02/17 (Ash Wednesday) – Genesis 3 – Last Day in the Garden

Grace to you, and peace, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Next to Good Friday, today is the most somber day on the Christian Calendar. Ash Wednesday is the day when we remember that we are dust and to dust we shall return. What does that mean? We are remembering a tragically significant day in human history. A day which brought about the necessity for everything else we will explore throughout this entire season of Lent. The day that created for us a significant problem. The problem is: To dust you shall return.¹

God, when He speaks these words, is addressing Adam immediately after the Fall bringing sin into God’s perfect creation. He is telling Adam all of the consequences of his disobedience. God had warned Adam and Eve if they eat the fruit from that tree they will surely die.² They didn’t obey God. They listened to Satan’s temptation.

From that day death followed. From that day they were dead to God, eternally dead, eternally cut off, just as God said. Adam had been formed by God from the dust of the ground. God’s words, “You are dust,” acknowledged His creation of Adam from the dust of the ground. Then the words “to dust you shall return” acknowledge Adam’s now approaching physical death and decay, returning to the ground from which he came.

You and I are conceived and born facing the same problem. St. Paul writes in Romans 5,

Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.³

That statement made by God to Adam is just as valid and significant when spoken to us: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

A Significant problem! A problem we don’t care to think about. Our own death, the fact that we will one day go back to the earth, it’s not something we like to remember. It makes us uncomfortable. Culturally we avoid remembering that we are dust. From advertising to books to movies, so often the impression is given that life in this world goes on forever, that we are immortal. We convince ourselves that if we don’t think about it, we can somehow avoid it. Many people go through life avoiding that one final earthly reality. God reminds today, “To dust you shall return.”

People who remember that we are dust, are gathered here on this Ash Wednesday to repent of our sin. We confess; we admit before God and one another our sin and our sinfulness. We express our sorrow for those sins. We ask God to forgive our sin. We ask God to help us amend our sinful ways and live a more God-pleasing life.

Psalm 103 informs us that God “knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.⁴” Here’s the good news. In Scripture, whenever God remembers His people, He always acts on behalf of His people, to bless them. Here’s the better news. God had already remembered us before he told Adam, “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” God remembered us before He said, “Let there be light.⁵”⁶

That should remind us of something. Just four verses before God spoke these words to Adam, on that same significant day, God spoke to Satan and assured him that God was going to send One who would crush his head.

Remembering that we are dust, remembering our frailty, God acted on behalf of us. He came here and lived among us Emanuel, Jesus the Holy Christ. He took on Himself all sin and the penalty for it, even death itself. He went into the earth, into the dust of the ground, as He was buried in a tomb. Even more, He endured the penalty of spiritual death there on the cross as He was abandoned by His Father when He cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?⁷”

Just a short time later He would say, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.⁸” and the final punishment for death would strike. Christ our Lord was dead. That should bring us to a somber place… but we don’t stay there. God has shown us when He remembers that we are dust, remembering our frailty, God acts on behalf of us.

Jesus would not remain in the dust of the earth. Scripture prophesies, “You will not allow Your holy One to see decay.⁹” On the third day, Jesus would rise from the dust of the earth, just as He said He would. Because He rose, so will you.¹⁰ On the day when He returns, on that day called the Last Day, you, as a faithful and repentant believer in Jesus Christ, will rise from the dust of the earth with a new glorified body. Bodies that are incorruptible, no longer subject to sin. Bodies that are immortal, no longer subject to death.

That is why we do not simply place ashes on your forehead in any old pattern. We do it in the shape of a cross. Because only in the cross of Christ, and what occurred there, do we have hope and life eternal.

There’s an old expression , “Left in the dust.” You know, like in a race where one runner pulls away from the pack, the announcer might say the runner, “left them in the dust.”

We give thanks to God that He has not “left us in the dust.” He has not abandoned us to our deadly significant problem of death and decay. He has not left us behind. He came here to ensure we would be lifted from the dust of the earth. Just as Jesus rose from the grave, so we, too, will join Him “in a resurrection like His.¹¹”

God will not leave us in the dust.

Amen.

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