“The King’s Wisdom” Mount Olive Lutheran Church Sermon Ash Wednesday February 14th 2024 - Matthew 6:1–6, 16–21

Mount Olive Lutheran Church / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Wednesday February 14th 2024: Ash Wednesday, Season of Lent / Matthew 6:1–6, 16–21 “The King’s Wisdom”

Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. . . .

And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight O Lord. Amen.

Grace peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Good Christian Friends. His throne was made of ivory, and overlaid with the finest gold. The six steps leading up to his great throne each had carved lions on both sides. At the back of the throne was a calf’s head, a symbol of kingly might. The armrests were elaborate, and his footstool was made of gold. Wise King Solomon truly built himself a glorious throne.[1]

But as magnificent as his throne was, the one who sat on it was even more impressive. This king of the Jews was truly a king of glory, but nothing was more golden than what came from his lips. When God allowed the young king to ask Him for anything, Solomon didn’t ask for riches, or a long life, or victory over his enemies. He asked for wisdom to rule God’s people, and God was pleased.[2] The Queen of Sheba came 1,200 miles to test Solomon’s wisdom with hard questions, and the answers that came from his lips left her breathless.[3] This was the king who opened his lips and spoke 3,000 Proverbs.[4]

Yet, all that glory couldn’t stop Solomon’s life from coming to an inglorious end. All that glory couldn’t deal with an inglorious heart, a heart that was increasingly turning itself away from the Word of the Lord in Solomon’s actions. So while his lips still poured forth wisdom, the way he lived made him no more than a hypocrite. “Rejoice in the wife of your youth,” is what Solomon taught his sons in his old age,[5] while in his youth Solomon ‘rejoiced’ in over 700 wives.[6] “How much better to get wisdom than gold,” Solomon taught,[7] while his greedy royal hands grasped for himself as much gold as he could gather. “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” he taught,[8] but lived as though he feared everything but the Lord. A royal hypocrite, indeed.

Consider this Ash Wednesday what a royal hypocrite you’ve been. It’s the reason you recognized yourself in today’s Gospel as Jesus spoke against the way of those religious show-offs, the Pharisees. When you’re honest with yourself and with God you can see that you’ve done your share of posing for the camera too, these days it's called "virtue signalling." Sure, you’ve never sounded a trumpet while giving to the needy like the Pharisees did, but you’ve been known to toot your own horn to others from time to time, lest your “sacrificial” giving not be noticed and acknowledged. You’ve certainly never stood on the street corners and prayed to be seen like the Pharisees did, but how often have you stood there and lied, telling people that you were praying for them, and you weren’t? [thoughts and prayers] And when you fast, you certainly don’t disfigure your faces to be seen like the Pharisees. Yet, you’ll never be content to keep your fasting between you and your heavenly Father alone.

Repent. Today, like every day, is a day to repent, to turn away from your sins and pious self-flattery and turn to the Lord.  King Solomon and the Pharisees aren’t the only hypocrites. There’s a reason for that mark of mortality on your forehead. There’s a reason those words that were first spoken to Adam were spoken into your ears this night: “For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”[9] The reason is that inglorious, show-off heart of yours that’s always seeking a public “pat on the back.” With a glory-seeking heart like yours, you’ll never be content with being seen by the only eyes that matter—the eyes of your Father in heaven. So why should the Father—seeing what a phony you can be—reward you?

There could be only one reason: because your Father, who sees what comes forth from that inglorious heart of yours, has eyes of mercy towards you, yes “He is gracious and merciful and abounding in steadfast love,”[10] and He loves giving rewards to those who confess their unworthiness. He remembers that you are dust, and to dust you shall return, but above all He remembers His mercy and His promise to rescue sinners. He sees that wretched state of yours and sends you a king wiser than Solomon to help you: a Greater Solomon. The King of kings in fact, whose throne in heaven would have made Solomon’s throne look like a rickety old wooden folding chair. Yes the Word of God, the eternal Son of the Father left His heavenly throne to take on your flesh and blood and rescue you. The World wouldn’t see leaving such a throne as wisdom on His part; do you see the wisdom in it?

In our Gospel reading tonight it’s that King named Jesus who is seated on that green, grassy mountain teaching. His proper place is that imperishable gem encrusted golden heavenly throne beyond our imagination at His Father’s right hand, but here we find Him seated, teaching with authority, pouring out the gold of His Word from His pure heart on a perishable mountaintop of earth, grass and stone. There He sits with no splendor, His arms pointing in the open air and His feet resting on dirt. There He is, not surrounded by twelve carved lions, but by twelve flesh-and-blood sinners whom He considers His sheep and has chosen to instruct them about a Kingdom that can’t be earned, only received by faith in Him.

But this King not only talked the talk, He walked the walk. His body, mind and heart were equally pure and without sin, He was no hypocrite like you and me. For you He left this green grassy mountainside for another mountain, an ugly one outside of Jerusalem called “Golgotha.” What drove Him there was His unspeakable love for you and for His Father. On the way there, He blew no trumpet, His generous left hand and His generous right hand had always been ready to help the needy in body and soul, until those hands were stretched out and pounded onto a cross, to heal your sinful hands. Even though He was God in the flesh, He didn’t stand on the street corners and impress people with His prayers; No Jesus was content to continually leave the crowds to pray alone to His Father in heaven, that His faithful prayer life might be credited to you and not to Himself. This was a King who was willing to be driven out to the wilderness alone to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights with no one knowing what He lacked but the Father, and the devil that tempted Him. His triumph wasn’t for Himself; His victory over temptation was for you: His emaciated face earned nothing for Himself that He didn’t already posses from His Father, His victory over the temptations of the flesh was for you, the gift of radiance that can never be blackened.

This King is different from all other kings. While wise King Solomon built an a grand earthly throne for himself and his own glory, this King did no such thing. He was content with the humbled earthly throne that His Father prepared for Him. It wasn’t a throne made of ivory and overlaid with the finest gold. It was hewn of rough wood, to be covered with the finest blood—the blood of God. It didn’t have an impressive backrest, or armrest or a golden footrest. His throne was an ugly, wooden cross; for He came to die an inglorious death for inglorious sinners. To that ugly throne He dragged all our collective phoniness and mistrust so that He might triumph over it in His death and resurrection and seat you with Him at God’s right hand in glory.

And that’s just the king we needed: a crucified King. God’s Wisdom in the flesh: The Father’s great reward for you. The King with the perfect heart, who by His precious blood has canceled the debt of all your sins and given you entrance into an eternal Kingdom you could never earn or merit. The King, whose glory is not found in might, or the earthly gems and gold of this world, or in many wives, but in being a faithful husband to one wife, His beloved Church, and you in it as part of it, whom He has absolved and adorned with true magnificence.

Dear ones ponder those golden magnificent words of the King that are spoken for your ear to hear and your heart to grab hold of in the Holy Absolution: “I forgive you all your sins.” In Baptism, Jesus has already adorned you with His righteous splendor and crowned you glory and honour. The King of heaven now calls sinners like you to this altar to drink His very blood from the royal goblet, the blessed cup which imparts to you the forgiveness of sins, and enlivens you with courage to live for today in His kingdom for the sake of your neighbour regardless of what earthly rewards or honour you might acquire for doing so. Indeed, remember this day that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. But also remember, from that same dust you shall arise to new life, because of the love of a crucified King who put you first and Himself last for your sake, the one who teaches, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all,”[11] the one who not only teaches this wisdom but lived it to the full, wearing it as a crown of thorns. The World is tempted to turn its heart away from such a King to focus on rulers whose plans perish the day their breath departs them in death.[12] Pray that in this Season of Lent, and in all our days, we would be given the wisdom to have our hearts turned toward this wise true a living King whose kingdom has no end. Amen.

Let us pray:

Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

(Adapted from the Ash Wednesday Sermon provided in the 2013 Concordia Publishing House “The Crucified King” Lenten Series)

[1] 2 Chronicles 9:17–19
[2] 1 Kings 3:1-15
[3] 1 Kings 10:1-13
[4] 1 Kings 4:32
[5] Proverbs 5:18
[6] 1 Kings 11:1-4
[7] Proverbs 16:16
[8] Psalm 111:10
[9] Genesis 3:19
[10] Psalm 145:8
[11] Mark 9:35
[12] Psalm 146:4

Photo Credit: Main Photo detail of king with crown addapted to include ash cross on brow from pixabay.