[The following is the manuscript of my sermon delivered on Sunday, the 8th of March, 2015. Included is a symbolic imposition of ashes, as this is our Ash Wednesday service, postponed too many times due to inclement weather.]
Over the years I’ve often been asked why we, in the Reformed Church, celebrate Lent. Isn’t that something the Catholic Church does, they ask. Well, yes, but it goes back much further than that, long before any Christian church existed, even before Christ was born.
Listen and follow along with God’s word as provided in the book of Jonah, chapter 3…
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. 4 And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. 6 Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. 7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying,
Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. 8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?
10 Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.
--Jonah 3 (NKJV)
When most folks think of Jonah, they remember that he was swallowed up by a big fish. God wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh and warn the people there that their destruction was at hand. Jonah hated the Ninevites and wanted to see them crushed. But he was afraid that God, in His mercy, would forgive them if they heeded his message, so he ran the other way. Well, God made sure Jonah carried out his assigned mission with a little assist from that big fish.
But that’s only a small part of the story. The aspect we’re interested in today, and arguably the most important part of this story, is how the people and the king of Nineveh responded to God’s warning.
They believed God. They put on sackcloth and sat in ashes, putting ashes over their heads.
While this may seem a strange practice to us, it was a common outward sign of repentance in the Old Testament. It represented ridding oneself of adornment or any beautifying measures. It made one look and feel plain and unassuming - humble. And it told all who witnessed this person that they had committed some wrong, some sin, but that they were truly sorry and would turn from that sin.
It was a real and honest sign of repenting. Not to say, “oh look at poor little me!” But rather, “I've really messed up this time but I'm going to try my level best not to let it happen again”. And the greatest statement wearing sackcloth and ashes made was to say, “I'm sorry. Please forgive me.”
The king took it a step further, as seen in verses 7 and 8. He ordered everyone in his kingdom to fast, to cover themselves with sackcloth and ashes and turn from their evil ways. He ordered them all to repent – man, woman, child and beast!
And then what Jonah feared the most came to pass. God took note of their outward signs of repenting and the inward condition of their hearts and saw they had indeed turned from their sins. And He relented and stayed His hand. The Ninevites averted their destruction by their contrite and penitent acts and spirits.
Not all people have taken God as seriously as the Ninevites. During His ministry, Jesus went from city to city, town to town, teaching and preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. And everywhere He went He performed mighty miracles – healing the afflicted, making the lame to walk and the blind to see, even raising the dead back to life.
Many believed, and chose to follow Him. But many more did not, preferring to deride Him, persecute Him, cause Him all kinds of problems. Listen to what Jesus said to those who failed to follow the example of the people of Nineveh, as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 11, verses 20 through 24…
But that’s only a small part of the story. The aspect we’re interested in today, and arguably the most important part of this story, is how the people and the king of Nineveh responded to God’s warning.
They believed God. They put on sackcloth and sat in ashes, putting ashes over their heads.
While this may seem a strange practice to us, it was a common outward sign of repentance in the Old Testament. It represented ridding oneself of adornment or any beautifying measures. It made one look and feel plain and unassuming - humble. And it told all who witnessed this person that they had committed some wrong, some sin, but that they were truly sorry and would turn from that sin.
It was a real and honest sign of repenting. Not to say, “oh look at poor little me!” But rather, “I've really messed up this time but I'm going to try my level best not to let it happen again”. And the greatest statement wearing sackcloth and ashes made was to say, “I'm sorry. Please forgive me.”
The king took it a step further, as seen in verses 7 and 8. He ordered everyone in his kingdom to fast, to cover themselves with sackcloth and ashes and turn from their evil ways. He ordered them all to repent – man, woman, child and beast!
And then what Jonah feared the most came to pass. God took note of their outward signs of repenting and the inward condition of their hearts and saw they had indeed turned from their sins. And He relented and stayed His hand. The Ninevites averted their destruction by their contrite and penitent acts and spirits.
Not all people have taken God as seriously as the Ninevites. During His ministry, Jesus went from city to city, town to town, teaching and preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. And everywhere He went He performed mighty miracles – healing the afflicted, making the lame to walk and the blind to see, even raising the dead back to life.
Many believed, and chose to follow Him. But many more did not, preferring to deride Him, persecute Him, cause Him all kinds of problems. Listen to what Jesus said to those who failed to follow the example of the people of Nineveh, as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 11, verses 20 through 24…
20 Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent: 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. 24 But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.”
--Matthew 11:20-24 (NKJV)
A little later on, Jesus is preaching when some of the Pharisees try to cause problems yet again. Here is how Matthew recorded the exchange, in chapter 12 of his Gospel account, verses 38 through 41…
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”
39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here."
--Matthew 12:38-41 (NKJV)
The church today uses the period of Lent as a time to look into our lives, find those dark areas, and repent – to turn from our sin and not go back to it. We use the time to reflect on everything that Jesus did for us – His suffering, His death, His resurrection, and God’s mercy and grace.
Wearing sackcloth is a lost tradition, but we still observe throwing ashes upon our heads by smearing some into the form of a cross, on our foreheads or the backs of our hands. The ashes are ready for you, but so is the sackcloth, fashioned into small crosses that can be worn around the neck or wrapped around the wrist. Most folks wash off their ashes when they get home so as not to mess anything up, removing the outward sign of their promise to repent. So I’d ask you to consider wearing your little sackcloth cross everyday throughout the Lenten season, what’s left of it, to show your contrite heart. Let others see it and they may ask about it, giving you the opportunity to witness for Christ and to explain why you are repenting and why they should too.
Take up your sackcloth and bear your ashes as outward signs, but do so for the right reason. Let the repentance and atonement they represent on the outside be real and honest and intentional on the inside. God will take note of you are really humble or not. He will see if you truly turn from your sinful ways, and He will be merciful.
Repent, believe, and be saved.
Amen.
Let us pray… God in heaven, look down upon us poor sinners and have mercy on us. We repent, Lord God, of our sin and our evil ways. Help us, please Father, be more like the Ninevites and be truly contrite. Help us to completely turn from our former life and to follow only Your Son Jesus. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
Let us now confess our sins:
Almighty and most merciful Father,
we have erred, and strayed from Thy ways like lost sheep.
We have offended against Thy holy laws.
We have left undone
those things which we ought to have done,
and we have done those things
which we ought not to have done;
and there is no health in us.
Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders.
Spare them, O Lord,
which confess their faults.
Restore them that are penitent,
according to Thy promises declared unto mankind
in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant,
most merciful Father, for His sake,
that I may hereafter live a godly,
righteous, and sober life –
to the glory of Thy holy name.
Amen.
Almighty God, You created us out of the dust of the ground. May these ashes remind us that we are dust and shall return to dust. May they also remind us of the cross of Christ and the great sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf, that through Him we are given everlasting life. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
I felt it really important that we observe Ash Wednesday. We need to understand what it means to truly humble ourselves before our Lord and Master and to repent of our sin. We need to fully comprehend and accept that He can destroy us at any moment, leaving us in our sin if we don’t repent.
The people of Nineveh clothed themselves in sackcloth and threw ashes over their bodies to show God how contrite they were, and so should we. Ash Wednesday is the time we traditionally do just that. But the weather has just not cooperated and now we are nearly three weeks into Lent. So our wearing of ashes now would be a little out of place and not quite as meaningful.
Instead, as the spiritual head of this family, I will symbolically represent us all, our entire Pilgrim Reformed Church family, by putting ashes on my head and covering myself with sackcloth.
I am nothing but dust, and to dust I shall return.
Let us pray… Almighty God, You do not desire the death of sinners, but rather You call us to turn from our wicked ways and live through Your Son, Jesus Christ. Have mercy upon us, O Lord. Forgive our sins not through our own merits but through those of our gracious and loving Master and Savior, Jesus. Strengthen us by the power of the Holy Spirit to turn from our sinful lives according to Your will, and keep us in Your grace that we might have eternal life. In the blessed name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15 (NKJV))
Go now, in sackcloth and ashes. Repent, and believe in the Gospel, and be saved. Amen.
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