Ash Wednesday (Three Year Lectionary—Series B)

Joel 2:12–19
Psalm 51:1-13 (14-19)
2 Corinthians 5:20b—6:10
Matthew 6:1–6, 16–21

Return to the Lord Your God, for He Has Reconciled You to Himself

On Ash Wednesday, we come down from the mountain with Jesus and set our faces toward His cross and Passion in Jerusalem. We make our pilgrimage with Him by the way of repentance, and thus we return to the dying and rising of Holy Baptism. Christ Jesus, “who knew no sin,” became our sin, so that by His death we are released from sin and in His resurrection we “become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). Since God has thus reconciled the world to Himself in Christ, “now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). He has provided the sacrificial Lamb, and He has left “a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering” in the Eucharist (Joel 2:14, 19). He summons us to return to Him with all our hearts, because He is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love” (Joel 2:13). Return to Him in faith and confidence, and so pray to Him as your Father; give to the needy from a heart of love; and fast for the sake of repentance (Matt. 6:3–4, 6, 17–18).