Ash Wednesday
Psalm 6
Dearly beloved, today we begin a forty day journey to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a journey unlike any other. For its destination is unique. As the next five Wednesdays and Holy Week unfold, you will hear anew …
- how our Lord enters an upper room and institutes a new and better Passover,
- how He retreats to a hillside garden and prays to His heavenly Father,
- how He is betrayed by one of His own,
- how He is arrested and stands trial before the high priest,
- how He is slapped and scorned by the religious guards,
- how He is led to the local governor,
- how He is questioned and sentenced to death,
- how He is beaten and mocked by the soldiers,
- how He is led out to the place of the skull,
- how He is raised up from the earth to draw all men to Himself,
- how He speaks seven faithful words, and
- how He finally wins the victory.
As you begin this journey to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, I invite you to slow down and take a closer look at some of the scenery you will be passing. This year’s journey to the cross takes you directly through the seven penitential psalms—psalms that express sorrow for sin and God’s answer to that sin. But I must warn you. In many ways, this will be a painful journey. For “those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. [Jesus] has not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31-32).
You are here this evening because you are sick, because you are a sinner, because you are in need of God’s gift of forgiveness. So let us begin this journey and find healing and forgiveness in the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
The first penitential psalm is Psalm 6, which we prayed earlier. Like a skilled physician, King David diagnoses the ugliness of sin and its consequences in this psalm. Listen again to the wages of sin:
- A languishing spirit;
- A troubled body;
- A troubled soul;
- Death and the grave;
- Moaning and tears;
- Grief and weakness.
This picture of the effect of sin in our lives is profound, uncomfortable, even painful. We tend to think of sin as being little more than a bad habit or a character flaw. We eat too much chocolate. We drink too much pop. Our schedules are too busy. But let’s call a spade a spade. Sin is disobeying God. And God hates it!
He hates it when you covet what is not yours, when you gossip, when you cheat, when you lust, when you harbor anger or resentment, and when you disobey those whom He has placed over you.
He hates it when you are apathetic toward His house, bored with His Word, and do not hunger for Christ’s body and blood.
He hates it when you excuse your pet sins—those sins that consume your thoughts and desires, but you still delight in them anyway.
He hates it when you take His name in vain and forget to call upon Him in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.
He hates it when you place yourself, your schedule, and your priorities above Him and idolatrously take comfort in earthly things rather that Christ’s good gifts.
Last but not least, He hates it when you make excuses and attempt to justify yourself before Him.
So let’s cut to the chase. Like me, you are a poor, miserable sinner. Sin separates you from God. It harms you and damages your relationship with others. It will do you no good to point to those whom you think are worse sinners. We’ve all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. So come clean. Repent of the sinner you are and the sins you think, say, and do. And then look to Christ alone for forgiveness.
The penitential psalms do a beautiful job not only of holding your feet to the fire of God’s Law, but also of driving you to that one place where God delights to see you. On your knees. In need. Crying out to Him for mercy. Repenting of your sin and seeking His forgiveness in Jesus Christ.
Jesus, you see, is the Good Samaritan who bandages your wounds, pours on oil and wine, and nurses you back to health. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who picks you up, places you on His shoulders, and carries you back to the sheepfold of His Word. Jesus is the Good Physician who gives you the medicine of immortality—His own life-giving body and blood for the forgiveness of sins.
Stated simply, Lent isn’t about you. It’s about Jesus. Jesus taking your sin and making it His own. Jesus suffering the penalty you deserve. Jesus shedding His blood to make atonement for you. Jesus dying to sin that you might not die eternally, but rise to newness of life in Him.
So what about fasting, prayer, and charitable deeds? Go for it. Discipline your body. Make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. Dive into the Scriptures and make your requests known to God. Help provide for the needs of your brothers and sisters in Christ. Just remember not to do these things to win over God or show others how religious you are. Instead, do them as helpful reminders that your sinful flesh no longer rules the roost. Christ does! His cross, His blood, His means of grace have washed you clean, declared you righteous, and now define who you are as a child of God.
But even more than that, the best Lenten discipline is simply to have more Jesus. More preaching of Jesus, that He died and rose for you. More remembering your Baptism, by which you’ve been made a child of God. More Absolution, which releases the devil’s claim on you by forgiving your sin. More body and blood of Jesus, so that you are filled with the one who lives in and through you and will raise you up on the Last Day.
Concerning tonight’s psalm, Martin Luther wrote:
“The life and behavior of every Christian should be so constituted that he does not know or have anything but God, and in no other way than in faith.” [Luther’s Works XIV 146]
The penitential psalms hold this truth before your eyes. They point you to Christ and lead you through repentance to God’s gift of forgiveness. All so that you can live your baptism. So that the Old Adam in you can by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever. So that you can do charitable deeds, pray, and fast in the freedom of Gospel, for the benefit of your neighbor.
So slow down this Lenten season and enjoy the scenery pictured in the penitential psalms as you journey to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. You will learn therein that the Christian life has a distinct and beautiful rhythm—Law and Gospel, sin and grace, confession and absolution, dying and rising to newness of life. In Christ, dear friends, you find God’s gift of forgiveness. That’s why King David ends this first penitential psalm so confidently:
“The LORD has heard the sound of my weeping. The LORD has heard my plea; the LORD accepts my prayer.” In Christ, you see, God hears, answers, forgives, and renews.
What a blessing it is to enter this holy season. Lent means more Jesus. And you can never have enough of Jesus, because you’re always trying to have too much of you. Thanks be to God, therefore, that Jesus came and bled and died and rose again for you. That is what we begin celebrating tonight!
This Lenten midweek sermon series is based on God’s Gift of Forgiveness, CPH © 2011.
A few thoughts were borrowed from an article by the Rev. Mark Buetow at Higher Things.
