Ash Wednesday
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
✠ In the name of Jesus ✠
How good are you at keeping good secrets about yourself? When you have information that portrays you in a positive light, how hard is it for you to hold it in? When there is something you want others to see in you and know about you, is it hard to restrain yourself from talking about it? Perhaps it’s a worthy accomplishment, a kind deed, a generous donation.
Your feeling may be that such goodness should be displayed a bit. With all the bad examples out there, certainly a virtuous deed would be of benefit to others if it were publicly known and shared and posted. And so we try to work the conversation in our direction, try to get people to notice the good things we’ve done. Of course we know we shouldn’t be conceited about these things, and so we try to look humble, we act as if we don’t really like all the attention, we play as if we wish people really weren’t talking about us so much. But deep down we’re loving it.
How good are you at keeping good secrets about yourself? That question can help us to examine the nature of our hearts on this Ash Wednesday. For Jesus here speaks a word of judgment against those who love the praise of people. He says they already have their reward, an earthly reward that will pass away.
Jesus says rather, “When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret.” “When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.” “When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret.” So to keep your good deeds secret is to keep them with the Father. And isn’t that enough?
You should do charity and pray and fast without seeking notice because, Jesus says, “Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” To act in this way is to walk by faith and not by sight, to trust that God sees the good things you’ve done and will do with them as He sees fit. It is to do them out of love for God and your neighbor and not for self-serving gain. Do you believe that God sees you? Do you believe that when Christ comes again He will reward you according to His grace?
Hearts that struggle to believe that are constantly tempted to let their strong points show through to others and to make sure their care and commitment get noticed. Just consider how much easier it is to do that than it is confess your sins before others and openly admit your faults–although even that can be turned into an attention-getting device. But would we really want the God who sees in secret to reveal not only our good points but also the things of which we are ashamed? Do we really want all our unknown deeds exposed?
On a larger scale, churches can be tempted in the exact same way to get into the business of self-promotion. In our publicity-conscious, social media age, a church’s visible deeds and programs are often trumpeted as that which matters above all else. Can’t you see what we’re doing? Can’t you tell how active the Holy Spirit is here? Look at the charity! Look at the sacrifice! Look at the praying! Now it is true that Jesus does say in Matthew 5, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” But that’s the key thing isn’t it? Who is going to be glorified, you or God?
On Ash Wednesday God calls us to repent of using religion and spirituality for self-glorification. We are to do acts of mercy; but we are not to parade them around or even notice them ourselves. We are to pray personally and daily to God; but we are not to trumpet the fact that we are saying our prayers. Fasting and bodily preparation are indeed fine outward training, as we say in the catechism; but we aren’t to call attention to our fasting or self-sacrificing. While the self-discipline may do us good, blabbering on and on about the food or the drink or the screen time we’re giving up for Lent will do us bad. To put it simply, God wants us to be good at keeping good secrets about ourselves. For to keep it in secret is to keep it with the Father who is in secret. And if it’s with the Father, then it can’t be destroyed or stolen away; it endures. This is one element of what it means to lay up for yourself treasure in heaven.
Another way of looking at it is to ask yourself who you’re trying to please. Do you live to please people or to please God? Living to please people flows from pride, the desire to be exalted in the eyes of others who will return to the dust. Living to please God, though, flows from humble submission to Him who is eternal, the Most High. It is to desire to have fellowship with Him more than anything else.
And so the Lord says to us in Joel 2, “Repent. Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, with mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments; return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.” And in Isaiah 55 it is written: “Seek the Lord, while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.” Take refuge in God’s abounding grace and mercy and love. For as we prayed earlier in the Psalm, the true sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart God will not despise. Blessed are the poor in spirit, our Lord said, those who have no spiritual merits to trust in, who cling to Him alone to save them, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
It is written in 2 Corinthians, “Now is the day of salvation.” For now the secret things of Christ our Redeemer are being openly proclaimed. God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we may become the righteousness of God in Him. Jesus was counted as our substitute. He exchanged placed with us, so that His perfect fasting and praying and deeds of love would be counted as our own. On the cross He was treated as if He were the unholy one, the one full of sinful self-awareness and pride, so that we would be treated as ones who are righteous and holy. Jesus takes our place so that we get to take Jesus’ place.
This fact is so real and true that Jesus refers to God the Father as “your Father.” Think about that! The only One who can truly call God Father is Jesus, His eternal and only Son. But Jesus here invites you to take His place and to come before the Father as if you were Jesus Himself. For you have been baptized into Christ, who took all your sins away through the shedding of His blood. Therefore all that belongs to Christ belongs to you. You have full access to the Father through Jesus, and all the treasures of heaven are yours in Him. Clinging to Jesus by faith, you are saved from the fatal love of worldly praise and worldly treasures which will pass away, and you are reconciled to God again.
“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” Jesus said. That is not only true for you, it is also true for Him. You are God’s treasure. His heart is with you. You are the focus of His love, love which sacrificed all to win you back through the hidden means of the cross. God also did His good work in secret. Hidden in secret beneath the goriness of the crucifixion is the glory of God and the love of God for you. The Father sees in secret and honors His Son’s work, and He now reveals openly the mystery of the cross through His Word. Through the foolishness of the preaching of Christ crucified, He saves you who believe.
In a moment Jesus will again come to you in the hidden and secret means of the Sacrament. Hidden in, with, and under the bread and wine, He will give to you His own body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins. The Father sees in secret and blesses you here at the altar. Believe in that truth. Believe that the Father sees you and knows you and that He will give you the reward of Christ on the Last Day.
✠ In the name of Jesus ✠
(With thanks to the Rev. Kenneth Wieting for some of the above)