“FASTING & ASHES”
Saint Matthew 6. 16-21
Ash Wednesday: 6 February Anno Domini 2008
Fr Watson
The Lord says "repent and believe." That isn't just Law; only command, it's also operative reality. The Word gives what it demands. Jesus tells it and it is so. The Word speaks "Light" and the universe exists. The Word speaks redemption in a three-fold Name; handfuls of water, and the infant believes. When He says repent and believe He is addressing the very Believer that the Word; that He; has empowered. Be what you are. And yes, there is always the Law, even for the Christian, since the old-sinful-nature still adheres to each and every Lamb.
When the Christ tells you "moreover, when you fast," He is acknowledging that you as a New Man, New Woman will fast. And you will; you do. Some fast according to the historical tradition of the Western Church. Some fast from meat and wine on Wednesdays and Fridays during Lent. These Christians (including those in our own midst) use these formalized disciplines to better remember, focus, meditate, and remember Jesus' passion and death on their behalf. This is good.
Some Christians fast by "giving something up" for Lent. This too, when done in the spirit of remembering sin and relying solely on Christ's merit and work is also salutary.
Christians are to do good works. You are to obey the second table of the Law. You are to love your neighbor as yourself. How do you love yourself? Hopefully it's simply by doing for yourself those things that allow for food, clothes, lodging, love and home. You should do them for yourself and your families without narcissism and prancing in front of mirrors. This is how you help your neighbor, without appearing like hypocrites; without patting yourselves on the back. You love your neighbor, and you do it sometimes in anonymity if necessary, to avoid the limelight of ego and Phariseeism.
Try fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays; or only Fridays. It can be helpful. Try giving more of your love to those who need it. It can be helpful. Try daily repenting of your daily sins, drowning your old nature. It can be helpful. Do not look at yourself and contemplate your "goodness" or "discipline." That is not helpful but harmful. Look to Jesus the author and finisher of your life.
Jesus made your first parents out of the dust and dirt to be His own special family. He made them with His breath and with His water & Word. After the sin of man Jesus has come in real flesh and real blood to again make man and woman into His Image, in Him. Sinful man who now dies an earthly death, who now reverts back to dust, dirt and ground, is rescued by the Lord Creator and Redeemer.
Jesus lived the perfect life that Adam, Moses, and you don't. Jesus obeyed the Law of loving God perfectly and loving His neighbor as Himself. Jesus loved the Pharisees and He loved you without ever becoming a hypocrite. Jesus prayed in secret from His heart not His ego so that all the times you've been a preening peacock trying to hog the spotlight with your will and ways, have been paid for. For all the times you attempted to lay up treasure for yourself, whether real "treasure" or simply "works, efforts, and self-merits" Jesus became your real buried treasure by dying for your pride, anger, and lust. You need never disfigure your face for Christ had His disfigured by the Jewish mob and Roman executioners. God has laid up the real treasure of forgiveness and life by laying up the treasure of His Son's precious Body and priceless Blood in the tomb of the earth. Jesus laid in dirt, in the dust and ash of hell's fury, so that you are now free in the Gospel to wear ash upon your forehead as a reminder of your sin, yes, but never as a reminder of your work or obedience, but as a badge of His perfect life and work.
When He marks you with His ash, His dirt, He tells you that "it is finished" that He has transformed earth and tomb. He tells you that though for now you remain tied to the earth, you will very soon dance and fly with Him in the New Heavens of eternal Water, Light and Life. Marked now, temporarily for a Lententide, with a mark of repentance and mortality, you are Redeemed by His Blood and His Body, your real treasure, your true heart. He has laid you up for Himself to be His forever.
Fast now, in dust, for soon you will eat and drink God, with God, at the Feast which never ends; clothed in purity.
In the Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost