Only the Dead Can Be Resurrected

Text: Matt. 6:1-6, 16-21, Joel 2:12-19, 2 Cor. 5:20b-6:10

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

            “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” You heard that repeated more times that anyone cared to count this evening, as you received the black smudge of ashes in the shape of a cross. Ashes—a sign that something that once was living has died and been broken down into the lowest components of its existence, much like decomposition, much like moldering to dust. It’s a reversal of creation—where Adam was made out of dust, recombined miraculously by the creative all-powerful hand of God, enlivened with the breath of life. But ashes are the reverse—the breath is gone, what was complex and living is now simple and dead. And you have been called that—dust—as the ash was placed upon you: “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

            This is the stark reminder that what happens here is not simply for decoration. It’s not an empty ritual. It’s not done to be seen by others, or at least it should not be. Jesus warns us tonight, “When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others.” If this is why you got ashes, I implore you to clean them off now. But if you have received them, had them imposed upon you, as we call it—the imposition of ashes—in order to be reminded of something important, to have a vital call to the truth, then know this: these ashes are not a decoration. They are a diagnosis.

            The diagnosis is this: You are dead. Remember that you are dust. Are. Present tense. You are dust. You are dead and to dust you shall return. This is not just about some distant future physical death. This is about your spiritual condition. It’s about your ability to save yourself. It’s about what it means to be separated from God by sin. It’s death. God calls to us through the prophet Joel: “Yet even now, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your garments.” That’s the very core of what’s wrong: we need new hearts; for, as Scripture describes it, ours are stone, dead, turned away from the Lord who is life. And it’s not going to be so easy a fix that mere outward deeds can fix them, like rending garments or putting on a good holy show for others. It’s about needing to come back to life. It’s about needing to have the dust that we are reassembled back into the living beings that God always intended us to be.

            It’s not something we like admitting—that our sins lead us to spiritual death. We don’t like thinking of ourselves as being that bad off. Sure, we’re wounded. We’re broken. We’re struggling. Those words give us a little wiggle room that maybe we’re not entirely lost. Maybe we can patch it up and fix it. But dead—that’s an absolute word. Dead people contribute nothing. They can’t fix a single thing or help their condition at all.

            Now don’t be confused—spiritually dead people can still do some things that will impress our fallen senses and reason. That’s what Jesus is warning us about this evening. “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.” Notice that He doesn’t instruct us not to do things like pray and give charitably and fast. No, He tells us not to do them as dead people, not to be seen by others. Don’t do them to justify yourself in the eyes of other sinful humans, let alone to be justified in the eyes of God. Don’t do them to prove to yourself that you’re actually OK, that you’re not so bad off. The Pharisees were remarkably impressive with their outward works. Anyone looking at them would have assumed they were doing well, and certainly doing better than so many others. But what does Jesus call them? Whitewashed tombs, filled with death. In spite of how shiny and impressive they appeared, they were dead inside. And if we would not fall under that same verdict, we would do well to not try to use our works to whitewash the truth that we too are dead.

            Yet it’s all too easy, isn’t it. “Remember you are dust.” “But I go to church as part of my routine.” All well and good, but you are still dust. “Remember you are dust.” “But I give to this and that non-profit. Surely that must count for something.” That charity is good, but it doesn’t change dust into a living being. “Remember you are dust.” “But I’m not as bad as him—I don’t cheat, I don’t steal, I don’t lie. I volunteer. I help people. I follow the rules, even when other people don’t.” Fine—but none of those things that you do can erase what the ashes have declared. Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.

            All of those good things that you do can be impressive. They can be commendable. And remember, Jesus doesn’t tell you to not do them. In fact, these things are expected of us in God’s Law. But a dead person with a long list of deeds is still a dead person. Ashes with a bit of shine are still ashes, still a mark of death.

            Rather, Jesus tells us to fight that instinct to justify ourselves. Don’t do them to be seen by others. Don’t do them to reassure yourself. Tonight, to begin this holy season of deep meditation on our need for Jesus and the life He offers, we’re called to stop performing. Stop justifying. Stop pointing to ourselves and trying to prove that we’re not in so much need and trouble. Let the ashes be what they are. Let your confession be simple and pure: I am by nature sinful and unclean. I have sinned against God in thought, word, and deed, by what I have done and by what I have left undone. I have justly deserved God’s present and eternal punishment. I am dead. My best works cannot resurrect me. I cannot save myself. Have mercy on me, most merciful God, and breathe life back into me.

            This is repentance. It’s not “I did some bad things.” It’s “I am dead in sin. I need complete and total deliverance, mercy, and salvation.” Repentance agrees with the ashes. And that is exactly where we need to be. Because it’s only the dead who can be resurrected.

            That is what Jesus has come to do. St. Paul told us this evening, “For our sake, he made him to be sin who had no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus took your sin. He took your death. In Him was life and the life was the light of men, as St. John declared to us on Christmas Day, and that life died for you. He wore your ashes, the verdict that you are dust, as He went up Calvary to become dust, to become dead, in our place. He exchanged your ashes for His glorious righteousness, clothing you with all that was His and wearing what was yours. He traded His life so that He could have your death.

            And that is why the ashes you receive are in the shape of the cross. Yes, you are dust, but the cross is where your death was taken away. It’s not yours anymore; it’s Jesus’. So St. Paul can now say, “Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” It’s not a long way off, it’s not even tomorrow. It’s not some future date when you’ve gotten yourself together and straightened up. The day of salvation is now. Your ashes are contained in the cross. Jesus has dealt with it there. And while you’re recognizing how deeply you need to be rescued by your God, He’s already there giving you life, breathing His Spirit, His breath into you, so that you’re resurrected and live again. You live in those things that please Him, those things that help your fellow dead men who are also raised to new life by Jesus. That’s where we’re headed this Lent, after all—to Golgotha, to the cross that bears our ashes, to the Life who dies in our place, and to the resurrection that shatters the power of sin, death, and hell. So for the next five weeks we’ll gather to hear about the Lord of life overcoming death through resurrection. Five different dead people, five resurrections, all pointing us toward the resurrection: Christ’s on Easter.

            So first, we acknowledge we are dead. That’s what tonight is for. We begin with death so that we can understand resurrection. And then, seeing it for what it is, we’ll be able to see the life Jesus gives us. Take, eat; take, drink; this is the body and blood of Christ given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins; strengthening you in the true faith in body and soul to life everlasting. Hear the promise of your Savior, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” In the name of Jesus, who is our Resurrection and Life. Amen.