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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. (Amen.)
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
The words spoken give the meaning to the reminder of the ashes imposed: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). You likely know the background. The Triune God had made humankind in His image, after His likeness (Genesis 1:26), forming the first man of dust from the ground and breathing into his nostrils the breath of life, so that the man became a living creature (Genesis 2:7). But, as we will hear again this coming Sunday in the Old Testament Reading (Genesis 3:1-21), when the man and the woman sinned, they brought death not only upon themselves but also upon the whole human race, with the Lord telling the man as our representative that the man would labor until he returned to the ground from which he was taken, saying “you are dust, and to dust you shall return”. But, that returning to dust is not the end of the matter. The Divinely‑inspired St. Paul writes to the Corinthians and also to us these words:
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
(1 Corinthians 15:44a-49 ESV, with reference to Genesis 2:7)
With that text before us this evening, we direct our thoughts to the theme, “Bearing the image of the man of dust and the Man of Heaven”.
That text comes as St. Paul is writing about the resurrection body, apparently addressing questions from the Corinthians’ about both how the dead are raised and with what kind of body they come (1 Corinthians 15:35-44a). St. Paul explains the need of the old to die in order for tere to be new life, and he contrasts old forms with new forms using four pairs of opposites: perishable/imperishable, dishonor/glory, weakness/power, and natural/spiritual. Then he expands on that last one, the natural/spiritual contrast, as we heard, ultimately assuring Christians, including us, that “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.” To be sure, we should not misunderstand St. Paul, as if he is saying that we will go from looking like sinful Adam to looking like holy Jesus. In these passages, “image” refers less to what we see when we look in a mirror and refers more to our mind and will, which originally reflected such things as God’s wisdom and rule, especially as our mind and will were rightly disposed to God and without any trace of sensuality or propensity toward evil. (For example, Pieper, I:515-526.)
Since humankind’s fall into sin, however, we are hardly rightly disposed to God and without any trace of sensuality or propensity toward evil. Instead, the negatives of those four pairs describe us: perishable, dishonor, weakness, and natural. That which is born of sinful flesh is sinful flesh (confer John 3:6). As descendants of sinful Adam and Eve, we inherit their “image” (Genesis 5:3), and their original sin leads us to commit all kinds of actual sins: thinking, saying, and doing things that we should not, and not thinking, saying, and doing things that we should. If we are honest with ourselves, we know that what God’s Word says about the depth of our corruption is true, and so we also know that we deserve both death here and now and torment in hell for eternity. When God withdraws our souls, then our bodies live no longer. Left to themselves or not, eventually our bodies return first to loose dust and then to compact ground, or earth (Genesis 18:27 LXX). But, that returning to dust, ground, or earth is not the end of the matter. “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.”
Earlier in First Corinthians chapter 15, St. Paul writes, “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:21-22 ESV.) Then, later in Romans, as we will hear again in this Sunday’s Epistle Reading, St. Paul elaborates on that contrast between the man of dust and the Man of Heaven, emphasizing the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness because Jesus died on the cross for everyone’s sins (Romans 5:12-21). The Son of God came from heaven and returned to heaven, but, for us and for our salvation, He assumed into the Godhead a human nature of dust, though without sin. We might think of our frailty’s evoking God’s pity, or of God’s wanting to restore His image in us, but ultimately God the Father’s love is behind His Son Jesus’s death as our substitute and His and eventually our resurrections from the dead. The Father’s and Son’s Holy Spirit leads us to be sorry for our sins and to trust God the Father to forgive us for Jesus’s sake. Such inward repentance might or might not be accompanied by outward signs such as dust and ashes, but when there is such inward repentance, then God forgives us: our sinful nature and all our actual sin. Already now we have God’s peace in the forgiveness of sins, and so already now we can rejoice in Christ.
The two Hebrew words used in the Old Testament that are usually translated “dust” and “ashes” sound similar, are frequently paired together (Job 30:19), and can be used as synonyms in some cases. One of the things unique not to the “dust” but to the “ashes” is their somewhat counterintuitive‑use in the water of cleansing (Numbers 19:1-22; confer Hebrews 9:13), which water in the Old Testament points us forward to the water of Holy Baptism in the New Testament. In Holy Baptism, we are born from above by water and the Spirit, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3:3, 5-6). Our redeemed nature that arises from the baptismal water is being renewed, St. Paul writes to the Colossians and to us, after the image of its creator (Colossians 3:10). Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to His disciples and gives the Holy Spirit to their successors, pastors today, so that they can forgive sins on His behalf in Holy Absolution (John 20:21-23). And, Jesus gives Himself for the life of the world in the Holy Supper; whoever feeds on His flesh and drinks His blood has eternal life, He says, and He will raise him or her up on the Last Day (John 6:33, 57).
God through His Word and Sacraments brings us to repentance and faith, leading us to receive Christ’s righteousness through these same Means of Grace. The image of God is being renewed in us, and so we at least want to think, say, and do the things that we should and to not think, say, and do the things that we should not. We try to keep God’s Commandments in keeping with our callings in life. And, we practice our righteousness privately and genuinely: giving to the needy, praying, and even fasting, as we might do this season of Lent and at other times, for, as the Small Catechism says, fasting and other bodily preparation for the Holy Supper “are certainly fine outward training”. We do not merit God’s favor or become righteous by such practices, but such practices flow out of our being made righteous by God’s favor in Christ Jesus our Lord. We can say that God the Father created our bodies, that God the Son redeemed our bodies, and that God the Holy Spirit sanctifies our bodies, and so, when God withdraws the soul of a Christian from his or her body, we neither by embalming try to slow down the body’s returning to dust nor by cremation try to speed up the body’s becoming ashes, but, trusting the Triune God to keep the remains, we simply commit the body to the ground in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who will change our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body (Lutheran Service Book: Agenda, p.130).
As we have considered this evening, “You are dust, and to dust you shall return”, but that returning to dust is not the end of the matter. “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.” Thanks be to God!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Amen.)
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +