Ash Wednesday: The Sacrifices of God

Read: Psalm 51:1-17

¹ Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! ³ For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. ⁴ 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. ⁵ Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. ⁶ Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

⁷ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. ⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. ⁹ Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a rightspirit within me. ¹¹ Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. ¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. ¹⁴ Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. ¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

¹⁶ For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. ¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

When we lived in Knoxville, Tennessee, we had a huge hill in our backyard. Wisdom would have paid someone else to cut it, but I liked the challenge and the exercise.

I tried to keep my lines straight, but it was a large yard and often when I’d turn around to go back the other way I’d see how crooked and offline my attempt was. I discovered that if I picked a stationary point in the distance and kept my eyes focused on it, I’d end up with much straighter lines. If I picked a branch or something that moved or if I got distracted and lost focus even for a second, then I’d have a crooked line once again.

Spiritually it can be a challenge to maintain our focus on Christ. It’s easy to get distracted or to lose focus for a bit and before we know it, we’ve wandered off the path we had intended to walk. Lent is a time when we take time to reflect. We take time to examine our lives and see where we’ve wandered so we can refocus and recalibrate and get back on track.

Many churches follow a common calendar that has Bible readings for each day of the year. The readings are divided so over a three-year period the entire Bible is covered, though some passages are read more than once. Psalm 51:1-17, for example, is a reading for Ash Wednesday every year because it is a great example of someone reflecting on his life; seeing where he had wandered from God’s path; and returning to the path through repentance and prayer.

For many people, Lent is all about sacrifice. “What are you giving up for Lent?” is the popular question. While willingly sacrificing something for Jesus during Lent can be an effective way of identifying with his sufferings, often it becomes an end, rather than a means.

The more important questions we need to ask ourselves are, “Where in my life have I wandered from God and gotten off the right path? What are the practices that will enable me to find my way back?” Lent is a season that focuses on drawing closer to God; seeking him with greater intention and intensity; and identifying the places in our life where we have wandered and need to repent.

In Psalm 51:6 David prays, ⁶ Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. God knows us better than we know ourselves. It’s easy for us to deceive ourselves and think we are doing better spiritually than we really are. We need to bravely ask the Holy Spirit to show us the dark places in us; to reveal our true spiritual condition; to help us to discover where we have wandered. We then need to repent and thank God for the grace that allows us to return and start again.

While Lent can be a sobering time as we come face-to-face with our deceitful hearts and our sin, it’s also a hopeful season. We experience God’s steadfast love and his abundant grace and forgiveness. We look forward to the cross and the empty tomb and we recognize that there is power that allows us to pass from death to life. The resurrection power in Jesus is now working in us!

Take time to reflect:

Where are the places in your life that you feel distant from God?

What has distracted you from deepening in your relationship with him?

Take time to consider what you could “give up” or rearrange in your life during Lent in order to create more space for God and more opportunity to deepen in passion for him. Talk to God about it and commit to seeking him in that way.