"For I am determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" I Corinthians 2:2

The scripture readings appointed for Ash Wednesday bring before us our frailty-a frailty that is our because of sin. We are living under that curse that God announced to Adam and Eve in the garden: "From dust you are and to dust you shall return." Indeed the words spoken at the graveside ring true, "earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust." These words remind us that death is not just a part of life, a rhythm of the cycle of nature. Death is God’s judgment on sin. All that comes from the ground will die because God has placed His curse on the ground and everything that comes from it in response to our loss and lack of righteousness. There is no life with God without righteousness. Those words first spoken in the hearing of Adam and Eve hold true for us. From the dust we were taken and to dust we shall, one day, return. Without righteousness we have only death and condemnation.

Where is the path to this righteousness? It is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Drawing on the words of our text from I Corinthians, "For I am determined to nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified," Martin Luther writes, "the cross is our theology." Everything that we know about God is filtered through the lens of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The cross is not just one part of the Christian message. The cross is the message.

On the cross, the righteous One, the one man who was without sin, our Lord Jesus Christ took upon Himself our sin and died in our place. The One who knew no sin was made sin for us that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. That is the paradox that we want to ponder tonight. The sinless Son of God dies the death of crucifixion-a death that He did not deserve so that we who are sinners-people of dust and ashes-might have righteousness and thus life with God.

The Christian life is a life that is lived in the cross of Jesus. The cross is not only our destination; it is the path that we travel. You see, we have been joined to that cross. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul writes "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20). In our baptism we were enfolded into the death of Jesus. That is why Paul writes in Romans 6 "…as many of you who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death."

From beginning to end the Christian life is a life that is lived in the cross of Jesus Christ. When you were baptized the pastor made the sign of the cross on your forehead and over your heart saying "Receive the sign of the holy cross both upon your forehead and upon your heart to mark you as one redeemed by Christ the crucified." And when your life on this earth is finished and your body is placed in the earth, the pastor will once again make the sign of the cross over your remains saying "May God the Father, who created this body, may God the Son who redeemed this body, may God the Holy Spirit, who by Holy Baptism sanctified this body to be his temple, keep these remains to the day of the resurrection of all flesh." The cross of Jesus brackets the life of the Christian. It is there at the beginning and at the end. It is the way of our life in this world of sin and death.

Life for the Christian is a journey in the cross of Christ. It is the path of righteousness that runs through the valley of the shadow of death. You see life in Jesus’ cross does not mean that we will have a life free from pain and disappointment, free from suffering and heartache. In fact these things are the crosses that God lays upon the backs of His children in order to draw us ever more deeply into the cross of Jesus. We do not win salvation by the crosses that we bear. Salvation was secured for once and for all on Good Friday. Instead the crosses that are laid upon us serve to put to death our proud, self-reliance. They kill in us the notion that there is something that we who are but dust and ashes can do to save ourselves. They drive us away from ourselves and our own twisted thinking about God to Christ crucified. They cause us to despair of self and to look for refuge in Jesus’ body and blood given us to eat and drink in the Sacrament.

To journey in the cross of Christ is begin and end with Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Him. And He goes to His Father by way of the cross. He is lifted up on the tree of the cross in shame and humility as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. The world sees the cross as a cruel defeat and a horrendous miscarriage of justice. We know the cross to be the tree of life, the source of salvation, for by His cross, Jesus has redeemed us. With His blood He has paid for our sins. By His wounds we are healed. So we say with the hymn writer:

"On my heart imprint your image,
Blessed Jesus, king of grace,
That life’s riches, cares, and pleasures
Never may your work erase;
Let the clear inscription be:
Jesus crucified for me,
Is my life, my hope’s foundation,
And my glory and salvation!" Amen.