Ash Wednesday—1st Day of Lent
Dear friends in Christ. The Church is rich in her use of symbolism. People are not machines; we can “make the leap” and connect, for example, the image/ symbol of the lamb with Jesus, the one perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world; when we see the cross or crucifix we are reminded of Jesus suffering and dying for the sins of the world to bring us forgiveness of sin and eternal life—we are reminded of our salvation. These images and symbols affect us. The same also goes for the colors that the Church uses in the various seasons of the Church Year—especially as we see them on the altar. Today on the altar we have black. Black is seen very seldom during the Church Year—only today, Ash Wednesday, and Good Friday. Seeing the black on the altar brings what sort of thoughts and emotions to you?
Of course, black evokes in us a sense of sadness, of mourning and death. Black is really the absence of color. Seeing black being used on Good Friday and today, Ash Wednesday, calls forth a sober reflection on the cost of our redemption—what did it cost God, Christ, to save us from our sins and bring us forgiveness and eternal life? Without Jesus’ sacrifice on Good Friday, the day the sky turned dark and hid the light of the sun, there would be no bright light of Christ and His life and salvation; there would be no new life in Christ for us to enjoy.
And black is very fitting for use today, Ash Wednesday. What is the color of ashes? Black—black which reminds us of death. After the fall into sin, God reminded Adam and Eve [Gn. 3.19], “For you are dust and to dust you shall return.” From that time on, dust, and a special form of dust, ashes, have been used by believers to symbolize death, humility, contrition and repentance. The black on the altar on this first day of Lent points us to blackness of ashes—a reminder of our mortality, that we are sinners and that death is a result of our sin; but let the black also remind us of Christ’s death for our sin, a sign of God’s forgiveness; may it be a sign of our deep sorrow over sin and our faith worked desire to live holy and righteous lives to the glory of Jesus our Savior.
Our text today also points us to colors for Lent, but not the purple that we will see on the altar all during Lent until we come to Good Friday—purple a deep, rich color also one of penitence representing somberness and solemnity, penitence and prayer—but scarlet, red, and white. The Lord says in our text: “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool”. As we examine our text we will see that these too are colors for Lent—the scarlet, red, crimson a picture of the blood-red guilt of our sin; but the white a picture of our holiness and righteousness now in Christ.
1. “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. The scene is a court setting. The Lord is hauling the Israelites before His judgment throne. The Lord is bringing a charge against them and the charge is a few verses before our text [Is 1.2]: Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The charge is that they are guilty of rebelling against Him who in grace and mercy had so richly blessed them; and heaven and earth are God’s witnesses against them; the creation had seen the vital events: how God saved and rescued His people but how they were now rejecting Him and serving sin and self and putting a false veneer of piety.
To be sure, the people were doing the outward work of the covenant—they were offering up sacrifices and prayers—but their hearts were devoid of faith and love of the Lord; they delighted in serving sin and their own evil desires. The people were guilty of a faithless hypocrisy—they may have looked like a pious and godly people but their works and prayers and sacrifices did not flow from faith in and love of the Lord. They claimed to worship God and yet at the same time violated—and didn’t care that they did—God’s holy laws. These very things that God had given the people to point them to His grace and love, to His mercy and to the coming Savior and their salvation, the people were misusing and thought that by merely doing the outward act they were good with God and they could then live any way they wanted to—since, they thought, God was placated by their works of sacrifices, prayers, festivals. But all their sacrifices and prayers didn’t make things easier for them before God’s judgment—it only made it harder, only increasing their guilt.
When the Lord says, Come now, let us reason together, He is saying let us seek a verdict; when we reason together I will show you that you are that sinful people I accused you of being. I will show you, the Lord says, that your sins indeed are scarlet, blood red—that is, that your sins are guilty of punishment.
Here on this first day of Lent, we are confronted with the fact of our own sinfulness and guilt. To all of us together and to each of us individually, the Lord says—especially now in Lent— Come now, let us reason together. Like the Israelites then, we, too, stand guilty before the Lord; each of us rightly stands before God as condemned culprits. Each day, but especially in Lent, let us take the holy Law of God in hand and examine our hearts and lives in light of it. As we Come [and] reason together, we see that indeed God is right! We are sinners. We have and do, daily and often, sin against the Lord in thought, word and deed; by things we do that we shouldn’t have done and by things we should have done that we didn’t do. Here is the great value of Lent’s time of penitential reflection—we see that we are indeed sinners; we see that we rightly deserve to be punished for our sins; we see, especially today right before our eyes—the black reminding us of ashes, and death, the consequence of our sin: For you are dust and to dust you shall return.
We hear—and because we are shown in and convicted by God’s holy Law—we have to agree that our sins are like scarlet [and] they are red like crimson. If we are honest and listen to and not try to drown out or rationalize away the voice of conscience, each of us will have to say my sins are like scarlet [and] they are red like crimson, that is, I’m guilty of sin and my sins earn me nothing but God’s wrath and condemnation. That’s what the scarlet and crimson signify that the Lord here refers to—before Him we are sinners and the wages of sin is death [Rm. 6.23]; we deserve any and all punishment.
The thing is, sin is not a minor thing, a small blemish, something easily removed. It’s not something that is just incidentally part of us. It’s that our sins are red like crimson. What’s significant about that is that it’s not just a rephrasing or other way to say scarlet. Instead, it builds on it. Yes, crimson is a red type color but the word here is specifically referring to the material dyed red. The image here is of this red, this crimson, being the material that is dyed and is now color fast and fixed beyond the possibility of fading. What does this mean? Simply this: we are so corrupted by sin, color fast and unable to fade, that left to ourselves and our own devices all we could do is continue to sin and add to our guilt and our damnation.
This is why daily examination and, Lent in particular, is such a vital thing. It shows us the true seriousness of our sins and that there is no way we can save ourselves from death and damnation; it drives home to us the point that we need a Savior—Christ Jesus. Because of our old sinful nature, because of the devil’s deceptions, we can easily be lulled into thinking that we are not that bad, that our sin is not all that serious a matter. But Lent and our daily examination of ourselves in the mirror of God’s holy law is God’s daily call to us: Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: …your sins are like scarlet… they are red like crimson.
What is the verdict the Israelites in Isaiah’s day rightly expected? What is the verdict that we rightly expect on account of our sins? –That the Lord has every right to reject us; that our sins are most certainly deserving of punishment and death; that we can expect no other verdict and have to confess that we are children of death. We all have the blood red guilt on conscience and that should lead to the black of sorrow and death.
2. What is the Lord’s verdict? We see it in that glorious word, though. Our text: Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. Our sins are that Lent color of blood red of guilt worthy of damnation—that’s a given! That’s the Lord’s verdict: your sins are like scarlet and they are red like crimson! But the Lord’s verdict is preceded by the word though: that is, even though you are guilty and I have every right to reject and condemn you for your sin, I won’t do it but I will heal you instead.
Here is the Lord’s great mercy toward us sinners and that’s what gives us the strength to examine our hearts and lives this Lent. What would be the point of examining our hearts and lives this Lent if it would only pile on more sin, guilt and damnation? But the point of looking for sin in our lives, looking at ourselves in the mirror of God’s holy law, is to find sin to confess so that we may receive forgiveness for sin. We can only do that because God is gracious. Yes, our sins are like scarlet and they are red like crimson–that’s the fact—but the Lord does something with our sin. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. Here’s the other color of Lent—white. White is the color of holiness, righteousness, innocence and justice. Our sins are blood red guilt—but they become the opposite they shall become. God does not regard these serious sins but changes them into pure innocence and righteousness; He turns blood red sins into the brightest, shining white; although our sins are many, they will be as if they don’t exist.
But how/ why can He do this? We are sinners! We are guilty! Yes, But even though we are loaded down with the guilt of sin, God gives us perfect righteousness, holiness. That’s the other thing we remember in Lent—especially as we get toward the end, Holy Week. In pure grace, favor and love God sent His Son to be our Savior from sin—that very Savior we yearn/ long for when we recognize our sin and guilt and damnableness. What did Jesus do to be our Savior? First He, from the very first moment of life in the womb of Mary, placed Himself under God’s holy law and obeyed all of perfectly for us, in our place; giving God that perfect keeping of the Law that He demands of us. Pure holiness and righteousness! Then in love Jesus took my blood red sins and guilt upon Himself, bore them in His body on the cross where He endured all of God’s wrath and punishment over them in place of us. The death and condemnation our blood red sin and guilt have earned us and which we rightly deserve, was endured for us by Jesus on the cross. Now God’s wrath over our sin has been appeased. The white—the perfect holiness and righteousness of Jesus is given to us. In baptism He has clothed us with Himself—His holiness and righteousness. Yes, though we are laden with sin and guilt—though [our] sins are like scarlet and red like crimson—because of Jesus and His saving work they shall be as white as snow and become like wool. What great joy for us! God declares the ungodly/the guilty to be clean, innocent, holy and righteous in His sight.
This Ash Wednesday we meet Lent’s colors—red: our sin and guilt; and white—Jesus’ holiness and righteousness He won for us and now fully and freely gives us. What a glorious motivation for our Lenten repentance—though we are sinners, yet because of Jesus God’s verdict on us is holy, forgiven, righteous! INJ Amen