We’re nine days into the season of Lent, a 40-day period in which Christians traditionally focus on the spiritual disciplines of repentance and self-denial. Dust and ashes are powerful symbols of this season, as Pastor Dilan reminded us in his awesome Ash Wednesday message last week. Throughout the Bible, ashes and dust are mentioned interchangeably to signify our mortality. There is also a correlation in Scripture between dust and our sin. The first mention of dust in the Bible is Genesis 2:7, which says:
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
And in the next chapter of Genesis, dust is mentioned again:
“By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken, for dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Gen. 3:19)
One striking reality about Genesis is how accurate it is about things that humans had no way of knowing when Genesis was written. Thousands of years ago, the people of God somehow knew that their bodies were made of dust, and now, every year it seems like researchers are releasing their “new findings” and “discoveries” that prove people are, in fact, made of dust, just like the writers of the Bible suggested thousands of years ago. As it turns out, we’re not just made of any old dust; we’re made mostly out of stardust! Ninety-seven percent of the matter in the human body matches the matter found in stardust. This dust we’re made of, like the dust found in celestial bodies throughout the universe, contains everything necessary for life: Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur.
The closer that researchers have looked toward the center of the universe, the more concentrated these pockets of life-capable dust appear to be, which raises some fascinating questions about the origins of the universe and of life itself!Several millennia before scientists “discovered” that people are made of dust, the Bible declared it – not so much as a scientific discovery, but a spiritual one. Scripture affirms that, compared to the glory and holiness of God, we are nothing but dust. As Job declared after God responded to his list of complaints:
My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. – Job 42:5-6
“I despise myself…” seems pretty harsh to us in this age of self-esteem. We’re not supposed to go around telling people to despise themselves because of their sin. We’re told we must encourage everyone to love and accept and affirm themselves, no matter what – to love themselves EXACTLY as they are. After all, isn’t that the way God loves us? Doesn’t God love every part of us – even our dirty, sinful parts? Well, no. Not at all. The phrase “Love the sinner, hate the sin” has taken a lot of heat in recent years because lots of people seem to think it’s nothing more than a way for bigots to sound less bigoted. I can understand how some people reach that conclusion. Some Christians are far more proficient at hating sin than we are at loving sinners. But the fact remains that, while God loves you more than you can possibly understand – He absolutely hates your sin. He despises it. Can’t stand it. It disgusts Him. That’s because God is holy. His very essence is pure goodness. So putting your sin before God and expecting Him to love it is like putting BBQ in front of a vegan and expecting them to thank you. Or feeding plant-based burgers to red-blooded Texans and saying, “Don’t you love it?!”Of course they don’t love it. No self-respecting Texan could ever love a plant-based burger, just like no real God could ever love sin. God loves sinners, but He hates sin. The old adage holds true; it’s just our application of it that’s false. An even better way to put it would be:
Love the sinner, starting with you.
Hate the sin, starting with mine.
In Luke 5:31-32, Jesus said he came to save sinners because only the sick need a physician. In other words, salvation’s starting point is the sinner’s surrender. In order to “get well,” we first have to go to the Great Physician. But what about all the people in the world who know they need a doctor but still refuse to go? You know the type of person I’m talking about, right? Those people who avoid going to the doctor at all costs, even when they’re sick. What do we call those people? MEN. Guys are notorious for avoiding the doctor. A recent study by the Cleveland Clinic found that 55% of men fail to get regular health screenings. I confess that, in years past, I’ve been among them. But this year, I turned 45, so I know it’s high time that I prioritize my health. A few years ago I started looking for a physician with two criteria in mind:
- I wanted a low-energy doctor, because I don’t trust hyper doctors who make a big deal out of every little issue. I liked the idea of a laid-back, elderly physician who didn’t (or couldn’t) get too worked up about my high blood pressure or my high-sodium diet.
- I also wanted a doctor with small hands because I’ve got friends in their 40s and 50s who’ve told me that doctor visits tend to get a lot more intimate for men of a certain age and, well, a small-handed doctor just seemed like the right way to go.
Basically, I found myself searching for a physician with the energy of our current president and the hands of our former one! I ended up finding a doctor who was so low energy that I didn’t even need to see his hands. When I told him about my high blood pressure, he said, “I’m sure it’s fine, you look pretty healthy to me.” When I showed him the concerning sun-spot on my neck, he said he could barely even see it. When I mentioned the concerning exam that my buddies told me you’re supposed to start having in your 40s, he said, “Actually it can wait until your 50s.” And just like that, I had found my favorite physician! Or at least I thought I had, until the next year when I caught some awful virus that nearly killed me and my wife had to carry me to his office, half-dead. When my chosen doctor saw me, he said, “He seems okay to me. You’ve just gotta let these things run their course.”When you’re sick, you don’t need a low-energy doc telling you what you want to hear. You need a real physician telling you the truth. You need Jesus.When Jesus implied that some people are sick while others aren’t, do you really think he believed that some people aren’t sick? Or when he said he came only to save the sinners, do you really think Jesus thought some people aren’t sinners? Of course not. He knew very well that not everyone is willing to see their sin for what it is, and not everyone is ready to say, “I’m sick and I need a doctor.” But that simple admission can be the start of your salvation. If you’ve been avoiding the Great Physician, this season of Lent is the perfect time for a check-up. Go to him, tell him what’s wrong, and let him make you well.
