17 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”  18 He replied, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My appointed time is near.  I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.’”  19 So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover.  20 When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve.  21 And while they were eating, he said, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me.”  22 They were very sad and began to say to him one after the other, “Surely not I, Lord?”  23 Jesus replied, “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me.  24 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him.  But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man!  It would be better for him if he had not been born.”  25 Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, “Surely not I, Rabbi?”  Jesus answered, “Yes, it is you.”  26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”  27 Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you.  28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.  29 I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom.”  30 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.  31 Then Jesus told them, “This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written: ”‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’  32 But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”  33 Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.”  34 “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”  35 But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.”  And all the other disciples said the same.
- Matthew 26:17-35, The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House) 1984.

In the name of Christ Jesus, dear friends:

Today marks the beginning of the season of Lent.  This evening we also observe what the church calls Ash Wednesday.  Ash Wednesday.  Have you ever wondered where that name came from? Ashes were not common in the Bible already in Old Testament times.  Job sat in ashes when he repented for questioning God’s goodness (Job 42).  When Jonah preached to the great city of Nineveh, the king of the city showed his penitence by trading his royal robes for sackcloth and ashes (Jonah 3).  Even though ashes are mentioned in many different books of the Bible, there is no specific reference to Ash Wednesday anywhere in Scripture, nor does God ever command that people observe it.

Nevertheless, the Christian church has chosen to include Ash Wednesday as an important date on the church calendar.  The tradition goes back at least 1,000 years.  An Anglo-Saxon abbot by the name of Aelfric gives us one of the earliest descriptions of Ash Wednesday in his Lives of the Saints: "We read in the books both in the Old Law and in the New that the men who repented of their sins bestrewed themselves with ashes and clothed their bodies with sackcloth.  Now let us do this little at the beginning of our Lent that we strew ashes upon our heads to signify that we ought to repent of our sins during the Lenten fast."

The application of ashes on the head just described is one of several traditions associated with Ash Wednesday.  Others include fasting and abstaining from certain things throughout the weeks of Lent.  These are fine customs as long as we understand that they are only symbolic.  God is interested in more than outward rites and rituals.  On Ash Wednesday, God is looking for inner repentance, an attitude that comes from the heart.

At its very heart and core, Ash Wednesday is not about what we do for God.  The focus of Ash Wednesday is on what God has done for us.  It is about the love that Jesus shows to loveless sinners.  And tonight we have the privilege to study two examples of Jesus’ wondrous love.  On this Ash Wednesday, we will take a closer look at the events of Thursday of Holy Week. It was on this night that Jesus was betrayed and denied by two of his own disciples, two men who had pledged their allegiance to him, two men that Jesus was supposed to be able to trust.

Yet on the night before he died, Jesus took charge of the situation and showed his wondrous love to his betrayer and denier as he ministered to them with his Word.  On this Ash Wednesday, as we speak and sing of our Savior, we cannot help but exclaim:

What Wondrous Love – In the Upper Room

I.  Where Jesus predicted his betrayal.

II.  Where Jesus predicted his denial.

The fact that Jesus was in this upper room at all proves how wondrous his love really is. He had sent some of his disciples to this room to prepare the Passover meal. Every year for the Passover festival the Jews sacrificed an unblemished, year-old lamb and offered it to their Savior-God. Some 1,400 years before, the Lord had rescued the nation of Israel from slavery in the land of Egypt by "passing over" those homes of the Israelites that had sprinkled the blood of a lamb on their doorposts. The exodus from the land of Egypt led to the crossing of the Red Sea and forty years in the wilderness before they finally entered the Promised Land, where the promised Savior would come to do his saving work.

Now that work was finally at hand. The promised Savior had come. He taught the people about the kingdom of God. He performed mighty miracles. He pointed to himself as the possessor of living water, the kind of water that people could drink and never be thirsty again. He pointed to himself as the Resurrection and the Life, meaning that people who believe in him would never die.

But in order to carry out that work, someone did have to die, and that someone was Jesus.  Two of the people who contributed to his death came from a very unlikely source.  They were two of his disciples: Judas Iscariot and Simon Peter.

Put yourself in Jesus’ shoes as he sat down to eat this very important Passover meal, his last meal with his disciples, where he would institute his New Testament Supper.  Jesus knew that in a few hours he would be giving up his body and pouring out his blood on the cross for the sins of the world.  He also knew that the one who would put that plan in motion was in the same room with him.  Judas had agreed to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.

Jesus had every right to say: "I know what you’re planning to do, Judas, but it won’t work.  I won’t let it work. I’m not going out to the Garden of Gethsemane tonight. I’m going into hiding for while, at least until things cool down. I’ll let the chief priests and elders decide what to do with you when they come to the conclusion that you’ve double-crossed them."

Instead, this is what Jesus did say: "The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born" (24). This is one of those statements that boggles our human minds. Jesus was going to his death. There was no doubt about it.  The Scriptures had predicted that one of his own would betray him. There was no doubt about that either. Yet God holds responsible those who dare to oppose him, even though in his infinite wisdom God knows exactly what they are going to do.

One thing this warning does for us is to bring us to our knees in humble awe.  God loves us so much that he warns us when we are in danger.  In this warning the Lord makes it clear that we need to be on guard so that we do not betray our Lord, no matter how much silver or money or popularity or enjoyment might be dangled in front of us.

Some of Satan’s temptations are subtle, but others can take the form of frontal assaults, shameless attacks to get us to forsake our Lord.  The world says: "Why follow a Savior who has made it clear that he doesn’t love you?  If he does love you, why is your life so difficult?"  "Why follow a Savior who has made it clear that he has no power to help you?  If he is so powerful, why do all these bad things happen in the world around you?"  "Why follow a Savior who has made it clear that the Bible is only a book of words written by men?  If the Bible is God’s Word, why do people, even Christians, keep arguing and fighting over its meaning?"  These temptations may be different, but they all lead us to same conclusion.  It is our right to betray Jesus, to hand him over to the judgments and opinions of reason.

In the midst of the battle between right and wrong, this battle between God’s way and the way of the world, this battle for human souls, Jesus continues to hold out his love to us.  What wondrous love Jesus showed Judas that night when he said to him, "Yes, it is you" (25). In effect, Jesus was saying: "Don’t do it, Judas. I came to live for you and to die for you. I came to show my love for you. I came to give you power to live for me."  What wondrous love in the upper room where Jesus predicted his betrayal.  And what wondrous love we see from Jesus when he predicted his denial.

We now turn our attention to Peter.  Just a few hours later Jesus would turn his face toward Peter in love, right after Peter had done three times the very thing he had promised that he would never do.  Jesus predicted that all the disciples would desert him. This prediction came true when Jesus was captured in the Garden. But the disciples’ desertion was only a part of the agony that Jesus endured.  After Peter made his way to the place where Jesus had been taken, he entered the courtyard of the high priest.

During those hours in the courtyard, it appears that Peter had a case of amnesia, that he had totally forgotten his own bold predictions.  Peter wasn’t content to say that Jesus was wrong.  There was no way that he could ever deny Jesus.  But Peter took it a step further.  He added that he was even prepared to die with Jesus.  This prediction was not the only thing Peter failed to remember.  He must have also forgotten Jesus’ own prediction, the chilling words: "Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times" (34).

When Peter was put to the test that night, he couldn’t even stand up to a young servant girl, much less give up his life for his Lord.  Not surprisingly, Peter did exactly what Jesus said he would do.  What wondrous love that Jesus didn’t draw his sword as Peter did in the Garden.  What wondrous love that Jesus did not lash out in righteous anger against Peter for his arrogance and foolish boasting.  As Jesus’ other disciples watched these events unfold, the situation must have looked out of control.  One of Jesus’ disciples betrayed him.  One of his strongest supporters denied him. But we know that Jesus was the one who was always in control, and he continues to direct the course of history and our lives today.

Isn’t it true that as true God, Jesus knows about everything we have done in the past? And isn’t it true that our omniscient God knows everything that will happen in the future?  And when Jesus looks into the future, what do you think he sees?  Probably some things we don’t even want to think about: our weaknesses, our shortcomings, our secret sins.  These are the kinds of sins cause us to deny our Lord.

Peter is not the only one guilty of denial.  Whenever we sin, we are just as guilty as Peter was.  We may say, "Lord, I belong to you and you alone," but our thoughts often say, "I don’t know the man" (Matthew 26:72).

Thankfully, the similarities do not end there.  Jesus displays the same kind of wondrous love to us as he did to Peter and Judas.  In Romans, Paul wrote: "God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (5:8). The apostle John, who saw so much of this night unfold, wrote in his first letter, "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:10).

This is another one of those things that our minds cannot comprehend. God knows what we are like.  He can see all of our warts and blemishes and defects.  But you know what, God loves us anyway.  In love he calls us to repentance and forgives us.  He holds out his arms and says: "Come back into my loving embrace so I can hold you and keep you safe at my side.  I died for you.  I rose for you.  And I am coming back for you."

A longstanding Christian tradition associated with Ash Wednesday is the imposition of ashes.  During the service, the parishioners come forward and the minister puts ashes on their foreheads.  These ashes are a symbol of repentance, contrition and sorrow over sin.  There is nothing wrong with this time-honored tradition, but we don’t really need ashes on our foreheads to remind us of who we are.

The example of Judas shows us that people, even people who claim to be believers, are capable of terrible things.  The example of Peter reminds us that even the strongest Christian on the outside is weak and vulnerable on the inside.  We are all sinful creatures, people who have no right to stand before a God who demands perfection.

When the pastor puts the ashes on the forehead, he does it in a special way, in the shape of a cross.  That one symbol speaks volumes.  The cross reminds us that that Jesus died in our place.  The cross reminds us that our sins have been removed forever.  The cross reminds us of God’s wondrous love.  Know that love, and show that love throughout this Lenten season.  Amen.