Summary
Mercy on Us
The Ash Wednesday liturgy opens with the cry of Psalm 51: "Have mercy on me, O God." David's great penitential psalm, written after Nathan confronted him over Bathsheba and Uriah, sets the tone for the whole season of Lent—a rhythm of reflection, confession, and preparation for Easter. Throughout Lent the Kyrie returns to the Sunday liturgy: "Lord, have mercy." Mercy is the cry on the Church's lips as she enters these forty days.
That same cry surfaces in Mark 8:27–33, but in a startling way. After the healing of the blind man at Bethsaida, Jesus and the disciples travel some twenty-five miles north to the villages of Caesarea Philippi at the foot of Mount Hermon. Outside Galilee the crowds thin and the Pharisees are absent, and on the road Jesus poses two questions. The first: "Who do people say that I am?" The disciples answer accurately—John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the prophets. Herod had thought Jesus was John raised from the dead; the expectation that Elijah would precede the Messiah came from Malachi 4; and Jewish tradition expected Jeremiah to reappear before the Messianic kingdom.
Then comes the question of questions: "But who do you say that I am?" After more than two years with Jesus, Peter speaks for the Twelve: "You are the Messiah"—and as Matthew 16 records, "the Son of the living God." They had seen His authority over demons, sickness, and the sea; they knew that only God commands wind and wave. They had grasped His identity. They had not yet grasped His mission.
So Jesus immediately begins to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer, be rejected, be killed, and on the third day rise. Peter takes Him aside to rebuke Him. The literal Greek of his protest is striking: mercy on you. It is a cry for mercy—that the Father would spare Him, that the cross would not happen. And this cry for mercy is itself rebuked. Jesus turns, looks at all the disciples, and says, "Get behind me, Satan. For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things." Peter's plea sounds pious, but it would unmake salvation. The cross is a divine must. Without it, there is no good news to proclaim—which is also why Jesus charges them not to speak of His identity yet. The message is not yet complete. The cross and the empty tomb must come first “Mercy on Us” 3-2-22.
This is why the ashes carry so many dimensions. They mark our frailty and mortality—God told our first parents that the day they ate of the fruit they would die, and we carry that sin from conception Psalm 51:5. Our days this side of heaven are but a whisp compared to eternity. The ashes call us daily to repentance and remind us that in ancient times ash was used to cleanse; now the sign of the cross traced in ash on the forehead proclaims that we are cleansed through the cross of Christ. When the ash is washed away that night, let it call to mind the waters of Baptism that have already splashed us clean.
And here is the gospel hidden inside Peter's misplaced words. Peter said to Jesus, "Mercy on you"—and was rebuked, because mercy spared from the cross would be no mercy at all. But to the baptized, marked with ash and claimed as His own, Jesus turns and says the words back: Mercy on you. Mercy on you. The wrath for sin fell upon the Son and not upon us. The spotless Lamb went to the cross in our place, so that when the Father looks upon us He sees the perfection of Christ. That is the mercy of Lent, and the mercy of Easter to come.
Video citations
- "Mercy on Us" 3-2-22 — Would you open your Bibles please with me this evening? To mark the eighth chapter for our study, if you're using a few addition, you'll find that on page 38. Mark the eighth chapter. The liturgy…