[Joel 2:12-13] “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.
Happy Lent
A cornered animal – even a kind, fluffy one – will lash out with claws and the gnashing of little, razor sharp teeth, once it feels that it is cornered. Maybe you were just trying to help. But it doesn’t know that. If it’s cornered, it bites and growls.
Now, think back to your catechism days, your confirmation days. If your confirmation days were in the Lutheran Church, you probably – I will assume; but otherwise, here’s your lesson – you probably learned about Law and Gospel.
God comes to us, in the Bible, in His Word, with two kinds of words – His Word of Law and His Word of Gospel. In His Word of Law, God speaks His commandments and His just judgment against sin. God’s Law shows us that we are condemned because we have not kept God’s commandments. The Law speaks as a judge.
The Law also plays out naturally in our lives even without hearing God’s Word of Law. The Law shows itself in the sufferings of this life. The wrecked nature of our bodies. In the natural consequences, or legal consequences, of wrongs you’ve done. The Law shows itself in my conscience – in the guilt I feel. In fear and anxiety.
And, God’s Law shows itself in death – the consequence of man’s fall into sin. God created man for life. After man fell into sin, God said to Him, “Surely you are dust and to dust you shall return.” And death spread to all men because all sinned [Romans 5:12]. When Adam fell, our whole nature fell.
God’s Word of Law, and the effects of the Law, corners us: God’s Law speaks “so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God” [Romans 3:19]. “The Scripture imprisoned everything under sin” [Galatians 3:22].
Why do people lash out? Why are some quick to be angry at God? Why do some react badly against good and wholesome things?
Why – when God’s commandments point out our flaws and shortcomings – why do we get angry? Why does a sermon anger me if its words confront something wrong in me? Why do we respond with self-justifications – “I didn’t do anything wrong!” – or excuses; or re-inventing the history of what we did.
When we react badly against God’s Word of Law, it’s because we’re seeing only God’s Word of Law. We’re trapped. We’re cornered. If there’s no way out, I can only either lash out or seek to justify myself.
Or, as Jesus cautioned us against in our reading from Matthew today, I may respond to the guilt of my sin with a show of hypocrisy. Putting on a show of righteousness to cover my unrighteousness.
The point is this: With only God’s Word of Law – with only His commandments and just judgments against sin – repentance is impossible. How can a person repent if they have nowhere to repent to, no one to flee to?
For repentance to be possible, we must hear God’s Word of Gospel. We must hear of the Savior to whom we can safely flee.
God’s Word of Gospel is His Word of the Forgiveness of your sins. God’s Law puts you on trial, but His Gospel shows up in court and speaks the pardon. Yes, you have done wrong, but you have been pardoned because of the actions of another.
Sin brought death – so you have ashes on your forehead today to remind you that you will go to the dust. But those ashes are in the shape of a cross to remind you of the One who has won your pardon. The One who has died for you.
God’s Word of Gospel shows your Savior. “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” [1 Corinthians 15:21-22]
“For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many… as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness – the cross of Christ – leads to justification and life for all men.” [Romans 5:15-21]
This is the Gospel: That, on the cross, Jesus, the holy Son of God, traded places with sinful mankind – traded places with you – and died in our place. “For our sake He made Him to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” [2 Corinthians 5:21]
Your sin was counted as His. His righteousness is counted as yours. “One has died for all, therefore – as God reckons it – all have died” [2 Corinthians 5:14]. Everyone’s price is paid. Justice is done. Now your death is not death but the beginning of everlasting life.
Lent is a season of repentance. Which makes it a happy season. We are no longer cornered, but can flee to the Lord - “Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster” – Good News and our reason for joy.
The events of this sin-fallen world – the errors and evils of nations; our own or others – also cannot corner us forever. This world matters. Nations matters. Because our neighbors matter – both here and there.
But the world and nations, and all their evils, do end. You-with-God never ends. Your-neighbor-with God never ends.
No matter the world circumstances, let’s repent more seriously and turn more seriously toward the effort of making sure our neighbors know the Savior they have in Jesus Christ through God’s Word of the Gospel. Amen.
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