https://app.dropwave.io/episode/76004fae-9e12-46b4-94c9-d64d2e26cd1c/ash-wednesday-ad-2026.mp3

++ JESU JUVA ++

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

This Ash Wednesday, Jesus teaches about the Lenten disciplines of prayer, generosity, and fasting. This reading frames the Lord’s Prayer — literally. The ellipses in the middle of the reading are where Jesus gives this prayer. This means that the Lord’s Prayer is at the heart of Lent. Jesus prays this prayer throughout His Passion. In understanding this prayer, we will be drawn deeper into our Lord’s Passion.

In this prayer, we are taught to address God as our Father. This is a helpful reminder for us on Ash Wednesday. Lent isn’t ultimately about bodily and spiritual disciplines. It’s not about the ashen cross that adorns your head — no that is a sign of your mortality because of your sin. The season of Lent is about acknowledging that God is your Father — that He has given Himself to you by grace. And you are being restored to this reality. So today we take up the Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer: Our Father who art in heaven. We will consider these words in three parts: Father; Our Father; and in heaven.

First, Father.

Most of the time, when God is addressed as Father in the Old Testament, it’s according to Creation. But there are some notable exceptions. “You, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name” (Isaiah 63:16). The Father is called the Redeemer, because the He desired our salvation and called upon His Son to be our Sacrifice. And in Psalm 89, we hear this firstborn Son speak. You are My Father, My God, and the rock of My salvation (Psalm 89:26).

God has created the world out of love — He has created you — but there is always distance between a creator and his creation. God desires more for us. He wants to be our Father. By nature, only the Second Person of the Holy Trinity can call God His Father. In the mystery of the Incarnation, which we will celebrate next month, He has become Man. As God, He is equal to the Father. As Man, He is subordinate to the Father. Yet He is not two Christs, but one.

Throughout His ministry, and especially in His Passion, Jesus prays to God, calling upon Him as His Father. Jesus is not just the obedient Son. He is the Man of faith. So He prays. He relies upon His Father for all He needs. As He reclines at table with the disciples at the Last Supper, Jesus teaches them about His Father (John 14-16) and prays to Him (John 17). In the Garden of Gethsemane, He says, O My Father, … let this cup pass from Me (Matthew 26:39). And Jesus says He has the right to pray to His Father for more than twelve legions of angels to deliver Him from His Passion (Matthew 26:53). Upon the cross, He prays, Father, forgive them and Father, into Your hands, I commit My spirit (Luke 23:34, 46).

[Our Father]

Jesus alone has the right to call God His Father, yet when He has risen from the dead, He speaks to Mary Magdalene and says: Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God (John 20:17). While it is proper to call God our Father according to creation, we have destroyed that relationship by our sin. We have not honored Him as Father. We have sought to be subject to another head. Yet, now, the eternal Son has reconciled us to God that Jesus’ Father may also become our Father.

On the Cross, the Son cries out in the words of Psalm 22: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” He bears abandonment in your place. He drinks the cup of wrath given by the Father (John 18:11; Psalm 75:8), so there is no wrath left to come upon you.

By adoption, you are brought into this reality. One who is adopted has the full rights of being a child. In Holy Baptism, the First Person of the Trinity gives Himself to you as your Father. He made you His son, His heir. You are one of His dear children, a member of His own household. Our Father who art in heaven. What does this mean? With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.

God is your true Father. Before He became your Father, it would have been presumptive for you to address Him this way. But now, you call Him Father because this is what is real. He is your true Father. When you speak to God this way, you are confessing that Christ has shed His blood to atone for your sins. The Holy Spirit has given you life where before there was only death. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:15-17a).

Before we move on, we should consider further this little word our. Why do we say “our Father,” and not “my Father”? In the beginning, God said, It is not good that man should be alone (Genesis 2:18). Christianity is not a solo exercise. It is received and exercised communally. Whenever we pray this prayer, we pray together with the whole Christian Church on earth. And we pray that it would be on earth as it is in heaven.

But even more than that, before these words become our prayer, this prayer is the prayer of Jesus Christ Himself. Before you open your mouth to pray these words, Jesus prays them for you. When you pray “our Father,” you are first praying this prayer with Jesus. Every Christian prayer —. Every prayer prayed in true faith, is prayed with Jesus.

This prayer is addressed to our Father who art in heaven. God being in heaven means that He is on the throne. He has all authority in heaven and on earth. This is what Jesus confesses as He stands before Pilate, the governor who had the authority to condemn Him or release Him. Jesus answered, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin” (John 19:11). God reigns from above. From heaven. Even as His very life is on the line, Jesus entrusts Himself to the Father who judges justly.

Saint Peter writes: Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: “Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed (1 Peter 2:21-24).

God alone is the Judge who rules and reigns over all things for your good. This God has made Himself your Father that you would be His own child and heir. All things are subject to His rule. Whatever the Father keeps cannot be destroyed. This is why Jesus says: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven… For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21)

What is earthly will return to dust. Your earthly treasure will not last. What you build will be destroyed. Your things will be stolen; they will rust and be eaten by moths. What is earthly in you shall be put to death (Colossians 3:5). If you live according to the flesh, you will die (Romans 8:13). According to your sin, you shall return to dust. So if your treasure is found in what is earthly and sinful, you will be destroyed along with it.