Hands of the Passion: Ash Wednesday
February 17, 2021
Hands of Repentance (Tax Collector) Luke 18:9-14 Brushing your teeth. Checking your e-mail. Eating your lunch. Opening a door. Picking up a book. Turning a page. What do all of these mundane activities have in common? Besides the fact that they are things people do every day, things that most of us have done already today, they are most often accomplished using our hands. In fact, it would be very difficult for most of us to even imagine performing any of these daily tasks without them. Because hands are such an indispensable part of people’s lives, it should come as no surprise that human hands also figure prominently in the events surrounding our Savior’s suffering and death. That’s why the theme for our midweek Lenten sermons this year is “The Hands of the Passion.” But the hands we will examine in this worship service do not belong to Judas, Caiaphas, Peter, Pilate, or even Jesus. Instead, we will focus our attention on the two men the Lord describes in the Gospel reading that’s appointed for Ash Wednesday from Luke chapter 18(:9-14 EHV), “Jesus told this parable to certain people who trusted in themselves (that they were righteous) and looked down on others: 10‘Two men went up to the temple courts to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector. 11The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week. I give a tenth of all my income.’ 13“However the tax collector stood at a distance and would not even lift his eyes up to heaven, but was beating his chest and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14“I tell you, this man went home justified rather than the other, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.’” The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector is likely familiar to you, but as we study this account again, as we imagine what these men looked like and what their prayers sounded like, I want you to do something you have probably never done before. I want you to picture their hands. I want you to make a connection between the actions of their hands and the attitudes of their hearts. And based on what you see, I want you to apply what you observe to your own life, to appreciate and embrace what it means to have hands of repentance.
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