Come home to God
Why is a snake so smart? “Because no one is able to pull its leg.” As the season of Lent begins we can hear the snake hissing its sly temptations and see susceptible human beings reaching to take and to taste what the Lord God had expressly forbidden. “You shall not die,” hissed the serpent. “Yes, you shall,” the Lord God countered: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19).
It’s haunting to imagine the voice of God booming at Adam and Eve as they covered themselves with fig leaves and excuses: “Leave, scram, get out!” And then as God slammed shut Eden’s door, He said: “In sweat you shall eat bread until you return to the ground from which you were taken” (Gen. 3:19). Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust! And ever since that moment when Eve ate them out of house and home God has continued to plead with His children: “You can still come home. Return to me with a broken heart for I am merciful, kind and caring” (Joel 2:12-13).
On Wednesday many people will receive ashes shaped in the form of a cross upon their foreheads to remind them that God formed a second Adam. And this Adam “did not insist on his own way. Even though He was in the form of God, He did not count equality with God as a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:4-8). Listen and you can hear the voice of this second Adam speaking: “it isn’t too late. You can still come home. Return to me with a broken heart for I am merciful, kind and caring” (Joel 2:12-13).
The message of Ash Wednesday may begin with the serpent, ashes, dust and death but they are never the last word. Close your eyes, forget everything for a moment. Forget who is with you, forget the past, your “to-do lists,” forget everyone and everything else, and think about the cross. Think that you are the only sinner in the world and listen, as Jesus speaks from that cross: “I did it for you! Because of your sins, I died so that you might live!” Listen as the voice of Jesus says to you: “come home to me. I love you and I can redeem your dust and “fashion that dust into a glorious body just like mine” (Phil.3:21). Come home to me, and I will make you whole now and for all eternity.