Sin and Sacrifice

This past week we celebrated a holiday that is well known in the liturgical church, but potentially less well known in your more non-denominational churches, Ash Wednesdays. Ash Wednesday is also the start of the season of Lent. Now as some of us may not be familiar with Ash Wednesday or Lent, I feel like it would be appropriate to spend some time this week and in the weeks to come, unpacking some of the fundamentals of the Lenten season.

Lent is a season of facing our sin, emptying ourselves of unnecessary comforts, and directing our desires towards our Savior. The season traditionally begins with a reminder of our sinful state. Gen 3 14-19 describes the state of the world as a result of the fall of Man

Genesis 3:16–19 ESV

To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

In verses 16–19, God explains the curses and consequences of the entrance of sin into the world. We are not without hope, but we cannot rush to an empty hope without recognition of the state that requires it. Childbearing becomes painful (v. 16), the ground becomes harder to work (vv. 17–18), and humans will die, returning to the earth that they were made from (v. 19).

Traditionally, ashes are either sprinkled on congregant’s foreheads or used to make a cross in the same place. This mark is often accompanied with a proclamation coming from this passage: “For dust you are and to dust you will return” (v. 19). It serves as a reminder of sin’s deadly consequences and our fragile and mortal nature. These ashes have also often been made from the palm branches used in the previous year’s Palm Sunday, serving as another reminder of the death and destruction that sin caused to fall over the entire world. Whether you practice this tradition or not, use a small pot of ashes as a physical representation of this reminder.

Lent, not unlike Advent, is a season of anticipation. But to put yourself into a posture of real anticipation requires that you know the stakes. What are you anticipating? What will it do for you? The anticipation a child feels before Christmas isn’t necessarily one of reverent anticipation of the coming Savior. The stakes are pretty low—the quality of presents, the type of cookies baked, the amount of time the family takes reading the Christmas story before gifts can be opened. If Lent is simply a time of anticipating the end of a fast or the chocolates in an Easter basket, then the stakes are pretty low as well. Ash Wednesday reminds us that the stakes are actually incredibly high—life and death.

Ps 14:3 gives us a good account of the state of fallen man in the world

Psalm 14:3 ESV

They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

Author Sharon Hodde Miller wrote that we are all rebelling from God—we’re either rebelling from his law (breaking it) or rebelling from his grace (refusing to accept it). Either way, we need to learn that the law was never intended to function as a standard that we can actually meet, but as Paul says, as a way to reveal our sin.

The longest distance a human has ever swum is close to 140 miles, when a Croatian man swam across the Adriatic Sea from Grado to Riccione, both in Italy

If I asked two people here today to swim double that distance (280 miles), they wouldn’t make it. Their bodies would give out before reaching their destination. It wouldn’t matter who got closer to the 280-mile mark; neither would have accomplished the standard that was set for them. The impossible standard set by the law doesn’t give us the ability to compare or compete; it convicts every one of the same imperfection.

Another purpose of this season of emptying is to empty us of excuses. Romans 3:19 says this

Romans 3:19 ESV

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

See, it gives us a powerful picture of how the law accomplishes this purpose. If you’ve ever used a Bible reading plan that takes you through the entirety of Scripture, you know how tedious those weeks in Leviticus can seem. It’s easy to wonder why all of those stipulations needed to be preserved forever in the text. But here in verse 19, Paul explains that in the face of these detailed laws every mouth is silenced. No one can claim total adherence, and no one can muster up a defense of their actions.

Romans 3:20 ESV

For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Paul uses the Psalms to make a point about the law: it cannot save, it can only reveal sin (v. 20). The same is true of the disciplines and habits that we observe and cultivate during Lent. They do not make us righteous, they only reveal our misplaced hopes and misdirected desires and help redirect our hearts toward the kingdom of God.

Even in a passage that firmly faces us with our sin, like what we saw in Gen 3, there is enough hope to spark the reverent anticipation that should characterize the entire Lenten season. While the woman is cursed with pain in childbirth (v. 16), I want to go back a few verses into verse 14 and 15

Genesis 3:14–15 ESV

The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

verse 15 promises that the woman’s offspring will “crush” the serpent and have final victory. We anticipate the Lenten season full of the knowledge of Sin that Adam and Eve began, but that we have all participated in, and knowing for sure the cost that was required to pay it. Each of us caused the death of our Lord. I say this because it is true, and moving through to Easter without taking the time to reflect on the weight of sin and death is dangerous. We look forward to the celebration of His resurrection, but we first have to recognize the cost that put him on the cross.

Lent just like advent is a time of anticipation. Anticipating the celebration of Christ resurrection that saved and sanctified each of us, but this season I want to encourage you to prepare your hearts and minds not just for the holiday, but to truly recognize and celebrate everything that it means.