If we had saved our palm leaves from last Palm Sunday, we could follow an ancient Lenten tradition this evening. We could burn the palm leaves and then apply the palm ashes to our foreheads in the sign of a cross.
The ashen cross upon our forehead would be a sign and symbol of where we stand under the mighty hand of God’s judgment.
Lent itself is a time for facing up to God’s judgment. A time for recognizing God’s attitude towards our selfishness and gluttony and hypocrisy and every other black cloud of sin that hangs over our lifestyle. Lent is a time for seeing in the wrenched face and hearing in the doleful groans of our Lord Jesus, God’s spleen vented against every last weed of rebellion growing in his harmonious garden.
Lent is God’s way of stripping us bare of every lame excuse, every illusion, every delusion, every artificial and phony face we wear, and sobering us up to the realization that we are in constant revolt and rebellion against our Creator.
In other words, Lent somberly and dramatically puts us in our place. Lent is realism at its best. Lent cracks the lenses in our rose-colored glasses and makes fine powder out of our personal pedestals and literally knocks us off our smug perches to tell us precisely who we are.
Whether we burn palm leaves and make ashen crosses on our foreheads is not terribly important. Whether we rip apart our clothes or put on sackcloth is not overly significant. What is extremely important is that on our lips and in our hearts and through our living we wear the ashes of Ash Wednesday.
The experience of the Assyrian people of Nineveh in the book of Jonah is the experience we need desperately during Lent. Let’s hear the words of Jonah 3:1-10: (read from your Bible).
The book of Jonah usually receives our attention because of the great whale story. The Lenten theme of this book is often missed.
The part that is slighted is perhaps ignored because it is more fascinating to portray the exciting adventure of a man swallowed alive by a huge fish and to argue whether Jonah is a factual account or a parable.
But then we miss a large point. The people of Assyria were not part of the chosen people of God. They were like persons in a foreign country today to whom we send missionaries to share with them the Good News of Jesus the Christ.
Yet, look at their response to Jonah’s preaching. The Ninevites did not simply believe Jonah out of fear he might be right. The Ninevites believed God and responded to his Word of judgment with full repentance.
If a group of people who are literal infants in the faith can respond with such overwhelming humility and sorrow over their rejection of God, how much more should the Christian Church, how much more should our congregation, which has had the opportunity to move from infancy to maturity through a long exposure to the Gospel, how much more should we be able and willing to respond to God’s indictment of our rejection and revolt and rebellion by wearing the ashes of humility and repentance!
We prayed earlier, "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, O, Lord, on your way to death, have mercy on us ... It is our fault you have to die. It is our blindness, our prejudice, our unfaith, our hate, our hesitation, our hopelessness that sent you to your destiny with the cross."
But repentance is a coin with two sides. To sincerely admit and confess where we stand is one side. The other is equally important. To wear the ashes is not only to make confession; wearing the ashes is turning from our revolt to obedience to our Creator.
The king of Nineveh said it, "Let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence which is in his hands." Lent is a time for turning. Lent is a time for change.
Lent is a perfect opportunity to scrutinize ourselves carefully under the light of the cross to determine where we are weak as we try to execute the Word of God. What are the soft spots in our commitment to the Suffering Servant?
Is it my irregular worship life? Is it my hesitation to become involved in the life of my Church? Is it my reluctance to return God’s many gifts back to Him? Is it my relationship with my neighbors? Is it my ignoring his Word? What are the soft spots in my relationship with my Lord Jesus?
Lent is the time to turn weakness into strength. Not only to wear the ashes of sorrow for my guilt, but to wear the ashes of humbly seeking help from my Savior to turn my life around and grow in my discipleship.
When we wear the ashes, God’s judgment turns to mercy. As with the Ninevites, the Old Testament is not embarassed to say that God changes his mind. God’s character is not changing, but as our response to him changes, his course of action changes, in keeping with his character as a God of mercy.
Let’s use Lent like the Ninevites used Jonah’s call of God’s judgment. To see ourselves as we are before God, to realize our guilt before the cross, to be free in confessing that guilt, and to seek on our knees the strong assistance of the Suffering Servant to change those parts of our commitment that need radical change. So that wearing ashes is a full-time occupation.
As we begin this Lent on this day of Ash Wednesday, our Lord Jesus, our Suffering Servant, offers us his way for us to turn and be changed. He sets before us the offering of his body and blood. As he offers, so let us offer ourselves, our confession and our willingness to wear the ashes. Amen.