Ash Wednesday, Cycle A

As we ponder the meaning of the season of Lent and the significance we would like for it to have this year for us and for the people with whom we live, we begin with these Ash Wednesday texts.

We see that in Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 and in Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 the emphasis is on appropriate behavior. In Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 the Lord God commands the people to fast, weep, mourn, repent, and return to the Lord. In Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 the guidelines are to help those who are in need, pray, fast, and to store up your treasures in heaven where they will never be lost. It is obvious that for those who selected these texts for use on Ash Wednesday the behavior commanded in these texts from Joel and from Matthew were very important, especially for the season of Lent. They then selected a portion of one of the best known penitential psalms in the Psalter (Psalm 51) to indicate appropriate prayer to accompany appropriate behavior. Finally, the grace of God was brought into this series of texts with the inclusion of the Apostle Paul’s passive imperative verb katallagete (“be reconciled” to God) in 2 Corinthians 5:20 and in Paul’s entreaty in 2 Corinthians 6:1 not to receive the grace of God in vain. The 2 Corinthians reading provides for us, therefore, a very important addition to the appropriate behavior emphasis of the Joel and Matthew texts. The inclusion of the 2 Corinthians 5:20b–6:10 reading suggests that we emphasize the grace of God along with appropriate behavior during Lent each year and perhaps once each three years make it the primary focus.

During the height of the Civil Rights Movement, many of us found in Isaiah 58 a message that resonated very well with us. It was that unless we are actively involved in social justice, in addressing the conditions in which people suffer economic and political oppression, as well as in being engaged in immediate and continued direct assistance to the oppressed, our fasting is no way acceptable to the Lord God. As a result, Isaiah 58:1-12 is now an alternative reading to Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 on Ash Wednesday. This inclusion of Isaiah 58:1-12 brings a very important dimension to our observance of Lent.

2 Corinthians 5:20b–6:10
Let us look more closely, first of all, at Paul’s passive imperative verb katallagete in 2 Corinthians 5:20. From a theological perspective, the passive imperative is one of the most significant grammatical constructions in Indo-European languages. Paul exhorts the followers of Jesus in Corinth and, because his exhortation here is sacred Scripture for us, also exhorts us to be reconciled to God by the grace of God. We believe that God makes this reconciliation possible by means of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ, through the great atonement proclaimed by Paul and elaborated upon by other Christian theologians later.

What, then, is our role in this reconciling action? According to the grammatical construction, we are passive. God in Christ is the active one. We are to be passive, to have this done to us. “Be reconciled to God!” we are told. We can, of course, choose to reject this reconciliation, but Paul urges his readers and hearers to permit it to be done, to be forgiven, to become a new creation in Christ, as described in the 2 Corinthians 5:20a portion that precedes this text. All are strongly urged to accept this grace of God from God and to live in this grace. In 2 Corinthians 6:3-13 and continuing in 7:2-4 Paul claims that he and his co-proclaimers are trying to put no obstacles in anyone’s path. He wants no obstacles of any kind to keep this message of passive reception of the grace of God from anyone who might want to hear it.

Our work, therefore, on Ash Wednesday and throughout the Lenten season, in accordance with this 2 Corinthians 5:20b–6:10 text, is to prevent any and all obstacles from hindering God’s action of reconciling us and others to God through Jesus as the Christ.

Let us look now at the other texts appointed for us for this day in the light of Paul’s admonition to us that we should “Be reconciled to God by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Let us, as Martin Luther insisted, interpret Scripture by the use of Scripture. In this way, we shall be letting the “gospel” — which in the texts chosen for this day is in the “epistle” — shed light on the other texts selected.

Psalm 51:1-17
The portion of Psalm 51 selected here puts emphasis on the penitential prayer. The obstacles to be removed in this instance are the psalmist’s sins (and our sins). These sins are great, but the appeal is that God’s mercy is greater than our sins. From our Christian standpoint, the forgiveness of our sins is accomplished by God through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus perceived as the Christ. We recognize, however, that the Israelites and Jewish people prior to, during, and after the development of Christianity called upon the mercy of God with no reference to Jesus, and we can and should assume that God has been able to forgive them. To assume anything less would be to limit God.

In the portion of Psalm 51 that follows verses 1-13, the psalmist shows an awareness that God does not need burnt offerings and other sacrifices in order to be able to forgive sins. God is interested in our broken and contrite hearts. When our hearts are contrite, the offerings and sacrifices will have value.

Has this changed since the time the psalmist wrote and sang this psalm? Which is the more inclusive concept, atonement or forgiveness? Do we today always require atonement of each other (of our children for example) before we will forgive them? Within our cultural milieu is it possible that an overemphasis on atonement theology places an unnecessary limitation upon God and upon our perception of God?

Atonement theology is useful and valuable within our understanding of God’s grace, but perhaps it should be seen as only one of the ways in which we may perceive God’s action in Christ and in history. Atonement theology was a way in which some of the followers of Jesus after the crucifixion of Jesus saw some very important good that God had brought about after that tragic event. Atonement theology is one of the ways in which we continue as Christians to see the crucifixion of Jesus, but it is only one of the ways in which we understand the crucifixion of Jesus. Considered together with the resurrection of Jesus, we see the action of God as a vindication of Jesus and of his life. God did not prevent the Romans from crucifying Jesus, but we believe that God vindicated Jesus and made the Romans powerless via the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. For more about this, see Hans Küng, On Being a Christian (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1976), pp. 419-436.

Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
This text elaborates on the ideas of Psalm 51 beautifully and even more vividly. Again in relation to this text, let us consider the issues and questions raised above about atonement and forgiveness. Atonement is very important in “classical” Christian theology. There is no subject, however, in which Jews and Muslims are more significantly different from Christians than on the subject of atonement. Jews and Muslims understand and teach that no person, even God, can atone for the sins of someone else. For Jews and for Muslims, each person is totally responsible and accountable for that person’s own sins.

Forgiveness, on the other hand, is very important for Jews and for Muslims, as well as for Christians. We agree within these three religions that we should always seek forgiveness from people whom we have harmed and then also from God, asking God to spare God’s people, as this Joel 2 text indicates.

For more about the understanding among Jews and among Muslims that no one can atone for the sins of someone else, see Hassan Hathout, Reading the Muslim Mind (Plainfield: American Trust, 1995), pp. 33-35, and my Blessed to be a Blessing to Each Other: Jews, Muslims, and Christians as Children of Abraham in the Middle East (Lima, Ohio: Fairway Press, Revised edition, 2010), pp. 51-54.

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
A glance at the Synoptic parallels shows that except for Matthew 6:19-21 the components of this pericope are peculiar to Matthew. We can say, therefore, that the materials in Matthew 6:1-6 and 16-18 are best understood as teachings of the leaders of the Matthean community in Jesus’ name. The positive aspects of these teachings are certainly applicable for us today as Christians. We should help those who are in need, we should pray to God, and we should fast, but we should do none of these in order to be praised. The negative anti-Jewish aspects that condemn the Jews and their leaders in these verses have no positive value.

Isaiah 58:1-12
As indicated above, the inclusion of Isaiah 58:1-12 as a text to be read and reflected upon on Ash Wednesday and throughout the Lenten season brings a very important dimension to our observance of Lent. It reminds us that if want to do something that is truly important during Lent or at any other time, we should help people who are in need, especially those who are oppressed economically, politically, socially, and in any other way. That is what the inspired speaker and writer in this Isaiah tradition text said and apparently did. That is what the Jesus of history said and that is what the Jesus of history did. There can be no doubt about that.

Lent is the season of the Church Year in which we focus in our study and reflection upon the Jesus of history. There are a multitude of texts in the Four Gospels that are evidence of words and actions of the Jesus of history in support of those who were oppressed during that time. There is very little evidence in support of Jesus himself fasting, other than at the beginning of his public service in the Synoptic Gospels, and nothing about his giving up for a few weeks a bad habit that was obviously harmful to himself or to others. If we want to be like Jesus during Lent, or better yet throughout the year and during our entire lives, let us do whatever we can to change systems that rob the oppressed and give excess bounty to the rich, within our own nation and throughout the world.

God’s gifts of life and free will, humankind’s choice of sin and disobedience, humankind’s need for forgiveness and redemption, and God’s gifts of grace and forgiveness, especially through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ who resisted evil and temptation and was obedient to God — these are the great themes of the texts selected for the First Sunday in Lent, Series A.

Except for the specifically Christian solution in Jesus as the Lord and Savior, these are the great themes within all of the major religions that had their origin in the Ancient Near East (Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam, and their various derivatives). It will be well for us, therefore, on the First Sunday in Lent to look at the big picture that shall be elaborated upon during the entire Lenten season and not become bogged down in minor details on this occasion.

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
If we insist that this group of readings contains a record of precisely what happened in terms of actions and conversations between God, Adam and Eve, and the serpent, we shall have some very serious theological problems. We might even have to say that it appears that God set a trap for these young, innocent, idyllic people, Adam and Eve, using the tree of knowledge of good and evil and, with only slight prodding from the clever serpent, Eve and then Adam fell into the trap that God had set for them. Once this had occurred, God had to condemn them to death as God had threatened to do. Since God must know everything, God must have known that they would fall into sin. If God had been certain that they would sin, why did God set them up in a situation such as this? If this group of readings contains a record of precisely what happened, what kind of God is God?

On the other hand, if we have some awareness of the nature of religious language and of the use of storytelling to convey a theological message, differences in genres, life situations, and so on, we can approach the great subject under consideration here in a much different manner. Then we can see that perceptive early Israelites, believing in God as Creator-Redeemer to whom they were accountable, reflected theologically on the human situation as they saw it, and claiming the inspiration of God to validate their explanations, with inspired creativity developed these stories about the first man and the first woman, of good and evil in pristine form, of the serpent, and of their own struggles and mortality. These stories — so familiar to us now that we can practically visualize every detail, even (thanks to movies and videotapes) of a snake crawling in a tree — express the human condition over against God as the early Israelites and their Jahwistic folk tradition perceived it. The stories that they told to their children and grandchildren were expressed so well that even small children could and still can gain understanding from them. Children then and now can perceive it in the form of a fascinating fable in which there is actual fruit and a snake that talks in Hebrew, English, and/or any other language as needed. Adults can recognize in these stories what these early People of God believed about their origins and their present situations. These stories are true, valid, and even historical in the best sense of compressed history, oral and literary gems in the messages that they convey. Then we ask not, “Why did God set such a trap for that poor, simple, young woman Eve?” but “Is this not the way that it is for me today also?” Then we can say, “God permits me to sin, and I sin. I cannot blame God for that. I can, however, thank God that God provides grace and forgiveness, particularly in Jesus as my Lord and Savior.”

Psalm 32
The psalmist begins with a beatitude, “Blessed is the person whose sin is forgiven.” The wicked are contrasted with the righteous and shown to be foolish for not turning to the Lord; they are like a mule, without understanding. The psalmist then demonstrates how reasonable it is to acknowledge one’s sin to the Lord and to receive forgiveness and peace. As an Individual Hymn of Thanksgiving, Psalm 32 is most persuasive; those who hear can hardly fail to respond.

Romans 5:12-19
Paul provides a specifically Christian solution to the problems that we face in our human condition. Unlike Genesis 2 and 3 and unlike Matthew 4:1-11, Paul did not use a vivid story to express his message and to share his good news. Paul used what he considered to be a persuasive, logical argument in comparing the one man Adam who sinned to the one man Jesus Christ who was obedient to God. We note how freely Paul adapted the Genesis 2 and 3 materials in the presentation of his message of good news here and in Philippians 2:1-11. Paul did not blame the woman Eve here for the sin that spread to all people. Therefore, once again on this occasion the gospel is in the epistle!

Matthew 4:1-11
In the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Mark) it is merely stated that Jesus had been driven by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by Satan. The Matthean and the Lukan redactors (and possibly Q traditions before them) chose to go farther to provide a vivid story complete with Satan in human form leading Jesus around and quoting Scripture texts to him. Is there any new religion among those that have their origin in the Ancient Near East in which the primary founder of the religion is not acclaimed as the hero of faith who triumphantly overcame every human temptation? The stories differ in their details, but the stories are always there, and they are helpful to us, especially when we recognize them as stories that have great theological significance for us.

The unifying factor in all of these texts is access to God and to the grace of God. In each text the initiative is said to have been primarily with God. Because God acts with grace, we are expected to react with faith.

Psalm 121
This psalm is almost entirely an expression of faith in the unmerited grace of God. This psalm of trust is excellent for use in the evening before we enter into rest and sleep. It is also appropriate for the morning hour or for the beginning of individual or corporate worship experiences. The theme of divine-human interaction as gospel is more pronounced in this psalm than is the theme of perseverance.

Genesis 12:1-4a
In this well-known text we have the earliest instance sequentially in Genesis of the great four-part promise to the patriarchs. The descendants of Abraham are to be given the land of Canaan, they will be numerous, they will have a great empire, and they will be blessed in order to become a blessing to the tribal groups to be brought into that great empire. Abraham is depicted as obedient to the command and promise of the Lord and is said to have built an altar for the Lord and to have worshiped the Lord in the land. This text remains the initial biblical basis for the Zionist movement, through which God’s gifts of land, peoplehood, blessing, and responsibility come to the Jewish people.

What is the significance of this text for those of us who are Christians? In addition to our recognition of it as the primary basis for Jewish peoplehood and nationhood, we see it as a primary example of God’s graciously given gifts, to which we are expected to respond with faith in God and thanksgiving.

Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
In this text Paul claims the inheritance of the world for the followers of Jesus and for all who share with them in the faith of Abraham their father. Paul, therefore, includes the Jews who base their lives on their attempts to live in accordance with the Torah and are not followers of Jesus. Paul contends, however, that people are descendants of Abraham, not because of their adherence to a written Torah that was not available to Abraham, but because they, like Abraham, believe in God. Their faith in God is the channel by which the grace of God is given to them. Therefore, according to Paul in this text, both Jewish background followers of Jesus and non-Jewish background followers of Jesus — and other descendants of Abraham for that matter — have access to God and to the grace of God through faith rather than through what they may try to do. Although Paul could know nothing about Muslims, based on the stipulations provided here by Paul we can say that Muslims as children of Abraham have access to God also through their faith in God.

John 3:1-17
God took the initiative by giving God’s Son, in permitting the Son to be lifted up on the cross. This was done so that “the world” might be saved through him. Our responsibility, our response, is to believe in God and in the Son of God. God permitted the oppressors to triumph, or to appear to triumph, but through the action of God in raising Jesus from the dead, the power of the oppressors was broken.

It is no different in our time. The oppressors may appear to triumph. Nevertheless, because of the resurrection of Jesus and our own future resurrection, the oppressors can have ultimately no victory over us. This is the liberating message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We today, however, generally want more than the members of the Johannine community wanted at the time the Fourth Gospel was written. We want liberation from oppression now, not only for ourselves, but also for others. We want the end of all oppression, at least of the most blatant forms of oppression. We want this for the world, because we believe that God loves the world so much that God gives God’s only Son to be the Lamb of God who takes away all of the sins and oppressions of the world.

Matthew 17:1-9
(modified slightly from the notes for Transfiguration Sunday above)
This well-known account, which has only minor redactional modifications when compared to the earlier Mark 9:2-10 account, is considered by most Christians to be simply a fascinating record of something that occurred just as it is recorded. Much more, however, than simply a written record of an event is involved here. If this were simply a written record of an important event during the public ministry of Jesus, why does John — who according to this viewpoint wrote the Gospel According to John — have no mention of this astonishing event, even though according to this account he was present for this most astonishing experience on a mountain while Jesus was talking with two men who had died many hundreds of years previously? Why would John not have included this account while Mark, Matthew, and Luke, who are not said to have been present, included it? We must do more, therefore, this coming weekend than merely tell this story of the account of the Transfiguration and ask our hearers to accept it as a marvelous and very unusual event. These Transfiguration accounts are extremely important proclamations about Jesus. They are literally packed full of meanings that we can only begin to perceive.

Let us consider, therefore, these questions: Who is Moses in biblical symbolism? Is not Moses the great personal symbol of the Torah? Who is Elijah in biblical symbolism? Is not Elijah the great personal symbol of the Prophetic Traditions? Do not Moses and Elijah together symbolize the Torah and the Prophetic traditions, the Sacred Scripture for most Jewish people and early followers of Jesus at the time of the writing of the Synoptic Gospels? We see, therefore, that the Transfiguration accounts proclaim that Jesus is in the same league with Moses and Elijah, who talk with him. The alert reader/hearer will recognize the intended proclamation that in these accounts Jesus and his words and work are being validated as on the same level of authority as the Sacred Scriptures — the Torah and the Prophetic Traditions — as they were then known. (The Writings had not been accepted as canonical. The Writings were accepted as canonical by the rabbis at Jamnia in 89-90 CE.)

Jesus as a person and Jesus as a symbol of faith are proclaimed as validated in these Transfiguration accounts by God by means of the impressive “voice from heaven,” by having God say, “Listen to him!” We see also that after the cloud moved away, the disciples are reported to have seen no one there except Jesus. Moses and Elijah (the personal symbols of the Torah and Prophetic Traditions) have faded away. Only Jesus is seen, and the voice of God from heaven has proclaimed Jesus to be God’s beloved Son whom his disciples are commanded to hear. By means of these impressive accounts, Jesus and Jesus’ words and actions are first placed on the same level with the Torah and the Prophetic traditions and then given greater prominence than the earlier sacred authorities.

The people to whom these accounts are proclaimed are told by God in these accounts to give greater authority and prominence to the words and actions of Jesus that are now in written form, first in the Gospel According to Mark and later extended to the other two Synoptic Gospels than to the Torah and the Prophetic Traditions as their primary written authorities. These new documents were not intended to replace the Torah and the Prophetic Traditions entirely. Nevertheless, the Synoptic Gospels are given validation by the Transfiguration of Jesus account in each of them to be considered equal to and then actually more significant in authority than the Torah and the Prophetic Traditions for followers of Jesus.

Within this Lenten season, therefore, let us proclaim that Jesus our Lord and Savior is God’s greatest manifestation of God’s self to us and to the world. Let us listen to him and to his words in written and in oral form in our lives!

The connection between the Exodus 17 and John 4 texts is clearly the concept of life-supporting water in each of them. The mention of Meribah and of Massah in Psalm 95:8 links that psalm to Exodus 17:1-7. The connections between the Romans 5 text and the other three are tenuous. Perhaps an allusion to the concept of life-supporting water in Exodus 17 and John 4 can be made in the use of the reference in Romans 5:5 to the love of God being poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us, or in the emphasis in Romans 5:1-5 on hope.

Psalm 95
This popular Community Hymn of Praise (used in Christian worship as the Venite Exultamus of the traditional Matins) includes a warning against disregarding the ways of the Lord in verses 7b-11. The people of the Lord who live with patient faithfulness shall dwell securely in the land. Those who refuse to heed the ways of the Lord will be rejected.

Exodus 17:1-7
In this text the proof of the presence of the Lord as the people moved through the Sinai Peninsula is given in the use of Moses’ rod to draw forth water from the rock at Horeb so that the Israelites and their cattle would live. The life-sustaining water was given, according to this text, not because the people were faithful to the Lord, but because they complained to Moses and Moses complained to the Lord.

Romans 5:1-11
The gift of God celebrated here in Romans 5:1-11 is more than water from a rock, important as that may be to those who wander in a desert. The gift here is the Holy Spirit and, more specifically, the life and death of Jesus the Christ. Paul wrote that Jesus died for the ungodly, for us while we were sinners. Certainly here the Lenten message is clearly focused.

John 4:5-42
There are some interesting similarities and some interesting differences between the First Lesson (Exodus 17:1-7) and this Gospel text. In Exodus 17:1-7 the proof of the presence of the Lord God with the people is given by means of the use of Moses’ rod to draw forth water from the rock at Horeb so that the Israelites and their cattle would live. In John 4:5-42 the proof of the presence of the Lord (Jesus) with the people is given in the statement of the Johannine Jesus that he is the Messiah who is coming, who will provide the living water so that those who drink of it will never thirst again. The Johannine Jesus as the Messiah who is to come knows all things and shows all things. The Samaritan woman and the many Samaritans from the city respond correctly; they believe in the Johannine Jesus.

By placing these two texts into juxtaposition, those who selected these pericopes intended to bring to our attention the claim of the Johannine community that the Johannine Jesus is greater than Moses. Perhaps the members of the Johannine community also wished to say the Johannine Jesus is greater than the Lord God as the ancient Israelites and as Jews perceived the Lord God, or at least that the Johannine Jesus is the Lord God among us.

It is our task as proclaimers of the Word to apply the message of this John 4 text in our situation, to communicate in some concrete way that Jesus raised from the dead is the Messiah who is coming and will provide for us living water so good that those who drink of it will never thirst again. The most important way we can do this is first to believe it ourselves, then to proclaim we believe it, and finally to demonstrate with our lives that we believe it. The responsibility of the other members of the congregations in which we serve is basically the same as our responsibility in this regard. They too are to believe the gospel in this text, to proclaim it with their lips, and to demonstrate it in their lives.

In order to indicate the essential unity of the message in Exodus 17:1-7 and in John 4, and in order to keep ourselves from falling into the sin of pride thinking we are superior to the Jews, we should note that while John 4 proclaims certain people believed that the Lord Jesus had come, it is proclaimed in Exodus 17:1-7 that the Lord God had come, even though many people did not believe. To proclaim the gospel even when there is no evidence of faith is as great as to proclaim the gospel that has been accepted by faith.

In the Older Testament texts of Psalm 23 and of 1 Samuel 16:1-13 the Lord God overcomes the darkness of the “valley of the shadow of death” and provides hope for all of our days. In the Newer Testament texts of Ephesians 5:8-14 and John 9:1-42 the Lord Jesus overcomes basically the same “darkness” and provides the same “hope.”

Psalm 23
Psalm 23 is certainly for us an effective psalm of hope. When we are confronted by the death of loved ones or by the reality of our own impending death, we turn individually and as the Church corporately to this Israelite song of trust. It may even be accurate to state that Psalm 23 is one of the few texts within the Israelite Scriptures that has greater use among Christians than it has among Jews. For us, of course, the Lord is not only the Lord God as perceived by the ancient Israelites, but also the Lord Jesus, who for us is the “Good Shepherd,” and “all the days of our life” are perceived to include not only life in this time and space, but also eternal life beyond the limits of this time and space.

1 Samuel 16:1-13
According to this text, “the Spirit of the Lord came mightily over David” from the moment Samuel anointed him. The shepherd boy became the chosen one of the shepherd God, the designated king over Israel, the People of God. From grief and despair over the old, disappointing king Saul, the prophet Samuel turns with hope and gladness to the new destined-to-be king, the shepherd lad David. Even so, we also are called to turn from grief and despair to hope and gladness repeatedly during this Lenten season and always.

Ephesians 5:8-14
The non-Jewish background followers of Jesus addressed by the Pauline writer of Ephesians 5:8-14 are told that although they were once blind and in darkness, they now can see with the light of their Lord Jesus the Christ. A source that probably came from some gnosticizing Christian document unknown to us is quoted in Ephesians 5:14 as an indication of how the Christ will shine on these non-Jewish followers of Jesus. They, and we, are admonished to honorable conduct, as is appropriate for children of light.

John 9:1-41
When we are not so heavily distracted by the unnecessary anti-Jewish polemic of this Johannine mini-drama, we see also how we who are “blind” from the day of our birth are to be led by stages into full sight. Like the man in this text, we also are expected to look up, to recognize in Jesus first a prophet, then the Son of man, and finally in the Johannine Jesus fully revealed to us, the divine figure of the Risen Christ to be worshiped. There is no necessity, however, for Jews or for anyone else to be blinded while we do this.

For additional comments on this most elaborate success story of all of the Four Gospel accounts, see Norman A. Beck. Mature Christianity in the 21st Century: The Recognition and Repudiation of the Anti-Jewish Polemic of the New Testament (Expanded and revised edition, New York: Crossroad, 1994), pp. 302-303.