Don't Be Left in the Ash Heap -Revised

Text: Matthew 20:17-28

Title: Don’t Be Left in the Ash Heap

Thesis: Jesus has become our sacrifice for sin

Time:  Ash Wednesday, C

On a Japanese seashore village over a hundred years ago, an earthquake startled the villagers one autumn evening.  But, being accustomed to earthquakes, the villagers soon went back to their activities.  Above the village on a high plain, an old farmer was watching the activities below from his house.  He looked out at the sea, and the water appeared dark and acted strangely, moving against the wind, running away from the land. He knew what that meant.  His one thought was to warn the people of the village.  He called to his grandson, “Bring me a torch, make haste.”  In the fields behind him lay his great crop of rice.  Piled in stacks ready for the market, it was worth a fortune.  The old man hurried out with his torch.  In a moment the stalks were blazing.  Then the big bell pealed from the temple below: “Fire!”  Back from the beach away from the strange sea, up the steep side of the cliff came the people of the village.  They were coming to try to save the crops of their rich neighbor.  He’s mad they said.  As they reached the plain, the old man shouted back at the top of his voice, look! At the edge of the horizon they saw a long, lean, dim line –a line that thickened as they gazed.  That line was the sea, rising like a high wall and coming more swiftly than a kite flies.  Then came a shock, heavier than thunder.  The great swell struck the shore with a weight that sent a shudder through the hills and tore their homes to matchsticks.  It drew back, roaring.  Then it struck again, and again, and yet again.  Once more it struck and ebbed; then it returned to its place.  On the plain no word was spoken.  Then the voice of the old man was heard saying gently, “That is why I set fire to the rice.”  Now, he stood among them almost as poor as the poorest, his wealth was gone- but he had saved 400 lives by the sacrifice.

And there stood Jesus, listening to his disciples argue as to who would be the greatest in heaven.  There stood Jesus telling them in verse 28, “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

Tonight we begin a 40 day period of contemplating what Jesus meant when he said, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”  We recall that Jesus gave his life as a sacrifice for ours, so that we can live no longer in sin, but free of sin.

Just as the farmer with the rice gave a visual reminder to the people below in the village as he set a torch to his crop, so do we have a visual reminder for our faith –the cross.

We tend to take for granted the signs and symbols that guide us.  Even walking from the church parking lot into the sanctuary tonight I was attentive to the signs that led me here.  There were signs for visitor parking, signs for handicap parking, directional signs leading me up the steps, pointing me to the sanctuary.  There is a new sign on the outside door informing me of an upcoming photo directory.  Signs are wonderful because they point, they lead, they direct.  Because of signs we are not left to guess the direction to take, but can get to where we want to go.

So tonight, as we begin this 40 day season of Lent, may our thoughts turn be upon the cross.  For through Christ becoming a ransom for us upon that cross we can get to where we want to go.

In the early days of the church, when new Christians were invited into the fellowship of the church, they were signed with the cross.  They were told that the cross was an invisible tattoo.  Many people in the Roman era wore tattoos symbolizing their occupation.  The occupation of Christians, wearing the emblem of the invisible cross was to follow the way of Jesus, living in service to others.

Another sign we incorporate in our service tonight are ashes.  In the Bible, ashes symbolize being brought low, of the need for repentance.  For example, in 1 Samuel 2:8 we read, “God raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor.”  In the book of Daniel, when Daniel discovers that Jerusalem will be destroyed, he “turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, in sackcloth and ashes.”  And so on Ash Wednesday we place ashes on our foreheads, recalling our need to repent, of our need to depend upon God, and we place them on our foreheads in the shape of a cross, knowing that God raises us up, that through the cross we receive forgiveness. 

What is often prescribed at Lent is to spend more time in prayer, in fasting, in acts of charity to help us to concentrate more upon the cross and our need for God’s healing and forgiveness.  The cross is the antidote that helps us to receive God’s grace, God’s love, healing and forgiveness.

I came across this question, “What causes ulcers?”  The article then continued, “Stress, coffee, spicy food?  Wrong, wrong, wrong, according to Daniel Haney of the Associated Press.  For years that is what doctors presumed caused ulcers, but in the early 1980s two doctors –Barry Marshall and Robin Warren –discovered a bacterium in the lining of the digestive system that they suspected might be the real cause.  The bacterium is called Helicobater pylori.  The proof of Marshall and Warren’s idea was slow in coming, but by the early 1990s –after some two thousand articles had appeared in medical journals on the subject of the bacterium –gastroenterologists agreed with him.  It turns out that half of all U.S. adults are infected with h. pyloir, writes Haney.  Most don’t get ulcers.  But when ulcers do occur, the bug is probably responsible for 80 percent or more.  The only major exception is ulcers triggered by aspirin and some pain killers.  Nevertheless, most people suffering stomach discomfort don’t go first to a gastroenterologist; they go to their family practitioner or general internist.  And news about the real cause of ulcers has been slow to reach them.  Instead of prescribing an antibiotic that would cure the problem, many persist in prescribing acid-blocking drugs that may heal ulcers temporarily, but in time they often come back.  In a similar way, many people get only temporary relief for spiritual and emotional problem. 

If a person has a sin problem, no amount of self-help or technique will completely take away the pain or cure the disease.  The antibiotic is repentance.