All are from the dust, and to dust all return
“For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.”
Ecclesiastes 3:19–20
Lent begins with bad news: we are going to die.
We came from the dust of the earth, and we all end up back in the dust eventually. Maybe you’re wondering why you should even participate in Lent if it’s all about bad news. Well, even though Lent begins with bad news, it doesn’t stay there. Lent is a journey that invites us to move from the bad news of our mortality into the good news of the gospel, the goodness of Easter.
Over the next six weeks, our focus for these devotionals is to see how the grace of the gospel matters for us now, not just when we die, but part of seeing how the gospel matters means seeing our current situation clearly. Lent brings us face to face with our inevitable death; it reminds us of our humanity. Lent speaks honestly about the ways in which our world is deeply broken and the ways in which we ourselves are deeply broken. We are humans destined to die and in desperate need of rescue.
Enter the gospel and why it matters now. Our humanity, our mortality, and inevitable our death are all the things that Christ took upon himself in his incarnation. Jesus looked at us in all our dustiness and fully embraced us. Our humanity, our weakness is redeemed in him. Death is not something to be afraid of but something we can face with dignity and faith that Christ will bring us through to eternal life on the other side. This gift gives us immense hope and real blessing now—not just when we die. The Christian perspective says that death is the way to life. So let’s embrace our own mortality, our weakness, our brokenness and cling to the hope of the gospel for today.
