Ash Wednesday, 2025
Rev. Thomas Van Hemert
St. Matthew 6:1-21
Ash Wednesday
March 5, 2025
In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Ash Wednesday begins the penitential season of Lent. Today we begin a holy season of prayerful and penitential reflection. We focus our attention especially on the holy sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lent has also been kept as a time of special devotion, self-denial, and humble repentance born of a faithful heart that dwells confidently on Christ’s word and draws from it life and hope. At the same time, the season of Lent has typically been a season of continued catechesis and further instruction in Christian doctrine. Quite a few of the readings appointed for the season of Lent are concerned with topics such as spiritual warfare, temptation, Christian virtue, repentance, and holiness of living.
In the Gospel for Ash Wednesday, we hear from our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount concerning charitable deeds (i.e. good works), rewards, fasting, and prayer.
I have often heard people tell me that sometimes they just don’t know what to say when they pray or even how to pray. Jesus, however, gives us the method and even the exact words that we are to use when we pray. First, He gives advice: “When you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door and pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” What Jesus is telling us here is that prayer is not a show to be done in the sight of men. Prayer is an intimate act, by which we hold holy conversation with God. If you have ever heard someone praying, what you’re hearing are their hearts deepest desires. And God hears those prayers. He has promised to hear them. He hears our prayers whether we think or feel He’s listening or not.
Our Lord continues, “And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them.” This is also a problem, not only among the heathen, but even in modern, American Christianity. All of us have heard the type of prayer where someone praying off the cuff will keep repeating himself, saying things such as, “God, I just want you to do this… I just want you to do that… I just… I just… I just…” Don’t pray the “Just prayer.” If we just want God to do one little thing for us, we are asking too little of God. God is all-powerful. He wants to hear the fullness of our prayers. Do not belittle God by thinking that by praying to Him and asking Him for something that you’re bothering or pestering Him. “God, I know you’re too busy up there in heaven, but I just want this little thing.” Our prayers do not bother God. He is not annoyed with us. He loves us. He wants us to pray to Him as children ask things of their parents. Sometimes the answer is yes. Sometimes it’s no. Sometimes, the answer is “Not yet.” But always and though everything, no matter what God’s answer is, His will is always done.
We are God’s children now. We can ask of Him. And Jesus even gives us the words to use in prayer. He says, “Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. Therefore, pray in this manner: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
If all else fails and you are struggling and you cannot find the words to pray, remember what our Lord gives to you. He gives you the prayer above all other prayers. He gives you His prayer. This is why we call it the “Lord’s Prayer.”
Are you feeling alone and isolated? Pray “Our Father, Who art in heaven. Hallowed be Thy name.” Because He is your Father. You are His child. You have a heavenly Father who loves you and who has sent His Son to reconcile you back to Him.
Are you afflicted by the devil and all his works and pomps? Pray “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Because by praying these petitions, God’s good and gracious will is done. And it is done even without our prayer. God’s will is done when He breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, which do not want us to hallow God’s name or let His kingdom come. And by this, He strengthens and keeps us firm in His Word and faith until we die.
Do you feel as though you are lacking something in this life? Are you struggling to make ends meet? So pray. Pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Our heavenly Father does not always give us what we want. Rather, He gives us what we need to support this body and life. And so praying this petition leads us to realize this and to receive what He does give us—our daily bread—with thanksgiving.
Are you troubled by your sins? Ask for forgiveness. Pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Because we pray in this petition that our Father in heaven would not look at our sins, or deny our prayer because of them. We know that we are worthy of none of the things for which we pray, nor have we deserved them, but we ask that He would give them all to us by grace, despite the fact that we daily sin much and deserve nothing but punishment. And so it is that by this, we will learn too, to sincerely forgive and gladly do good to those who sin against us.
Throughout this earthly life, we must always deal with temptations. And so we pray, “Lead us not into temptation.” Of course, God tempts no one. But we pray that God would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice. We are constantly attacked by these things, but we pray that by the power of the Holy Spirit, we may finally overcome temptations and win the victory.
Not only temptation, but all evil. We conclude the Lord’s Prayer by praying, “Deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.” “Amen” means, “Yes, yes. It shall be so.” Our God has commanded us to pray. And in this way He has promised to hear us.
Our Lord and our God has promised to hear us because He Himself also prayed. He prayed to His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, asking that He would remove the cup which He was about to drink from Him. But His Father refused. There was no other way. To be sure, He was not doubting. He knew the terrible cost He had to pay for our salvation. And yet, He prayed.
The answer to Christ’s prayer in Gethsemane was not that the cup was removed from Him, but that angels came and ministered to Him strengthening Him. So it is with us and prayer. If Jesus can pray, “Remove this cup from me,” then we can pray “Our Father Who art in heaven.” The answer we receive might not be what we want or what we expect. But it is what we need. We have been given prayer as a weapon in our lifelong fight against sin, the devil, and our sinful nature. Let us use it. Let us pray. Because prayer is effective. Not only because by it, the devil is driven way. But also because God hears our prayers. And because God answers our prayers, even in ways we cannot fathom.
In +Jesus’ name.
