repent. He called upon them to confess their sin to God. He did so because in Jesus, the kingdom of
heaven – the reign of God was at hand.
Our Lord begins the Sermon on the
Mount by saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven.” Christ describes
those who are blessed – those who are receiving God’s end time salvation. Who are the ones who are blessed in this way?
They are the “poor in spirit.” They are the spiritually poor – the ones who
know that they are spiritually destitute; that they have no spiritual resources
of their own. They are you, as you
confess your sin before God.
But Jesus says that the spiritually
poor are blessed “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” You have received God’s saving reign because
Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins and then rose from the dead. Christ’s Spirit has called you to faith
through his Word and Baptism. You have
received the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
In yourself you are a sinner. But because you have been baptized into
Christ, you are a saint in God’s eyes.
You are a holy one because of Jesus’ death for you. You are justified – already now you know that
the verdict of the Last Day will be not guilty.
St. Paul told the Romans, “Therefore, since we have been justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Repentance means that we confess our
sin to God, and receive forgiveness through faith in Christ. But that is not all it means. Repentance also means that now we turn away
from that sin. When the John the Baptist
preached repentance, he said, “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.”
We return to our baptism in faith
for there we died with Christ, and by the work of his Spirit a new man comes
forth to live before God in righteousness and purity. Paul told the Romans, “We were buried
therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ
was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk
in newness of life.”
And so Paul told the Colossians, “Put
to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion,
evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” He reminds us that we
have put off the old man with its practices and have put
on the new man, which is being renewed in knowledge after the
image of its creator.
Because this is so, Paul tells us
what we should seek to do. He says, “Put
on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility,
meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a
complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has
forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”
On this Ash Wednesday we repent. We
confess our sins before God. We confess
that we are the spiritually poor. And
then we receive God’s forgiveness as we believe in the death and resurrection
of Jesus Christ for us. We rejoice that
we have received the reign of God. We are justified. We are saints before
God. And then by the power of Christ’s
Spirit we turn away from that sin as we live in Christ.
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