True repentance begins with a contrite heart, and this is expressed outwardly. Throughout the Old Testament, the people of God often used outward signs to express inward sorrow for sin. Once such outward sign was when they clothed themselves in sackcloth and sat in ashes. Jacob did this when he believed that his son Joseph had been devoured by a wild animal. King David and his army wore sackcloth as they mourned the death of Abner. King Hezekiah tore his clothes and put on sackcloth when Jerusalem was surrounded by the Assyrian army. Job sat in ashes. The prophets called Israel to repentance in sackcloth and ashes. Jeremiah instructed the people to roll in ashes and to lament bitterly. All of these actions had one purpose: they were outward expressions of an inward sorrow, grief, and repentance before God.
Another outward sign of an inner sorrow for sin was fasting. King David says in Psalm 35, “I humbled myself with fasting.” Through the prophet Joel, God calls His people: “Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning… consecrate a fast.” Fasting was not about outward show, but about humbling oneself before God in repentance.
Finally, the sacrifices of animals in the Old Testament were an outward sign of repentance and faith. The shedding of blood pointed to the seriousness of sin and to the need for atonement. The offering of an animal sacrifice was meant to flow from a heart that was broken over sin and trusting in God’s mercy.
For us tonight, the custom of placing ashes upon the forehead is an outward expression of a contrite heart. It is an external sign of an inner repentance. The ashes placed in the sign of the cross upon your forehead tonight are not magic. They do not earn forgiveness. They do not remove sin. Rather, they are a visible confession that you are dust and to dust you shall return, and that apart from God’s mercy, you have no hope.
But there is always a danger that the outward act remains, while the inward repentance is missing. It is possible to wear ashes and yet have an unrepentant heart. It is possible to fast and yet remain proud. It is possible to give offerings and yet trust in oneself. It is possible to speak the words of confession and yet not mean them.
Jesus addresses this very problem in our Holy Gospel for this evening. He rebukes the Pharisees who fasted in order to be seen by others. They disfigured their faces to appear holy. Their repentance was a performance. Their sorrow was staged. Their fasting was for the applause of men.
The prophet Joel confronts the same hypocrisy in our Old Testament reading for today where he says, “Rend your heart and not your garments.” In other words, do not merely tear your clothes as a sign of mourning—tear open your heart. Do not pretend to be repentant; be repentant. Do not give God a show; repent of your sin.
Isaiah speaks for the Lord when He rejects empty fasting: “When you fast, you seek your own pleasure.” Jeremiah declares that when the people fast without repentance, God will not hear their cry. King David himself says in Psalm 51 that God does not delight in burnt offerings in themselves. God desires something deeper. He says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).
God will despise hypocrisy. He will despise empty ritual. He will despise repentance that is only skin deep. But He will never despise a broken and contrite heart.
So there is no sense in wearing ashes, in fasting, or in any outward act of repentance if the heart is unrepentant. God cannot be fooled. He sees the heart. He knows what is real and what is not.
And so tonight, the question is: what is in your heart?
If God were to look into your heart—and He does—what would He find? He would find a heart that needs help. Jesus said, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander” (Matt 15). From the heart come pride, envy, lust, anger, bitterness, greed, and selfishness. From the heart come all the sins that separate us from God and from one another.
We have not loved God with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have sinned in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone.
That is why we are here tonight.
We have come on this Ash Wednesday—the beginning of the Lenten season—to rend our hearts and not our garments. We have come to confess our sins before God. We have come to admit that we are guilty. The Law of God has exposed us. It has stripped away our excuses. It has revealed our sin.
And the ashes remind us of another sobering truth: we are mortal. “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Because of sin, death has entered our world, and death comes to all. Every funeral reminds us of this reality. At the committal we hear the words: “earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection.” We will all return to the ground.
And yet, that is not the end of the story. For tonight we also prayed the words of Psalm 51, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” True repentance is not merely sorrow for sin—it is a change of heart. It is a heart that confesses sin and a heart that trusts in God’s forgiveness. It is a heart that turns away from sin and turns toward God in faith.
If we look into our own hearts, we see sin and corruption.
But if we look into the heart of God, what do we see? We see mercy. We see compassion. We see a God who is, as Joel says, “gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.”
God’s greatest act of mercy was shown when He sent His only-begotten Son into the world. There, on the cross of Christ, we see the true heart of God revealed.
The ashes placed upon your forehead tonight are made from the palms of last year’s Palm Sunday. Those palms have been burned to ashes. But the greatest sacrifice is not the burning of palms. The greatest sacrifice is Christ Himself, the Lamb of God without blemish or defect. He offered Himself upon the cross for your sin and for mine.
During this Lenten season we will walk with our Lord to the cross. We will hear of His suffering. We will hear of His betrayal, His arrest, His trial, His scourging, His mockery, and His crucifixion. On Good Friday we will hear of His death and His burial.
He who formed man from the dust of the ground was Himself laid into the dust of the earth.
He bore the full weight of our sin. He endured the wrath of God that we deserved. He cried out in abandonment so that you would never be forsaken.
And because of His sacrifice, because of His death and resurrection, God now speaks to you a word of mercy. He says, “I forgive you.” Because of Christ, God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.
Tonight, we hear the precious Gospel and we receive the body and blood of Christ. God’s Word, His Gospel, and the Lord’s Supper are the treasures of God. These treasures cannot be destroyed by moth or rust. Thieves cannot break in and steal them. Everything in this world will pass away, but the Word of the Lord endures forever. And our Lord Jesus says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
You have come here tonight with a contrite heart, longing for God’s mercy. And where is your treasure? Your treasure is Christ. Your treasure is His cross. Your treasure is His forgiveness. Your treasure is His promise of eternal life. And where your treasure is, there your heart is also.
So you will leave this place tonight not with a condemned heart, but with a healthy heart. Not with a guilty conscience, but with a cleansed conscience. Not because of your works, but because of the grace of God in Christ Jesus.
And now, as we begin these forty days of Lent, we are called to live lives of repentance and faith. How is our repentance expressed? What are the fruits of repentance in our lives? First of all, give to the poor, to the church and to the needy. Also, fast in secret denying the desires of your sinful flesh. Fast as a form of discipline spending more time on the Word of God. Finally, pray individually and with your family. Let your love for your neighbor be the reflection of God’s love for you. Let your forgiveness toward others be the fruit of the forgiveness you have received from Christ. Let everything you do—in word and in deed—reflect a life of repentance, a life of faith, and a life centered in Christ. For the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, God will not despise. Has created within you a clean heart.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
