March 2
“‘Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.’ Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me,'” John 14:1-6.
According to the ancient church calendar, today is Ash Wednesday. It marks the beginning of the Lenten season. The Lenten season consists of forty days before Easter, not counting the Sundays. In the medieval observance of Lent, penitent Christians, dressed in sackcloth and with bare feet, came to the church on Ash Wednesday. After praying and meditating upon the suffering and death of Jesus, they threw ashes over their heads to show their sorrow for their sins. In the course of time, the Lenten season was established as being a time for fasting. It was a man-made custom. It was not a practice that was commanded by God.
When we meditate upon the suffering and death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, it moves us to sorrow and to joy. When we behold the sorrowing and suffering Savior pouring forth His holy, precious blood on Calvary’s cross, it is not a laughing matter. We see the greatness of our sins and the price that was paid to redeem us. We rejoice in the Gospel message, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin,” 1 John 1:7. We remember the words written by the apostle Peter in his First Epistle, “You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold . . . but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,” 1 Peter 1:18-19.
Jesus had told His disciples at various times that He was the promised Messiah of whom Moses and the Psalmist and all the Old Testament prophets had written. As the day of His death drew near, He reminded them again that He would be betrayed by one of the Twelve, that He would be condemned and crucified. The disciples were very sad to hear it again.
Then He spoke to them those comforting words quoted in the text above: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” To our amazement, Thomas, one of the Twelve, said, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” This emphasizes for us how important it is to keep in contact with the Gospel constantly. Jesus spelled it out so clearly for them and for us: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
We are saved not by anything we do or by any rituals we perform. We are saved solely by God’s grace through faith in Jesus as God’s Son and our only Savior. May the Lenten season be a faith-strengthening time for each of us as we meditate on what Jesus did to save us from sin, death, and the power of the devil.
“Sweet the moments, rich in blessing,
Which before the cross we spend,
Life and health and peace possessing,
From the sinners’ dying Friend.
Here we rest in wonder, viewing,
All our sins on Jesus laid;
Here we see redemption flowing,
From the sacrifice He made.” Amen.