Ash Wednesday, February 6, 2008

During this Lenten Season, starting next Wednesday and continuing through Good Friday, we will be turning our attention to Christ’s seven words from the cross. Those words spoken by our Lord epitomize the somber humility that the Church expresses during these 40 days. As we begin our Lenten journey this Ash Wednesday, we hear words from the early days of our Lord’s ministry.

Jesus says in His Sermon on the Mount, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth . . . but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven . . . For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Christ came to serve. He did not come to establish an earthly kingdom. As He will say to Pontius Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Instead, as we heard from Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians, “For our sake [God] made Him to be sin.” He took our sin upon Himself, became the personification of sin so that the wrath of God could be poured out on Him and not us, “so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Christ becomes the personification of sin. We become the personification of righteousness. But ours is not a righteousness to parade around others and gloat over. During this Lenten Season, we stand in somber humility as we contemplate the cost which Christ our Lord paid “so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

As we contemplate what our Lord has done for us, we see that He departed the glory of heaven and humbled Himself on earth. He did not lay up for Himself treasures on earth, but laid up for Himself treasures in heaven.

You are His most treasured possession. It was for you that He came and bore the burden of sin, became sin for us, and paid the ransom price with His own life -- “so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” Amen.

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