The Bible Binge: A Valentine for Ash Wednesday (Acts 5:30-31)

Introduction

We’re meeting on Valentine’s Day. The day of love. What’s fascinating about Valentine’s Day on Ash Wednesday is that Valetine’s Day began as a commemoration of St. Valentine’s martyrdom. Valentine died because he went against the pope’s wishes and provided secret weddings to soldiers who were forbidden to marry. On this Valentine’s day we remember Valentine who was faced with his own mortality. Dust to dust. Ashes to Ashes.

All of us will be ash soon. That is a given. We are faced with our own mortality. So on this Ash Wednesday, what is it that you want more than anything in the world? What is it that you want today? What is it that you want for this afternoon? What is it that you want for tomorrow? What is it that you want?

Whatever it is that we want, whether it is peace in our home or reconciliation with a loved one, or better health or healing, or simply rest, whatever it is.. we are reminded today that what we want is for our lives our world to be less broken. A lot of what we want is simply respite from our mortality. And we are here because we know that the fix for our brokenness and whatever it is that we want cannot be found inside of ourselves. We are dust to dust, ashes to ashes.

We live in a world that believes forgiveness is conditional. There’s not a lot of grace. Not a lot of forgiveness. There’s no love. If you ever visit social media, you have a lot of talk about repentance. Everybody is screaming about repentance. As if God’s forgiveness is earned. If you want God’s forgiveness, if you want his grace, if you want his love, you have to repent. You have to promise to clean up your act. You have to sincerely renounce whatever it is you are doing. But that’s not how it works. Repentance in order to cause forgiveness, in order to receive forgiveness is nothing more than penance. The Bible, Jesus, isn’t about penance. And telling people to repent doesn’t cause repentance.

Our Bible Binge passage today is Acts 5-7. In Acts 5, the religious leaders are not happy that Jesus’ followers are talking about Jesus and the resurrection and forgiveness of sins. Jesus’ followers are put in jail, but an angel shows up and opens the doors and they all go back to the temple to resume their conversations about Jesus. The religious leaders haul them in again. And this is what Peter tells them:

Acts 5:30–31 “The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had murdered by hanging him on a tree. God exalted this man to his right hand as ruler and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.”

Repentance and forgiveness of sins is a gift. Our Valentine’s day gift from Jesus. Jesus gives us repentance. More than once, the Apostle Paul tells us that it’s God’s kindness leads to repentance. God’s grace brings us to repentance.

So we’re here to receive His gift. In our confession today, with dirt on our foreheads, we confessed our sin. We’ve murdered Jesus. And so what we must want, what we must have is forgiveness. His forgiveness. And Jesus forgave us. Jesus places us in His love and in His grace. In Jesus we have a place of peace in his presence; a place to lay our burdens down; a place to receive forgiveness and be made new.

What a gift! There is never a sin, never a failure, never a death… there is never too much dirt where Jesus doesn’t meet you and take your dirt and give you forgiveness. And life. Which is why when we received the ashes today… it’s in the form of a cross. On the cross, Jesus became ash for us. The cross is a sign for us and for all nations that we have been forgiven. It’s a sign for your neighbor that there’s no dirt so bad, no sin so great, there is nothing that can’t be forgiven. The cross is the only hope for people of ash.

It's not an accident that we are here on Ash Wednesday in Los Fresnos. The Ash. Where ash can be found. Jesus became ash for people of Los Fresnos… the place of ash. On Valentine’s Day.