February 6, 2008
Ash Wednesday “Why Would You Do That?” Ash Wednesday, the Truth, and Good News
a sermon on John 12.20-36 for Ash Wednesday 2008
by David C. Mauldin Westminster Presbyterian Church, Mobile, Alabama

A Christian was explaining to a colleague about what happens at an Ash Wednesday service. He told how we all line up so that the pastor can mark us with the sign of the cross and remind us we are mortal. His friend was amazed. “Why would you do that?” he asked. “I mean, I’m not trying to offend you or anything, but I don’t get it. It seems morbid to me.” … How would you answer him? I have seen athletes at an awards banquet laugh at their own mistakes on a highlight video. A guy drops the ball, looks like a fool, and the other team scores. The whole team moans and laughs. They won the game. They won the championship. Who cares? It’s funny now. Is that what we are doing here, rejoicing because Christ has conquered death? Not really. That’s more of an Easter thing. Besides, it is one thing to laugh once the suffering is past. Ours is not. We suffer, and our death is still before us. Ash Wednesday is not about minimizing death. It is about facing it squarely. Yet the question persists: Why? Why focus on something so potentially depressing? What we do would be morbid apart from the grace and hope we have through Jesus Christ. If death is just the end, keep it at arms length as long as you can. Make the most of the few precious moments you have because once they are gone, that’s it. But we Christians know better. We can face death honestly and take it seriously because it is not the end. Ash Wednesday is about grace. Perhaps more than any other service of the year, it reminds us of our need for grace. We are mortal. We have limits. We are not holy before God. We need grace in a big way. Of course it is all wallowing in self pity if grace were not available. But it is. Ash Wednesday is not complete in itself. It is not the end of Mardi Gras season. It is the beginning of Lent, which leads to Easter. If we are going to spend Lent trying to get closer to God, it helps to begin with a stark reminder of our need for grace. What is the purpose of Lent? To get a new start with God? To make amends for some of the wrong we have done? To instill new habits of holiness? You can’t do any of those things
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without grace. You want a new heart, right? A heart more in tune with the heart of Christ? Wonderful! But that is not a goal you can achieve, no matter how hard you buckle down and white knuckle it. Instead it is a gift from God, something he does—not something you do. It is grace. Jesus says something arresting in our gospel reading. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Of course he is not making a technical point about agriculture. He draws a profound picture, through which he describes his own death and perhaps a bit more. A single grain of wheat … hold on to it, seal it in a jar and what do you have? Never more than a single grain. But what if you give it up? Bury it? It grows. New life emerges. Something more substantial and abundant takes is place. It is a picture of Jesus’ death. He gave up his life, and for what? To reconcile us to God. To give us eternal life. To save us from the destruction and damnation we bring down upon ourselves. At this point in his ministry, no one understood. His disciples were aghast that he wanted to go to Jerusalem. Didn’t he know that was dangerous? Just a few verses past our scripture reading in John 12, the crowds ask Jesus, “We have heard from the Law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say the Son of Man must be lifted up?” In other words, “What sense does dying make? Isn’t that something to keep at arms length as long as possible? Isn’t death something to be avoided at all costs?” Jesus sees it differently. A single grain of wheat, cast into the earth. Gone. Buried. Yet what a rich harvest follows. His death would be like that. A single death opening to a plethora of life. Thus he pictured for us his death, but this picture speaks a truth about our life as well. What is your life? What is the measure of it? In the end, does your existence matter at all? You might answer, “No, of course I don’t matter. No one does. Nothing does. We are all just the product of time plus chance. Once we are gone, that’s it.” You may think that way, but you can never live that way—not consistently. Deep down you want to matter. You want to be significant. I believe this is because God made you that way. On the other hand, you might answer, “Yes, of course I matter. Everyone does. I am a spiritual being, created in the image of God. I have an inherent significance that transcends time.” To this I reply, maybe … maybe.
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Jesus seems to offer a nuanced answer to the question of human significance. Ask him if your life matters, and he would probably answer, “That depends.” This may not be the answer you want, but I honestly think it is the answer he would give. What is your life? Let’s say you are a grain of wheat. He was talking about his death, but he went on to say, “Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life [hate is hyperbole here] in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me.” In other words, “I am the grain of wheat that falls into the earth, is gone and buried, but yields a great harvest. You must do that too.” So your life is a grain of wheat. What are you going to do with it? Try to save it? Put it in a jar and preserve it? You can’t really do that. It slips away just the same. Or do you give it away? Spend it in service to God and others? Do you relegate your own existence and happiness to secondary status compared to knowing Christ and following him? If you let it go, you will find you have not lost anything at all. God gives you back abundantly more than you thought you lost. Even your death is not the end. Like Christ you will be raised to a new existence far more glorious than the life you know now. It turns out the grain of wheat should not fear falling into the earth. Death is not the end; it is the beginning of something better. What a comforting and empowering thought. I say to you, “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” You know I am telling the truth. But what do you say? If you take Jesus’ teaching to heart, you can say, “Yes, that is true. And therefore I should use the time I have wisely. I should put my hand to the work God has given me. I should do whatever good I can. I should give myself to God.” You can say this because you know your life will not be wasted; it will be invested. The wasted life is the one spent seeking one’s own comfort and pleasure. I say to you, “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” You can say, “I will, but this is not the end. It is only the beginning. By God’s grace—and by his resurrection power—I will live again, eternally.” Behind the image of the grain of wheat lies the conviction that death is not the end. Related to it is the idea that what happens to the grain of wheat happens to us not only in the hour of our death but throughout our lives as we grow toward Christian maturity. We die to self, over and over, a little each day. Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ.” The sinful nature dies, yet something new takes its place. Again Paul, this time writing to the Ephesians: “You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” [4.22-24]. That’s the grain of wheat again. The old
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way of life dies. Up from the soil springs holiness. That’s the message of the grain of wheat for our lives, and it is what Lent is all about. Traditionally Christians gave up something for Lent. It wasn’t a sin. You’re supposed to give sin up all the time. Instead it was something morally neutral but enjoyable, such as eating meat or candy. This giving up of something pleasurable was a symbolic act. It meant you were serious about putting to death the old way of life. These days many Christians take on something during Lent. If they are not regular Bible readers—and you know who you are—they read scripture during Lent. Or they give more. Or they do some special thing for God. In the past, we have had a Lenten study to give people something they can do to cultivate spiritual growth. One thing you can do for God this Lenten season is participate in our Refresh and Renew event at the end of this month. But that’s just one thing. You can think of many more, I am sure. This kind of practice is also symbolic. It points toward the harvest of holiness. The grain of wheat dies, and up from the soil comes something new and better. As we begin Lent and journey toward Easter, remember the grain of wheat—symbol of Jesus’ death, symbol of grace, a reminder that your death is not the end, an encouragement to make your life count, and an image of the kind of life you ought to be living. Lent is a great time to start, or to push harder. You die to sin and self. You come alive to God and holiness. Let me finish by completing an earlier quote from Paul: “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Amen. rev_mauldin@yahoo.com