Bible Passage: Joel 2:13a
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: February 14, 2024

Bulletin Ash Wednesday 2024

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

In order to understand and apply our text, we need to understand an ancient custom.  Long ago, a person might show deep sorrow or anger by grabbing hold of their robe, or whatever garment they were wearing, and tearing it.  We have many examples of this in the Bible.  We mention only a couple.  When Joseph’s brothers presented Joseph’s blood-stained coat of many colors to their father and told him the lie that Joseph must have been killed by a wild animal, Jacob grabbed his robe and tore it.  He was devastated!  We have an example in the New Testament.  When Jesus stood on trial and he was asked if he was the Christ and he answered in the affirmative, the high priest grabbed hold of his high priestly robe and tore it.  He was outraged! Torn clothes showed deep sorrow or deep anger.

In our text, the Lord tells us not to tear our clothes.  Why?  Is it because the Lord is a fan of fine fabrics and high fashion?  He doesn’t want us to ruin good Egyptian cotton or Merino wool?  No.  It’s because the Lord is more concerned with what is underneath our clothes.  The Lord, as always, cares about the heart.  And so he says, Tear Your Hearts, not Your Clothes.

Why this peculiar command?  Let’s look at the situation at the time of the prophet Joel.  This prophecy is usually dated to around the 8th century B.C.  Joel wrote at a time of outward prosperity but spiritual poverty for God’s people.   There is a repeated and predictable thing that can happen when God’s people are surrounded by comfort and ease, their spiritual life slips.  Religious life becomes mere “motion” and “movement.”  It becomes just a matter of going through certain motions.  Checking the right boxes.  Did you do this and this and this?  “Yup!  Done!”

The Lord sent prophets to jolt his people out of their lethargy, to warn them of coming judgment, to call them back to himself.  And here was the danger!  The danger was that the people would hear the warnings and the call to repent and they would say, “Hmmm.  Repent?  Repent?  What’s that thing people sometimes do when they repent?  Oh yea!”  And they would grab their robe, regret for a moment what they were about to do – “What a shame!  I look really good in this robe!” – and give it a tear.  They could then check the box.  “Repentance…done and done!”  And then go right back to doing all the things God called them to repent of!  That is why the Lord God says in our text, “Tear your hearts!  Not your clothes!”

Friends, there is always the danger that “repentance” becomes merely a matter of ritual, a formality, “checking a box.”  Did I “tear my shirt”?  I suppose it could happen today.  Today is Ash Wednesday.  Today is a day of repentance.  The custom has grown in the church of receiving an ash cross on our foreheads.  But that is just an outward sign, isn’t it?  Just like tearing clothes long ago.  But tearing your shirt isn’t repentantance.  Getting a cross on your forehead isn’t repentantance.  Friends, beneath the torn fabric was a heart.  Beneath the ashes on the forehead is a heart.   And that is what the Lord is interested in!  “Tear your heart, not your clothes!”  Today we might say, “Put ashes on your heart, not on your head!”

True repentance begins with godly sorrow over sin in our heart.  You know how we have a tendency to turn away from ugly things we don’t want to look at?  Repentance means I have to look at something ugly.  The ugly sin in me.  Don’t look away when you see the ugly stuff.  Admit it.  Own to it.  Confess it.   Start with the First Table of God’s Law.  Ask yourself, “Have I loved my God, his name, his Word as I should?”  Ask yourself, “Have I loved my neighbor?  Have I honored my parents?  Have I harmed my neighbor in his body?  Have I loved and honored my spouse?  Have I been pure in thoughts, words, and actions?  Have I coveted or stolen?  Have I damaged my neighbor’s reputation with my talk?”  Don’t tear your shirt about it and call it good.  Tear your heart.  Let your heart be broken.  “With broken heart and contrite sigh, a trembling sinner, Lord, I cry!”

Now listen to your God.  Return to the LORD your God. (v. 13)  There is the essence of repentance!  It is turning from sin and turning to the Lord!  But, you say, “Isn’t that kind of scary?  I mean, God is so big, and strong, and holy, and just!”  He is all of those things.  But you will notice, those are not the attributes of God that are highlighted in our text.  Here is what is highlighted in our text:  He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.

God doesn’t want you to be afraid to turn to him.  He is gracious.  Filled with grace.  He loves “unlovables”!  Unlovables like you and me!  He is compassionate!  God’s own heart breaks when he sees how you suffer because of sin!  He is slow to anger.  He is patient, not wanting anyone to perish, but all to come to repentance.  He abounds in love.  Where sin abounds, grace did much more abound. (Romans 5:20)

 If only there was a way to sum up all of that!  A way to wrap up God’s grace and compassion and patience and abounding love!  There is.  It is the shape of the ashes on your head.  It is the cross.  That is where God directs sinners with torn hearts.  This is where God comes to sinners with broken hearts.  That is one of the beautiful ways the work of Jesus is pictured.  Through Isaiah, Jesus is quoted as saying, He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. (Isaiah 61:1)  We do not need to be afraid to bring Jesus our sins and guilt, a heart torn in two.  He gently bundles and binds and bandages; he puts back together with forgiveness.

Lent is a season of repentance.  It is a season for us to tear our hearts in repentance, and find bandages from Jesus.  But this heart-tearing is not only the stuff of Lent.  It is our life.  Not a day goes by that we do not tear our hearts in repentance, and not a day goes by that Jesus does not bind them up with his forgiveness.

Amen.