Ash Wednesday

1  All Is Loss but Christ

Today we enter a season of penitence,

when we focus our thoughts especially upon our sins before God.

The purpose is not to see who will feel the worst,

or who will be the most pious.

The purpose is to train our minds and bodies

to acknowledge the reason the Son of God lived and died. to confess to ourselves and before God that we rely upon Him.

So begins the 5 1/2 weeks of Lent,

leading up to Holy Week.

This year in our midweek services we’ll learn about

the qualities of our perfect Substitute.

Today, though, we learn about something else:

the act of repentance.

But instead of analyzing repentance bit by bit,

we’ll consider what the penitent Christian heart is confessing.

When we repent of our sins,

sometimes we’re thinking of a particular sin.

But a penitent heart is also sorry for every other sin.

We can’t hold back, or cling to anything but God’s mercy

If we want to hold onto certain sins,

then our repentance becomes an mere act, a hypocrisy.

In fact, when we genuinely repent before God,

we are confessing that His mercy is the most important thing to us:

certainly more than any of our sins, but also more important than our secret desires and hopes, and more than all the wealth that can be found on earth.

This is what a penitent Christian is really saying:

All is loss but Christ.

There are two reasons we consider everything else a loss to us:

because the heart of man is deceitful above all things, and because we have the surpassing wealth of Christ.

2  Matthew 6:16–21

“Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

“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. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Because the heart of man is deceitful above all things.

The marvels of this world are not really worthless.

They can be beautiful, amazing,

intricate or powerful.

So when we consider our lives:

the riches we may enjoy, the friends we may have, our experiences,

there can be a lot to love.

Not least of things we love is the respect of our peers.

Christians can appreciate that, too.

So Jesus’ warning about fasting is appropriate for us.

You might not use fasting as a spiritual exercise in your life. There was a time and place when churches required it,

especially during Lent and in preparation for the Lord’s Supper.

Our catechism shows us its proper place:

“Fasting and bodily preparation are indeed a fine outward training, but he is truly worthy and well-prepared who has faith in these words: ’Given and shed for you, for the remission of sins.’ ”

So we may fast in preparation for the Lord’s Supper,

and at other times,

but it’s not the lack of fasting that can be harmful.

It’s a lack of faith in the words of Jesus,

concerning His body and His blood.

If you do fast, or undertake any other discipline of penitence,

then Jesus wants us to let such things remain between us and God,

and not something to show off our piety.

If we go out of our way — even a little bit —

so that others will know, then we’ve lost the value of repentance.

Jesus calls such people “hypocrites,”

because they are repenting before their fellow man,

instead of before God.

Already, we all probably feel the sting of Jesus’ words.

We all like to be appreciated and respected, don’t we?

Even if we could get past that,

our sinful hearts would continue to betray us.

How many times have you done something just to save face,

or just to be noticed and respected by another person?

How often don’t we act as though the most important person watching

is not God, but our neighbor?

So we really do have something to repent.

We need to understand that hypocrisy like that

brings down the wrath of God upon us and loses us the goal of eternal life.

Jesus said: Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

Do you really want more than the riches we may have here on earth?

Do you really care less about God’s respect than man’s respect?

I know that you want to seek first God’s kingdom. I know that you do care about God’s respect.

But our hearts are deceitful above all things.

We need God’s help.

We have it in the example of St. Paul’s faith, who wrote in Philippians 3:

Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.

To escape the deceitfulness of our own hearts,

we need Jesus.

So all the things that would entice us,

we must consider them not as treasures, but as loss, compared to the joy of a Savior from all sin and from death.

Oh, we don’t have to sell everything and move into a monastery.

But regard all things in this world as worthless:

useful only for this life, in service to God and our neighbor, and not useful for anything else.

All is loss but Christ,

because the heart of man is deceitful above all things.

2.1  Because we have the surpassing wealth of Christ.

All is loss but Christ,

because we have the surpassing wealth of Christ.

There are three great enemies of God and his children:

the devil, the evil world around us, and our own sinful flesh, as long as we live.

Likewise, there are three great plagues that afflict everyone on earth:

our own sin, death, and the devil, who tempts to despair of God’s help.

But in general society around us, only death is recognized as a problem.

Sin can be reduced to a matter of tradition and choices. The devil is invisible,

especially to those who don’t believe he exists.

But death is truly a problem.

Huge buildings are built and dedicated as hospitals,

billions spent, to help us avoid death.

Billions more are spent on life insurance,

to help those left behind cope with whatever life they have.

Great advances have been made in health care:

greater even than sending a man to the moon.

But death remains,

and those who survive must still suffer its grief.

All of this is a result of the Fall of Man,

resulting in our sinfulness before God.

Yet, though man is doomed to fail in our desperate attempt

to conquer death,

There is One who has already done it for us: Jesus Christ.

We have such terrible enemies and sorrows here on earth,

but Jesus has won for us true life without end, in heaven.

He said: “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. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

We have the treasures of heaven,

not through our own work, but through His work.

Do you see how foolish it is to place such value upon worldly things?

We have a world of better things awaiting us.

Do you see how temporary is the grief we feel when we’re touched by death?

We have an everlasting life prepared for us by God Himself,

where we will be reunited forever with those who enter before us.

John wrote in his first letter: Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

The will of God is that we receive the forgiveness of our sins,

trusting that in Christ, we are reconciled to God.

This is the surpassing wealth of Jesus Christ. This is the treasure that

neither moth nor rust, neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither things present nor things to come, neither height, nor depth, nor any other created thing

can destroy or take away from us.

Dear fellow redeemed in Christ:

your ungodly hypocrisy, doubts, and fears are forgiven. All your sins are forgiven.

Receive that forgiveness from God,

and treasure it for the true, lasting wealth that it is.

Indeed: all is loss, but Christ.

Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!