Worship

Ash Wednesday                   February 18, 2026

Zechariah 1:1-6                      Pastor Ryan Wolfe

Return to Me!

It’s a sad, and all-too-common scene. A young man storms out of the room, slamming the door. Yes, he had lied to his dad, he had done wrong, but still he didn’t need to put up with his father’s discipline. He’s done: done with that house, done with those rules, done with doing what others told him to do. He’s old enough to be on his own, so he storms off in a rage.

What that son didn’t know is that his Dad stayed up late that night hoping his son would come back. And the next. And the next. He never stopped watching the door, but life had to go on too. He had other children who needed his energy. He had other work to do. But he never stopped thinking about his estranged son. He never gave up hope that someday his son would return home.

That sad, but true, scene illustrates the way God looks at his wayward and wandering people. He never stops loving them. He never stops holding out hope that they will return to him. But he won’t force them to return. He won’t capture or coerce them back to his love. They may wander far from home, but he watches and waits with the promise that when they return to him, he will return to them.

This Lent, our midweek sermons are all based on God’s word through Zechariah son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo. Each week we look at his descriptions of Jesus’ suffering and death. He wrote in such clear terms and vivid detail that he has been called the Holy Week Prophet.

We begin, of course, at the beginning. Zechariah 1:1-6. I read it earlier in our service but hear again how Zechariah declares the theme of his whole letter in the first verse: “’Return to me,’ declares the LORD Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty.’”

It’s an interesting turn of phrase considering that Zechariah’s ministry occurred some 15 years after Israel had already returned from exile in Babylon to the Promised Land. They had returned, and they were living in relative peace and comfort.

It’s an indicator that God wasn’t calling them to return to him physically but spiritually. He was calling them to repent and turn their hearts to him. You see, after they came home, they became so focused on rebuilding – planting their fields, renovating their homes, and restoring their bank accounts – they forgot about the God who had restored them to their land.

So Zechariah, whose name means “the Lord remembers,” would help the people remember the Lord. He began by calling them to turn from their evil ways: “The LORD was very angry with your ancestors… Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the earlier prophets proclaimed: This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Turn from your evil ways and your evil practices. But they would not listen or pay attention to me,’ declares the Lord.”

The Lord had been very angry. The Hebrew literally says here, “He raged! He raged against their ancestors!” He was tired of his people’s repeated rebellion. They heard his warnings about the consequences of their sin, but they refused to listen. So finally he disciplined them. He used the empire of Babylon to burn their precious homes to the ground and carry them away from their beloved homeland, marching them hundreds of miles away to a foreign land among a foreign people. For seventy years they lived as exiles, with only the memory of the once-promised land and the once golden city of Jerusalem.

But now the next generation had returned to Israel. Zechariah held up their forefathers as a bad example. “Where are your ancestors now? And the prophets, do they live forever? But did not my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, overtake your ancestors?” “Look around,” the prophet challenged the people. “What happened to your ancestors when they disobeyed? Everything that God had warned would happen did! Zechariah pleaded with this new generation, “Will you learn from their history? Or will you repeat their mistakes? And don’t think that God’s offer of grace will last forever. The prophets don’t stick around forever to keep warning you if you reject their preaching.”

I much more like to point out Scripture’s lessons we can learn from people in a good way, but it’s also true that sometimes the example we see in the Bible is a bad example. The sinful rejection of God by Old Testament Isreal is one of them. So I ask, have we learned from the Israelites’ mistakes? Or will we repeat them? We too need to be called to turn back to God because we sin no less than they did. We too get distracted by the cares and concerns of this life, by our jobs and our homes and our bank accounts. We can get so caught up in everyday life that we even forget about God. If God has ever seemed distant from you, who wandered away? (It wasn’t God.)

It may not have the drama of slamming doors and muttered curses under our breath, but just as a relationship with a parent can be strained by silence and absence, our relationship with God can be strained too. Too many missed worship services. Too long without opening our Bibles at home. Lacking focus even when we are in God’s house—all can widen the distance between us and our Maker.

And it’s always our fault. We deserve to have him rage at us. To slam the door and bar it shut forever. That, in part Is what the season of Lent is for. To take time and stop from our daily pattern. To deliberately place our sinfulness in front of us so that we appreciate all the more that God doesn’t slam the door. Our God chooses instead to never forget his people, never stop loving them, never stop holding out hope that they will return to him. “’Return to me,’ declares the LORD Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty.’” “Come home,” the Father pleads, “and know that I will welcome you with open arms. Repent, turn from your sin, turn back to me, and know that I will return to you.”

I want you to look at verse 3 again though. Notice how Zechariah emphasizes that this whole idea of repentance and forgiveness isn’t his idea but God’s certain promise. In one short verse, he says it three times: “This is what the LORD Almighty says…declares the LORD Almighty…says the LORD Almighty.” God is trying to make his point crystal clear. “Wake up! This is what I’m telling you!” And what does the LORD Almighty say? “Return to me…and I will return to you.”

The LORD (Did you notice the all-caps name?) The God of faithful, steadfast, never-ending love remembers us. He never forgets us, never stops loving us. This is what Lent is actually about. Knowing our sin so that we recognize our Savior even more.

Remember the angry young man in our introduction? While that could be about a great many sons and fathers, in this case I have someone specific in mind. That son eventually did go home. Years later, after rebelling against his earthly father and his heavenly Father, he returned to both. Both fathers forgave him, welcomed him home with loving arms, and embraced him with joy. That young man’s name was Lee Strobel, who would go on to write books such as The Case for Christ, The Case for a Creator, The Case for Easter, and other Christian books that have helped many wayward sons and daughters find their way home.

For us who’ve never stormed out of our home and needed to be reconciled to an earthly father, we perhaps can’t appreciate the joy and peace in that renewed relationship. Or maybe we can, in a sense. Because we who once were enemies of God, objects of wrath, slaves to sin…we have been reconciled to our heavenly Father. And our God didn’t just wait and watch, he moved. He sent his own perfect Son to redeem all his fallen children. Jesus was even forsaken by his Father for a time on the cross so that we could be brought into the heavenly family. Through Jesus, we wear robes of perfect righteousness fit for an eternity with the Father who never gave up.

So Christians, repent. Cast aside your sin and return to God. When we come to him in repentance, he returns to us with assurance. When we return to him in confession, he returns to us in absolution, forgiveness. When we return to him and seek his favor, he returns to us with the reminder that we have had it all along—for Jesus’ sake.

Then let that return in faith lead us also to a return in faithful living. For the next forty days, what if we purposefully thought about what is really important in life, and less about what isn’t? Our jobs, our homes, our bank accounts will still require attention, but what if they took second place to our time in God’s Word? God knows we need earthly things, and he promises to provide what we need. What if we just trusted him on that? This Lent, let’s learn from the bad example of Israel’s ancestors. Hear God’s call to return to him. And know God’s promise that he will return to us. Our Father is waiting with open arms. Amen.