Ash Wednesday. It’s a very special day for me personally here with Victory Lutheran. It was actually three years ago. My very first service with you in this pastoral call that I have here was on Ash Wednesday and Ash Wednesday service March 1st, 2022. And. It was a rather in, uh, kind of auspicious way to begin a relationship with the congregation. When I say to you my first words, remember, you are dust. And the dust you shall return. You’ve been gracious. You’ve let me come back these last three years. Thank you for doing that. Uh, it’s kind of been all uphill from then, I hope. And, uh, and while not maybe the warmest kind of introduction, uh, my wife and I are just thrilled to be here as part of the church family here. At Victory. So here we are now for us three years later, our fourth ash Wednesday with you together, and today as we gather for the imposition of ashes on our foreheads eventually leading to the Lord’s table. We mark the beginning now of this Lenin season, a 40 day journey plus Sundays, and we begin, I think, fittingly, remembering our mortality. For Indeed. Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return. It’s a solemn time. You can feel that already in the service. Yes, and we begin now this journey toward the cross of Jesus, and tonight we’re gonna be considering the first of what are called his last words from the cross. And my prayers that our hearts together will be drawn closer. To this profound mystery of a, the creator of the world, our savior, who prays for forgiveness, for those who crucify him. So our text from the scriptures is from Luke chapter 23, and I’ll read these select verses. As the soldiers led Jesus away, they seized Simon from Cyrene who was on his way in from the country and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.
When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there along with the criminals, one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, father, forgive them for they do not know. What they are doing, the gospel of our Lord. Praise to all Christ. Let us pray as we continue. Lord Jesus, we believe you utter those words here on this planet thousands of years ago. Holy Spirit, come now that we may hear them afresh this day and hear these words of grace. From our crucified savior who has now risen and interceding for us, in whose name I pray? Amen. We’ve buried our hallelujah. No more. Hallelujah this season. It’s a solemn time, isn’t it? So receive this blessing from the Lord as I begin. Dear friends, in Christ, grace to you and peace from God our father. And our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Ash Wednesday. It is a somber, but it is a hope filled season. A shadowy time. Yes. And in this journey we remember that we are dust and to dust, we shall return. And so I don’t know if you intentionally came in through the doors here today, but we do come here to acknowledge our frailty. To humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand and to place our hope in the one whose mercy never fails. Never. And the ashes mark our foreheads. They will remind us of our mortality and of our need for repentance. They also point, obviously, to a cross, but to V cross. Christ’s cross the ultimate place. Of forgiveness and of life. And so it’s fitting as we begin this Linton journey to reflect on our savior’s First words from the cross.
Father, forgive them for they do not know what they’re doing. Isn’t it something how the first words from our savior on his cross was a prayer. He is after our, all our great high priests. He’s interceding for us right now before the father. But what is surprising and actually somewhat disturbing is whom he is praying for and what he asks for on their behalf. He prays for their forgiveness for the very people who mocked them, who nearly beat him to death and nailed him up on a tree to die. But I want us to think about this question. Who exactly was the them that Jesus was asking God to forgive? Perhaps more unsettling is the reality that this same them, it just might include you and me tonight as we receive the ashes that mark. Our repentance, and as we move toward the Lord’s table for holy communion, I invite you to consider that the cross, it’s not just some tragic injustice as it might appear from the outside, executed by a handful of evil men, but it’s actually the mysterious will of God and it reveals our own sinfulness because we are confronted with a stunning truth that we are the them. So let’s consider this question. Who crucified Jesus? Well, it’s kind of obvious, isn’t it? It’s the Romans and the Jewish leaders, the them are those soldiers who carried out their crucifixion, and yeah, also those Jewish leaders who orchestrated Jesus arrest and now just standing at his cross mocking and scoffing. And when we listen to our text, we see the physical historical act of crucifixion in its stark detail. Come on. The Roman soldiers with their hammers, their nails, they were under pilot’s authority. The Jewish leaders hurling accusations for fear of losing their own influence, insisting that Jesus was a threat.
Both groups certainly participated in sentencing, an innocent man to die. They carried out the unthinkable, they crucified the son of God and really had, had we been there that day, I think we would’ve pointed our fingers. At them answering that question. It’s those soldiers, it’s those high priests. It’s those pharisees that have crucified ’em. They’re the guilty ones. We would’ve said, look at them driving the nails, scowling at the cross and mocking the savior. And indeed, in one sense, that is the immediate answer to who crucified Jesus. But notice how Jesus meets their brutality. With a prayer he prays for them. He intercedes for the ones who are actively and violently rejecting him. Even now on his cross, Jesus extends an invitation for people to see who he really is to turn and to be forgiven. Come on. This shows that no one. Is beyond the scope of Christ’s heart and his prayer, and this sets the stage for something even more profound, this widening circle of exactly who them includes. It certainly includes the Roman soldiers and the Jewish leaders who crucified Jesus and hang in and out with me. God the Father. This is where the mystery deepens. Scripture tells us that there is a divine purpose, always has been for Jesus crucifixion, a heavenly plan unfolding. The prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament writes yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer. And though the Lord makes. His life, a sin offering. He will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. This verse, it never fails to take my breath away, that it was God’s will God. The father’s plan to send his son to a cross. Yes. Yes, in the fullness of eternity.
Before the foundations of the world were laid, God’s heart was already set on redeeming humanity. We have to know and remember the father and the son, they’re not in conflict here. Jesus himself said this, no one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. So in perfect unity of purpose, the Father and the Son. Choose the cross as a means to reconcile a sinful world to a holy God. And doesn’t this perspective humble us? You see the cross. It’s not merely a tragedy of human evil. It’s a divine rescue mission. For in love, God gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him should never perish, but have everlasting life In the crucifixion, heaven and earth collide, and the justice and mercy of God are simultaneously put on display who crucified Jesus. Now this third point should stop us in our tracks. Who crucified Jesus. We did. We are the them. The final group that crucified Jesus. It’s the most uncomfortable realization that it’s us. It’s you and me. We are the them in the Father. Forgive them. That’s Jesus praying for you on the cross. And no, we might not have wielded a hammer or shouted, crucify him. But the entire reason for the cross, it’s sin and all, including you and me, have sinned. We live in a broken world. We make broken decisions. We harbor hardened hearts. We have all missed the mark of God’s righteousness. And so when you come forward on this Ash Wednesday to receive the imposition of ashes, come acknowledging this re reality, you’re, you’re saying, I carry my sin in my heart and I’m in desperate need of forgiveness. That’s how we come. The ashes, they symbolize not only our mortality, but let them also signify your repentance, where we grieve our own complicity. In a world that rejects God’s ways, the ashes, they’re pressed upon us in the shape of a cross to remind us that Jesus took him upon himself, the penalty of a cross that we deserve, so that we might be reconciled to the Father. Yes, we are the them, but thanks be to God that Jesus stands in our place praying. Father, forgive them. Father forgive you. For you do not know what you are doing because in truth, we often don’t recognize the full weight of our sin. We don’t see how our pride or our apathy, or harsh words or resentments, pound those nails deeper. Let the Holy Spirit open your eyes, and when the spirit convicts and we are brought to the foot of that cross, hear Jesus still praying. Inviting you to fall on his mercy and find forgiveness and life for when we look to that Roman cross on that Friday centuries ago, yes, we see a scene so violent and so unjust that our hearts can almost not bear it.
Jesus, the innocent lamb of God hangs there, but he’s hanging there out of love for us, and he prays these words that echo down the corridors of time through the pages of scripture, father forgive them. The Romans were there literally holding the nails. The Jewish leaders, they were there, spurring it on. The father was there orchestrating redemption, and we. We were there also in our sin, and yet we stand forgiven. Isn’t that the wonder of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ? God’s mercy is so great that Jesus’ prayer on the cross, it overcomes our ignorance, our rebellion, our guilt. So tonight, as you receive the ashes, confess your sins. Hear Christ’s prayer for, for you. Father, forgive this one, and as you partake in holy communion, rejoice that the body and blood of Christ offered freely and of his own will. They are enough for your salvation. And right here, right now, today, you can begin anew. You do not have to remain in guilt or shame because when you turn to Jesus, you find your place with him buried in his death. But also raised in his resurrection. So may you leave here tonight under the sign of the cross on your forehead, forgiven and Freed. And may you go forth from here remembering that yes, you are the them who put him on the cross, but he’s still your savior who loves you, who prays for your forgiveness. And who invites you to everlasting life with him? Let’s join our hearts and prayer merciful God as we are about to bear these ashes. And remember your son’s words from the cross. Grant us the grace to accept your forgiveness in your mercy. Draw us near to the cross where your son’s prayer, it still covers us healing and forgiving every wound we carry. And seal our hearts the hope of Christ’s redeeming love that we may live as those who are forever changed by his grace. In Jesus’ precious name I pray. Amen.
