WEBVTT 00:00.330 --> 00:01.310 You may be seated. 00:04.930 --> 00:07.150 In Jesus name. Amen. 00:08.290 --> 00:11.786 One of our family's favorite vacation spots is to go to Colonial 00:11.818 --> 00:14.218 Williamsburg in Virginia. 00:14.314 --> 00:16.890 Curious how many of you have been to Colonial Williamsburg. 00:17.050 --> 00:18.366 Quite a number of you. 00:18.548 --> 00:21.774 Our family loves history, and so those of you that have been there 00:21.892 --> 00:25.742 know that there are costumed reenactors who bring the history to life 00:25.796 --> 00:31.270 and draw you into the story leading up to the American Revolution. 00:31.690 --> 00:37.270 And our family enjoys all of the sights and sounds and experiences of 00:37.420 --> 00:38.850 Colonial Williamsburg. 00:38.930 --> 00:43.686 And there's one particularly unique experience at Colonial 00:43.718 --> 00:45.962 Williamsburg that those who've been there maybe remember. 00:46.016 --> 00:51.850 If I recall correctly, it's just outside the courthouse on the main 00:51.920 --> 00:52.940 village, Green. 00:53.630 --> 00:58.190 That's where you find the stocks and the pillory. 00:58.690 --> 01:02.334 Now, we tend to confuse these two and just say everything is the 01:02.372 --> 01:05.534 stocks, but actually the stocks are where you sit down and only your 01:05.572 --> 01:06.346 feet are constrained. 01:06.378 --> 01:10.546 The pillory is the T shaped wooden apparatus with the hole where you 01:10.568 --> 01:14.114 put your head in and the holes where you put your hands in and you 01:14.152 --> 01:16.482 stand or you kneel there in the pillory. 01:16.546 --> 01:23.190 And nowadays, the pillory is kind of a fun photo op location. 01:23.850 --> 01:28.550 Parents like to put their kids in the pillar. 01:30.090 --> 01:33.354 Be honest parents how many at one point haven't wanted to put our kids 01:33.552 --> 01:34.730 in the pillar? 01:35.070 --> 01:39.386 Kids then get to put their parents in the pillory, and and then it 01:39.408 --> 01:42.170 becomes a photo off where you have a couple of options. 01:42.240 --> 01:47.342 You could have a big grin on your face to show, see, I can do this. 01:47.396 --> 01:51.342 Or the other option is you make the worst, most painful face you can 01:51.476 --> 01:53.450 as you're in the pillory. 01:53.610 --> 01:57.326 But that's what the pillory is nowadays at Colonial Williamsburg 01:57.358 --> 01:59.810 it's just a fun spot to take photo. 02:00.870 --> 02:04.580 Of course, that's not what it was intended to be. 02:05.850 --> 02:10.120 The pillory was intended to be a place of punishment, a very public 02:10.490 --> 02:13.510 punishment for wrongdoing. 02:14.490 --> 02:21.450 And when you were sentenced to the pillory, people would come by and 02:21.520 --> 02:22.586 mock you. 02:22.768 --> 02:24.570 They would jeer at you. 02:24.720 --> 02:28.762 Oftentimes there would be a placard place nearby saying, what your 02:28.816 --> 02:30.998 crime or what your wrongdoing was 02:31.104 --> 02:34.014 so they could mock you for that. 02:34.212 --> 02:41.182 And the crowds would gather at this very public place and mock and 02:41.236 --> 02:43.630 scorn and jeer. 02:44.290 --> 02:47.086 The punishment would usually last for a few hours, and they'd be 02:47.108 --> 02:48.960 released to go home. 02:49.730 --> 02:57.334 But this pillory was a very public and outward display of something 02:57.372 --> 02:58.694 that had been done wrong. 02:58.892 --> 02:59.846 And so here we are 02:59.868 --> 02:59.970 gathered 03:00.250 --> 03:04.142 today on Ash Wednesday. On a day where there's a very public and 03:04.196 --> 03:13.486 outward display of wrongdoing. Many of us have ashes marked on our 03:13.508 --> 03:19.594 forehead in the shape of a croos to remind us of that judgment spoken 03:19.642 --> 03:19.806 to 03:19.828 --> 03:24.030 our first parents, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden when they sinned 03:24.810 --> 03:32.200 and they were told, dust you are, and to dust you shall return. 03:33.930 --> 03:37.430 Ashes remind us that we are mortal. 03:39.070 --> 03:41.446 The soul that sins will die. 03:41.638 --> 03:42.970 We have sinned. 03:43.390 --> 03:46.090 We will die. 03:46.990 --> 03:53.006 Ashes have been a sign of penitence and sorrow for sin, a reminder of 03:53.028 --> 03:56.480 mortality since ancient times. 03:58.290 --> 04:04.778 This outward combination of penitence is somewhat challenging and 04:04.804 --> 04:07.538 confusing when it's paired with our gospel reading for today from 04:07.624 --> 04:09.106 Matthew, chapter six. 04:09.288 --> 04:13.233 Remember what Jesus said in Matthew, chapter six and when you fast, do 04:13.272 --> 04:17.245 not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they just figure their faces 04:17.278 --> 04:19.166 that their fasting may be seen by others. 04:19.288 --> 04:21.522 Truly, I say to you, they've received their reward. 04:21.586 --> 04:25.654 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your 04:25.692 --> 04:28.714 fasting may not be seen by others, but by your Father who is in 04:28.752 --> 04:33.580 secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you. 04:35.070 --> 04:43.933 So here we are with smudges of ash on our forehead, and Jesus says, Go 04:43.972 --> 04:44.880 wash your face. 04:46.690 --> 04:52.480 So is outward repentance wrong? 04:53.590 --> 04:57.170 Are outward signs of penitence hypocritical? 04:59.110 --> 04:59.860 No. 05:00.230 --> 05:05.140 It depends on the intention behind the outward sign. 05:06.630 --> 05:10.145 If the outward sign, such as having crosses of ash on our forehead 05:10.178 --> 05:13.909 today is drawn to draw attention to ourself, to say, look at me. 05:13.980 --> 05:17.400 Look how good, how high as I am, then yes, it's wrong. 05:19.470 --> 05:25.798 But that is the exact opposite of why we should have crosses of ash 05:25.894 --> 05:28.140 marked on our forehead today. 05:29.310 --> 05:30.794 Why should we receive ashes? 05:30.842 --> 05:38.080 Not to show how good we are, but in fact to show how sinful we are. 05:38.450 --> 05:43.870 We have sinned and we deserve death. 05:45.010 --> 05:52.238 Ashes are not to bring public pride to our holiness, but to be a 05:52.244 --> 05:54.510 public statement of our sin. 05:55.690 --> 05:59.539 So the ashes on our forehead are something like a public penance, not 06:00.170 --> 06:03.790 unlike the pillory at Colonial Williamsburg. 06:04.770 --> 06:11.486 So think of the ashes on our forehead of being in the Pillory at 06:11.508 --> 06:12.590 Williamsburg. 06:13.730 --> 06:18.414 As we're there in the Pillory, someone comes by and says that he would 06:18.452 --> 06:22.110 take our place at the Pillory. 06:23.330 --> 06:26.870 And this man puts his head through the hole in the wood. 06:27.850 --> 06:32.360 He puts his hands through the holes in the wood on the side, and the 06:32.730 --> 06:36.870 lock is placed on the side of the Pillory. 06:37.630 --> 06:43.482 But then, as we watch, the Pillory changes and the holes in the side 06:43.536 --> 06:50.954 of the wood holding the man's hands in become holes in the man's 06:51.002 --> 06:51.600 hands. 06:53.170 --> 06:57.758 And this man is not held in place anymore by the lock on the side of 06:57.764 --> 06:58.026 the wood. 06:58.058 --> 07:04.530 He's held in place by nails through his hands and feet. 07:06.790 --> 07:13.602 And we look up and the Pillory has expanded, suspending this man 07:13.656 --> 07:15.010 between heaven and earth. 07:16.090 --> 07:21.094 And there we see that it's gone from us in the Pillory making public 07:21.132 --> 07:28.250 penitence for our sins, to Jesus on the cross, taking our place, dying 07:28.670 --> 07:29.740 for us. 07:30.750 --> 07:32.890 We look Jesus on the cross. 07:34.110 --> 07:38.170 We also see that he's being Pilloried. 07:39.230 --> 07:41.998 People are mocking him. 07:42.164 --> 07:45.646 They're sneering and jeering at Him. 07:45.828 --> 07:50.478 A placard is placed over His head stating His crime, but it may as 07:50.484 --> 07:52.670 well state our crime. 07:53.350 --> 07:58.254 The punishment, like the pillaries in Colonial Williamsburg, lasted 07:58.302 --> 07:59.522 for several hours. 07:59.576 --> 08:02.770 But at the end of that time, Jesus wasn't released. 08:03.110 --> 08:06.840 He was dead in our place. 08:08.650 --> 08:15.382 And that is why we have a cross on our foreheads today, because 08:15.436 --> 08:22.940 because of our sin, jesus took our place on the cross for us. 08:24.030 --> 08:29.100 The Cross of Ash says, we have no goodness of our own to brag about. 08:29.870 --> 08:35.326 We have done nothing deserving of any reward. In our reading for today 08:35.347 --> 08:40.813 from Matthew, chapter six, Jesus lists various good activities giving 08:40.852 --> 08:44.990 to the poor, praying, fasting. 08:45.650 --> 08:47.069 These are certainly good things. 08:47.140 --> 08:50.960 Jesus, in fact, says, when you are doing these things, do them. 08:52.930 --> 08:55.830 But we don't do them to draw attention to ourselves. 08:57.770 --> 08:59.860 We don't do them to show how good 09:00.000 --> 09:01.134 we are. 09:01.252 --> 09:05.118 No matter how much we give to the poor, no matter how much we fast, no 09:05.124 --> 09:09.280 matter how much we pray, it's still not good enough. 09:11.570 --> 09:15.550 So we don't do any outward sign to point to our goodness. 09:16.690 --> 09:23.166 Instead, the cross of ash on our forehead draws attention not to our 09:23.188 --> 09:25.830 goodness, but to our our sin. 09:26.810 --> 09:31.990 But it also points us to our Savior. 09:32.970 --> 09:36.994 Because we're not saved by any actions, outward actions, inward 09:37.042 --> 09:43.338 actions that we do. We're saved by what Jesus Christ has done for us 09:43.504 --> 09:46.650 in a very outward, very public action. 09:47.390 --> 09:55.678 As he went to the cross and was pillaried and crucified and died for 09:55.844 --> 10:02.430 us. The ash on our forehead points us to Christ on the cross. 10:04.069 --> 10:07.886 It also points us to our death. 10:08.078 --> 10:14.900 Remember that dust you are, and to dust you shall return. 10:16.490 --> 10:26.280 But also remember that after you return to dust, you will also return 10:27.130 --> 10:28.120 to life. 10:28.890 --> 10:31.670 In Jesus name. Amen. 10:32.410 --> 10:34.786 The peace of God that passes all understanding. 10:34.818 --> 10:38.662 Keep your hearts and minds in true faith through Christ Jesus our 10:38.716 --> 10:39.362 Lord. 10:39.506 --> 10:39.962 Amen.