Spring Cleaning for the Soul: Matthew 5:28-29 - Ash Wednesday

It isn’t just the snow and cold that has me ready for Spring. I’m ready for Spring cleaning.

Our floors, our shoes, and our vehicles are absolutely caked in salt, and it’s so hard to get them clean. The cleaning crew at First Lutheran mopped our sanctuary twice and the salt residue is still there. A few years ago, we had to junk a perfectly-running vehicle that was destroyed by road salt, and we’re on the cusp of junking another one for the same reason.

Unfortunately, as the snow melts and the temperatures rise, we’re going to have another problem on our hands: mud.

It’s going to take some work to clean up after winter, but with the coming of Spring there’s something else that needs cleaning: our souls. Sin is even more corrosive to our bodies, our relationships, our communities, and to our planet than rock salt and ice melt. 

Broom by 1024greenstreet on flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0

And the sins I’m talking about are those that will not land you in jail. I’m talking about the sins which form the basis of your habits, your lifestyles, and your ambitions. They bring instant gratification of needs and wants. They make you feel good. They boost your ego. They drive your actions and reactions. They influence your beliefs and thought processes. They help you gain approval, security, and control.

These sins are deadly because they disguise themselves in what is helpful and good. We don’t see these sins and problems but as solutions to problems. And it’s easier to keep doing the same things instead of bearing the costs, the discomforts, and the risks that come with repentance.

That is how the devil keeps you in his grip. This is also why Jesus speaks with such harsh words in today’s short Gospel.

His words are not to be taken literally, of course, but the sense of urgency most certainly is. Sin is not something we should treat with apathy or indifference. Most of the time, we are more concerned with other people’s sins than we are with our own. But we all need repentance. Otherwise, we don’t need Christ.

That’s what drew me to our Lenten study book, Give Up Something Bad for Lent, which focuses on the small but still significant things that entangle us in sin.

In the first chapter, our author names three things we need the Spirit’s help to be rid of.

The first sin is bitterness. This can come in the form of a grudge you hold against someone who did you wrong and caused you to suffer. Bitterness can also exist in the form of envy, your resentment towards those who enjoy power and privileges you do not. You might even be bitter towards God or towards yourself that your life has turned out the way it has. Why do people hold onto bitterness? So that you don’t have to take responsibility for yourself. It’s easier to stay a victim than it is to do the hard work of climbing out of your adversity.

The second sin is apathy. Our author defines apathy as quitting on life. Not caring. Not trying. Being negative, cynical, and pessimistic. Why do people hold onto apathy? Because apathy asks nothing of you. It’s safe, it’s secure, it’s easy, whereas caring demands something of you. Commitment demands something of you. A pessimist is never disappointed, but the optimist is. But when the pessimist quits, the optimist persists.

The third sin is discouragement. This is feeling sorry for yourself to the point that you lose all gratitude. Everything is a disappointment. Everything is a letdown. You sink so deeply into self-pity that you’re absent from your own presence; worlds away from the people around you. Life is not a gift to be lived but a crisis to escape from. Why do people hold onto discouragement? Once again, because it’s safe, it guards you against rejection and disappointment, while demanding nothing from you.

What all three of these vices have in common is that they all constitute the path of least resistance. They keep you in your comfort zone. They give you quick rewards. But they are as corrosive to your soul as acid and will eat you up in time.

But there is another way: the very power that raised Jesus from the dead is here for you to set you free. Repentance, like all the disciplines of faith, is not easy. The hardest part of repentance is letting go of things you’ve relied upon to feel safe and secure; things that have given your life meaning. Repentance is to the soul what surgery is to the body: it cuts open and it breaks apart to repair something that’s broken or remove something that is toxic. After the surgery, it takes more than pills to get better. You may need to change your diet or daily habits, you may need to undergo physical therapy and exercise regularly, and you will likely encounter setbacks on the way. But no one goes through surgery without believing that it will make them better.

Repentance is no different. Calling on your Lord Jesus to remove bitterness, apathy, and discouragement will bring you pain at first, and you will have to work hard to keep from falling back into old habits. You will never stop sinning. But Jesus won’t stop saving.

As long as you are in the body, it’s not too late. The Holy Spirit is here to reduce your former life to ashes, with all its habits, thought processes, and pursuits. The time has come to die to bitterness, to apathy, and to discouragement, because Easter is coming. You who die to sin will rise with Christ. Your wounds healed. Your mind transformed. Your habits reformed. Your lifestyle simplified. Your desires purified. Your spirit alive like never before.

Matthew 5:29-30 (NRSVue)

[Jesus said:] ²⁹ If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. ³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.