Last year I placed ashes on the foreheads of two men who died within weeks of hearing these words: Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Two men well known at St. John the Divine. Two men who loved and served the Lord. To understand Ash Wednesday and the words we will speak to you as we put ashes on your foreheads, to understand death itself and why we die when God originally did not create us to die, to understand why something is wrong indeed with this world, we must return to the beginning in Genesis:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. [God created everything out of nothing.] God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation . . . And God saw that it was good. God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens . . . And God saw that it was good. God said, "Let the waters swarm with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth . . . And God saw that it was good. God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures . . . Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. [Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.] So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion . . . And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. In the beginning God created everything and declared it very good.
The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
Now the serpent was crafty and said to the woman . . . "You will not surely die. God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So the woman took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.
And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD. But the LORD called to the man and said, "Where are you?" And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself." He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate." Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."
To the woman he said, "I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you."
And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
“You are not God. You are dust. You are not immortal. You shall die and return to the dust from which I created you.” Because of Adam and Eve’s sin, we are under a curse. God created man to live forever, to walk with him, to speak face to face with him. However, the first humans doubted God’s word, doubted that he was telling the truth to them, doubted that should they sin they would die and return to the dust from which God created them.
Genesis Chapter 5 records: When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died!
God did not create Adam to die. God did not put a limit on the lifetime of man at creation. There was no expiration date. But sin entered in, sin that Adam committed, and he died. Death is a curse, and to dust we shall return. When a close friend of mine died, I said over and over at his funeral, “Something is not right with the world.” Man was not originally created by God to die. It does not matter if you die at 47 or 17 or 97. Death is not good. God does not declare it good. No, he declares it as a curse.
Adam lived a long time. He lived in a world in which the effects of the fall were just beginning to take effect. He experienced the horrific death of his second born at the hands of his first born. What could be worse for a parent to experience—the child you love killed by the child you love?
Yet, Adam had other children, and he lived hundreds of years. In fact he lived so long, he probably forgot that he was going to die. And then one day, when he was 930 years, almost four times the number of years the United States has existed as a nation, Adam died. The first man died. The crowning achievement of God’s creation died. He died a sinner. He died to return to the dust from which God had created him. He died. Something is not right with the world. We are not supposed to die. Where is the good news we need? Where is salvation, for we cannot save ourselves from death, destruction, and dust? Where is the help we need?
“Who will deliver me, who will deliver us, from this body of death?,” asks Paul. “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!,” he replies. Then he goes on to write in Romans 8:
There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, God condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
If Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing . . . [to] be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. . . . we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
What then shall we say? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? . . . Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We are dust and to dust we shall return . . . because of sin. There is something wrong with the world. It is fallen. But we have hope. We have the gospel. We have the Cross. We have a Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord. He died for our sins. Through his death he purchased eternal life for us. And nothing shall separate us from him, not even the dust of death. He shall rescue us from death. Yet before the mortal puts on the immortal, remember, you are dust and to dust you shall return.
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