Dear Readers and Listeners, Friends in Jesus Christ,
Our watchword for today is taken from the Book of Psalms, “You are the trust of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest sea,” Psalm 65 verse 5, (NASB). This psalm of David tells of the silence that befalls humans when they are overawed at the work of the Lord. God’s acts, the awesome created beauty in nature and the intervention of God to save his people, first leave one speechless when contemplating these and then prayer and praise tumble from our lips. God is the God who has been trusted by generation upon generation to deliver them and bring them safely to a place of consolation. He is our Rock and Refuge, our Mighty Deliverer. As we come to the Lord on this day, Ash Wednesday, we enter into his presence with joy and thanksgiving, but we also enter into his presence with the silent awe and the referential penitence that mark this day. In many traditions the palm branches from the previous year’s Holy Week’s Palm Sunday are used to make palm crosses for Easter Sunday.
This is an expression of Christ’s glory and triumph over death in his resurrection as is shown with the small palm crosses. These crosses are collected and kept for the following year’s Ash Wednesday, thus showing how we intercede for each other in remembrance throughout the years. The palm leaves are burnt to ash and the ashes are used at the Ash Wednesday Service as a sign of our prayers and penitence. In receiving the sign of the Cross, imprint with ash on our foreheads, we ask for forgiveness and absolution. We think of our Lord as we follow him on his road to Calvary. The visible cross of ash on our foreheads shows that we are willing to be identified with our Lord and with his road to the Cross. When Moses came down from the mountain with God’s law on the two tablets, he found the Israelites sacrificing to a golden calf they made. Moses intervened and took the golden calf, the symbol of sin of the Israelites: “And I (Moses) took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust (or ash); and I cast the dust of it into the brook that came down out of the mountain,” Deuteronomy 9 verse 21, (Amplified Bible). Jesus became the living sacrifice for us on Good Friday. He carried our sin, and through his crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection, our sin has been made like dust and ash. In God’s sight it is invisible, washed away by the water and blood flowing from the side of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Apostle John writes in his First Epistle, Chapter 2 verse 2, “Jesus Christ is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world,” (NRSVB). Jesus’ work on the Cross finished the need for any blood sacrifice. He became the One who took all the sin upon him, the Passover Lamb, and once and for all He carried the guilt, shame and sin of the world on the cross. He carried our wrongful thoughts, words and deeds, all the unrighteousness ever committed in the world, He carried. He broke the bonds that tie people to live under the oppression of sin. We are still sinners, for we live in the body that will become dust, be we are forgiven sinners, who will not perish, but have ever-lasting life. We were made from dust of the earth, and our bodies will return to the earth, but we will resurrect with our Lord. We will be over-awed by silence and then we shall burst into praise as the sweet smelling sacrifice of our prayers will fill the heavens as clouds of witnesses to our Lord’s work. The fragrance in the cloud and ash of the incense remind us of the gifts of the Magi. Our Lord was prepared from birth, for death; the death that saved the world. Let us kneel before him and adore him as we receive the sign of the Cross of Ash.
Father, we thank you for you Son, who took our guilt on Him and carried it away, Amen.