Job 1.20-22, Worship with Ashes on Your Head

The story of Job confronts us with raw grief, deep trust, and worship. In Job 1.20-22, we see a man who has lost all: his children, his possessions, his comfort. Instead of hiding or cursing, he rises, tears his robe, shaves his head, falls to the ground, and worships. He does not feign strength. He does not mask his pain. He faces God in his brokenness. He speaks the truth: “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” Yet he does not sin or charge God with wrong. His grief becomes worship.

This scene teaches us that lament is not a failure of faith; rather it may be its truest expression. When the ground beneath us shifts, worship is not always a triumphant chorus; sometimes it is a trembling kneel, tears on the cheeks of one who says, “I hurt, but I still trust.” We do not lose faith by lamenting; we may, in fact, deepen it. Job models this. He refuses to pretend his pain is absent. He refuses to turn away from God.

In his loss, Job reminds himself and us that nothing we have truly belongs to us: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return.” What we hold we hold by grace. What is taken is not always a punishment, but a paradox of the giving God. God gives; God takes. Job’s strength is not the stability of his world but the steadfastness of his God.

It is here that we glimpse the gospel. In Jesus Christ we find the greater Job. He laid down far more than a worldly loss. Stripped, mocked, forsaken on the cross, he trusted the Father’s name even when the cries were too deep for words. In his arms we find one who knows sorrow, who bore more than ours, so we might never bear it alone.

When you face the ashes of your life, whether loss, illness, broken relationships, or unanswered prayers, you are not outside God’s reach. You are invited to come with your tears, your questions, your confusion and still say with Job: “Blessed be the name of the LORD.” The same One who gave you breath gives you hope. The same One who allowed loss is the same One who draws near in it.

Grief does not disqualify us from worship. To weep is not to doubt. To turn your eyes to the cross is to find a God who took our darkest hour and made it the birth pangs of the resurrection. Cry out. Kneel. Worship. In the ashes the gardener is at work, and the garden is coming again.

~PW 🌮🛶

"Pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world." ~ C.S. Lewis

For more on this topic, check out my full sermon from Job 1.20-22, Worship with Ashes on Your Head