“Return to the Lord, Your God”
Joel 2
Ash Wednesday
March 5, 2014
Our text, the prophet Joel calls out, “Return to the Lord, your God; for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.”
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
We learn from childhood that Ash Wednesday and Lent are about sin. Indeed, we will spend quite a bit of time on the doctrine of sin this Lenten season… it’s a necessary meditation if we are going to understand the sacrifice of Christ rightly.
We also seem to learn from our youth that Ash Wednesday and Lent are about ‘doing something about sin.’ We hear stories all around us – from family, friends, even local fast food chains and the offering of fish on their menus – how people feel compelled to ‘give up’ something for Lent. They give up meat, give up chocolate, give up their favorite hobby… whatever sacrifice it is, we hear of people trying to ‘do something about sin.’
It also seems – upon first glance – that the prophet Joel is
telling us to ‘do something about sin.’ After all, his first word is
“Return,” and that is something you do. If I go one place, I must
return to the original place. If I wander, I must return from where I wandered.
The question is, to where/what are we returning? Are we returning to better morals? Hopefully so (that’s God’s will for you!)…

but does that earn us forgiveness? No. Are we returning to better doctrine? Hopefully so (that’s God’s will for you!)… but does our knowledge earn our forgiveness? No. Are we returning to ‘good works’? Hopefully so (God’s will for you!)… but is there forgiveness therein? No. Are we returning to ‘a stronger faith’? Hopefully so
(God’s will for you!)… but does such equal forgiveness? No.
Joel calls us to ‘Return to the Lord your God.’ And, that sounds quite appealing to us. “Yes,” we say, “Who needs all these good works, all this talk of fasting, all this morality, all this doctrine when we can just ‘return to the Lord.’ Just return to the Lord and that will make everything all better. If I can just say, ‘Okay, Lord, I returned to you,’ then all is forgotten.”
But, let us hear again what Joel says, “Return to the Lord.” He doesn’t say, “Return to the Savior.” He says, “Return to the Lord.”
What’s the difference? Savior implies forgiveness, salvation, grace.
Lord is a word of power, authority, might.
Joel is saying quite clearly that to ‘return to the Lord’ is not a movement of strength. You’re not putting yourself in a ‘better strategic position’ to return to the feet of God Most High. You’re not improving your bargaining power by returning to the throne of the
Almighty. You are returning to grovel, to beg, to throw yourself at
Him and confess that He has every right to destroy you, but you earnestly pray that He do otherwise. As Joel says it later in our text,
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“Repent… for who knows, perhaps the Lord will relent?” Perhaps the
Lord will have mercy on us.
When the Prodigal son of Jesus’ parable returned home, he knew he deserved no mercy. And, you are that prodigal son. The parable isn’t about one who has never been a son. The call to
“return” can’t be made to the one who has never before been at the mercy seat of God. It can only be made to the one who once enjoyed the blessings of life as a child of God, but has transgressed them and therefore Him.
So, Joel cries out “Return to the Lord,” and you know why he calls out. You’re a fugitive with nowhere to run, a conspirator with no secret you can keep. God is all-knowing, all-seeing, ever-present.
What’s the use of running? Return. Meet your Maker. For you are in no position of strength.
And so, we (sinners that we are) return with fear and trepidation. And, because we have so little hope and trust, we convince ourselves that – “If I just start doing the right things, God will notice me, reward me, forgive me.” And so, we return to God with our prayers, our alms, our fasts… and yet, we bring them in order to be seen by Him, to win His favor… or at least, to be seen by others, perhaps win their favor and hope their opinion will matter on the Day of Judgment. It’s all quite desperate and futile… and really, quite pathetic when you think about it, isn’t it? But it well describes us poor miserable sinners.
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You see, there’s nothing that you can do – not fasting, not almsgiving, not even praying or being more moral – none of it will earn your forgiveness. You can’t do good works, it’s no use to put ash on your forehead or to cover yourself in sack-cloth or dark clothing. If such is your hope in doing such things, none of it earns you forgiveness. Good works earn you nothing. Prayers earn you nothing. Ash crosses earn you nothing. (Making / not making the sign of the cross earns you nothing!) Sinful people simply can’t produce anything ‘perfect’ … and it takes the perfect to please the holy God.
But, Joel doesn’t leave us in despair. Instead, when he tells us to “Return to the Lord, your God” he also gives us the reason to do so: “For He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”
But, if this is so, why have I been so afraid of Him? …so hesitant and unwilling to confess my sins and repent of them and desire to do better? It’s because I had lived under the Law, and I had put my hope in it, and rebelled against it when I knew I could not keep it. And so, I made God my enemy and became afraid of Him.
But, as surely as the Lord lives, He lives in grace and mercy, patience and abundance of love. And, how do we know this? Where can we see this? How can we be so sure of this? – the work of Jesus
Christ on the cross. Because Christ died for your sins, God is pleased to be gracious to you. Had Christ not died for your sins, you would only know hell and sadness and eternal suffering; there would be no
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reason to “return to the Lord.” But, because Christ died for your sins,
God is pleased to be merciful to you.
Thus, every meditation on sin – and we will know them well in the weeks to come – every meditation must take this proper line of thought, or else you will despair and die in your sins. Every meditation must begin with the Law’s spotlight on who you are and what comes forth from your sinful mouth and hands; the meditation must then defiantly say, “No, you Holy Law. Do not look upon me, look upon Christ!” and it must push that beaming glare of the Law to the bloody scapegoat upon the cross; and with the glaring light of the Holy Law forever fixed upon that remarkable sight, you may then conclude your meditation in the bosom of the grace and compassion and steadfast love of God.
If you are to attain heaven, every meditation of the divine must begin with your sin and must look to Christ on the cross in order to be able to see the love of God. For, if you do not begin with your sins, then you will convince yourself you no longer need Christ.
And if, having looked on your sins, you refuse to look on Christ, you will convince yourself that perhaps you yourself can please God… and once you experience that there can be no perfectly pleasing the holy God, you will wallow in your misery. And if, having looked on
Christ crucified, you refuse to look to the good and gracious love of
God, you will be unwilling to receive from Him the very shield and
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defense earned upon the cross, that shield that protects you from the Law’s demands against your sin.
Indeed, if you refuse to look upon the love of God, earned for you by Christ Jesus, you will refuse to think on the shield of your baptism. That friends is what you appeal to this night. You return to the Lord your God in baptism won and given you by Christ. For, both you and God know full well that sin cannot be wiped clean by putting ash on your forehead or by making the sign of the cross over you. Sin can’t be washed away with an easy stroke of the hand. Sin requires
God. It requires His attention, His blood… this is why you must return to Him. For only He can deal with sin. Only He in Christ could die for it. Only He in Christ could shield you from it and its guilt… and do so in your baptism.
Baptism… that’s really what Lent is about. It’s about fleeing the sins that seek to tear you from your baptismal identity and returning to baptism’s safety. It’s about fleeing the temptations of the world, the devil, and your sinful nature and returning to the gifts
God has given you for all eternity in that glorious baptism.
So, ‘return to the Lord you God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.’
In the Name of the Father
And of the Son
And of the Holy Spirit.
+ AMEN +
Rev. Mark C. Bestul
Calvary Lutheran Church
March 5, 2014
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