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Beauty for ashes


"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. they will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor"
Isaiah 61 v 1- 3

In Luke 4 v 18- 19, Jesus proclaims part of the above in an announcement that he, the messiah, has indeed come to do these things...

I love these scriptures and I have written on a couple of other aspects in other posts. I just wanted to focus on this one aspect-

- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes...


What does it mean that he came to give us beauty for ashes?  In the past, sometimes when an upright or Godly person had sinned they would don sackcloth and ashes. The ashes would be rubbed on their face and skin. The ashes were a sign of shame and sorrow at having sinned.

Now he wants us to have beauty instead of the ashes. He doesn't want us to hide in shame or feel we have to wear the unhappy face  when we do wrong. There is no penance. We don't have to punish ourselves to make things right. Christ died to pay it all. No shame is left. We sin, turn from wrong, and keep our beauty. Whats more a crown of beauty is bestowed by Christ himself upon us. He declares and pronounces to the world that we are beautiful because he says so. We wear no ashes of shame. Instead we display confidence. We can be unashamed because of him.
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