Ash Wednesday
Psalm 51
My humble opinion about something as we begin this evening: I’ve never been a big fan of billboards on the highway that say some apparently clever message, and then attribute it to God as if He is some sort of stand up comedian.
“It’s a small world. I know; I made it.”—GOD. Or:
“Life is short. Eternity isn’t.—GOD.
Not my favorite thing—especially when it’s like that; when it’s making up something God didn’t really say, and then sticking His name on it.
Instead, what if we took the portion of our text that I want to focus on this evening and then after it write:—JESUS? So, it would go like this:
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
—JESUS
Might be a little bit shocking to hear that, right? Your immediate reaction might be, “How can those words be attributable to Jesus—the perfect Son of God, the one whose active and passive obedience made Him the perfect substitute for us, this one who in every respect has been tempted as we are [says the writer to the Hebrews], yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15)?” Those words we read are the words of the sinner (and Psalm-writer), David. They’re words we could claim as our own were we to sing them in worship, as our Old Testament era brothers and sisters evidently used to do. That would fit as something we could say. But how could they be Jesus’ words? How could it be appropriate to attribute them to Him like that?
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
You certainly know your transgressions. You’ve seen them in the mirror of God’s Law, of His Ten Commandments. You have looked into that mirror and recognized that you have fallen short of what He has required. The smudge on your forehead is a visual representation of the spoken confession you made this evening.
Remember the pastor’s words: “Do you repent of your sins? Yes? You should repent,” like David who prayed for a contrite heart, like St. Peter who wept bitterly, like the others who are mentioned there.
In your confession from earlier, that, again, is visually represented with the smudged cross on your forehead (that’s why we do it, after all!), you said that because of your sins you justly deserve God’s temporal and eternal punishment. Those aren’t words you say just to take up the time while you’re here in a service; they’re based in real events from your life. They’re based on your transgressions, on your sin that is ever before you.
You have sinned and done what is evil in God’s sight in the impatience you’ve demonstrated toward your neighbor, for instance, and the wicked and mean things you have thought about him as a result. Maybe it was your sibling or your spouse, or someone in line with you at the store, or in another vehicle on the road, another student in your classroom, a co-worker. Your transgressions and your sin were before you then, and they’re ever before you. There’s a lifetime of these things. As our text says, God is justified in His words, blameless in His judgment against you. You sang in the hymn just now:
I also and my sin
Wrought Thy deep affliction;
This indeed the cause hath been
Of Thy crucifixion.
[from Jesus, I Will Ponder Now]
It is right that you contritely in the Psalm beseech the LORD to cast you not away from His presence, to take not His Holy Spirit from you. Were He to do so, you would be in the place of the dammed. You would be where you deserve to be, but certainly not where you’d ever want to be. The smudged cross on your forehead is representative of it. Someone innocent before God would never appropriately wear such a thing. That’s the emblem that is placed on sinners; it’s on ones who could never stand before God and make a winning case for their own lives. That same cross was made on your head and heart at your Baptism.
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
—JESUS
But again… how can we justify such an attribution? How can we look at those words and consider Jesus to be the one saying them? Well, we look into the Holy Scriptures, and digest what it says about our Savior; that’s how.
He’s the one Who had to come to be known for having committed your crimes.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted (Isaiah 53:4).
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us (Gal. 3:13).
So then, it isn’t so far-fetched for Him to be the one saying:
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
He’s the one Who, experiencing the anguish of it all, said in the Garden of Gethsemane:
“My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will (Matt. 26:39).” And:
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me (Matt. 27:46)?”
So then, it isn’t so far-fetched for Him to be the one saying:
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
You’ll be especially expressing this when you sing in the closing hymn this evening:
Thyself to scorn didst offer.
All sins Thou borest for us
He’s the one about Whom it is written:
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand (Isaiah 53:10)
The prophet comments on the end of it all; the glorification of the Christ now having made full satisfaction for all sins, the LORD’s will—of sinners redeemed (Christ’s spiritual offspring).
So then, it isn’t so far-fetched for Him to be the one saying:
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
On this evening on which you wear ashes on your forehead, and on which you might ask, just how serious are my sins anyway? The answer is that saving you required the perfect God’s perfect Son to say on your behalf, I know My transgressions; My sin is ever before Me. They required Him to say to the Father, I have sinned and done what is evil in your sight. He was taking upon Himself what you are. Your sins required Him to become before the Father the justifiable object of His most severe wrath and judgment. Instead of you, He was the one saying, Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
But the Son was cast away from the Father’s presence. He was forsaken. He was turned over to the place of the damned, because where you deserved to be became instead (on your behalf, for your benefit) where He deserved to be.
It was so that you can now stand before God on the Last Day without transgressions and sins before you. It was so that you are considered not to have sinned and done what is evil in His sight. It was so that there aren’t any words of judgment against you. It was so that you are never cast away from the LORD’s presence.
You are forgiven because of what Jesus has suffered for you. The cross on your forehead represents, now, the cross upon which your Savior died for you. You follow your risen LORD, rising from death yourself to receive the joy of His salvation. What sweet music are those words of our text when attributed to Jesus. Amen.