Turning on the car, I hear the familiar sound that is both positive and encouraging. Against the backdrop of other stations, these God-centered, hope-filled songs often come as a welcome alternative.
However, this doesn’t encompass the whole of the Christian life. As we walk through suffering, pain, and loss the barrage of cheeriness often feels more naive and plastic than an anchor of hope to sustain us.
As we walk through suffering, pain, and loss the barrage of cheeriness often feels more naive and plastic than an anchor of hope to sustain us.
Personally, I worry about a mindset that brushes the nasty realities of life under the carpet. Pressure to maintain a cheery face mounts. Anything else may undermine our faith or its witness.
Our public traditions show this shift. We have “celebrations of life” and not funerals. We have lots of feasting, but seldom fasting. Rarely do our songs match the psalms in their full account of human suffering.
The Jesus Who Mourns
All this is good, but it’s one-side of the coin. Certainly Jesus wasn’t this way. He was a “man of sorrows acquainted with grief” (Is 53:3). When his friend Lazarus died, Jesus had a deep anger and wept (Jn. 11:33, 35). Be aware these are his emotions after he’s already announced multiple times that he was going to resurrect him (11:11, 23). Jesus was broken-hearted and enraged about the reality of life as it currently is despite having a better grasp than any of the life to come.
Jesus was broken-hearted and enraged about the reality of life as it currently is despite having a better grasp than any of the life to come.
None know better than Jesus knew the hope and joy of the life of God’s people, yet he was still troubled. He didn’t brush it under the carpet or put on a plastic smile, but grieved.
Immediately after this sequence the Passion narrative begins. While I generally advise against trying to read into the mind of Jesus, I wonder if it was this confrontation with death that helped him undergo the suffering of the cross. His anger at death that helped push him to conquer it.
Why the Church Needs Ash Wednesday
We Live in a Broken World
The Church needs Ash Wednesday to remind us that in a broken world, times of being somber are needed. We can’t out-holy Jesus. As he weeps over death and the ways in which the world is still broken, we need times to do the same. Our witness isn’t enhanced through forced smiles, but the authentic joy that sustains us beneath the tears.
Our witness isn’t enhanced through forced smiles, but the authentic joy that sustains us beneath the tears.
We Live Broken Lives
Not only is the larger world broken but our own lives remain in “bondage to decay” (Rom 8:21). Because we will die, periods of Repentance are needed.
We have a tendency to view repentance as responsive only. As a particular sin comes to our mind or heart we’ll repent (…maybe after a few weeks).
Imagine living in a house and a small fire breaks out. You’d probably rush and scramble to put the fire out. Crisis averted. Good job.
Now imagine it happens every few days or weeks. Who wouldn’t spend time digging under the surface to find where there may be faulty wiring or some underlying problem that causing these outbreaks?
Could it be that we keep having to put out little fires (repentance) because we never take time to enter a period of evaluation.
We are Trained for Hopeful Mourning
Because I find the inability to mourn as the more prevalent problem facing today’s church, this article has focused on it. However, abstaining from grief can often leave us unprepared to deal with tragedy.
Ash Wednesday invites us to a somber experience, but not one without hope (1 Thes 4:13). The imposed ashes reminding of our impending death is drawn as a cross reminding us that it has also been conquered.
Both because death is a reality and a conquered one do people have a response to repent. Without death, there’s no judgment to worry about. Without it being conquered, there’s no hope in repenting.
We neither brush aside death as some triviality nor are we overwhelmed by despair. The Christian can stare death in the face, because even as it currently rages, it has been defeated.
You’re invited to participate in our Ash Wednesday service on Feb 14th, from 6-6:45 in the old Chapel.
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- Why I’m NOT an Inerrantist - June 11, 2020
