Let us revisit the meaning of Ash Wednesday where Holy Week began 40 days ago, as we will solemnly celebrate the crucifixion of our Lord on Good Friday of this week.
Then I turned to the Lord God to seek an answer by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, “Ah, Lord, great and awesome God, keeping covenant and steadfast love with those who love you and keep your commandments, we have sinned and done wrong, acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and ordinances. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land.
Daniel 9: 3-6
The use of ashes is a significant ritual in Judaism. The tradition began with the transgression of Adam from which we get the ritualistic words that accompany our rite this day, “you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Beyond Genesis ashes continue to be a symbolic representation of reconciliation. In Second Samuel when Tamar was raped by her half-brother, she sprinkled ashes on her head to express her grief. Job placed ashes upon himself to express sorrow for his sins and faults. Jeremiah called the Israelites to repentance saying to them “grid on sackcloth, roll in ashes.” Daniel pleaded with God saying, “I turned to the Lord God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.”
Jesus made reference to this Jewish practice of repentance. When the inhabitants of two cities witnessed the miracles of Jesus and yet refused to repent, Jesus said to them, “If the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago sitting in sackcloth and ashes.”
The early church continued this practice. Ash Wednesday begins the liturgical season of Lent which lasts 40 days, representative of the 40 days that Jesus spent in the desert enduring the temptations of Satan. In the second and third centuries, Christians who committed grave faults were forced to wear a sackcloth and were sprinkled with ashes. They were then turned out of the Christian community, the same as when Adam was turned out of the Garden of Eden. During the next 40 days they were to reflect on their sins and do penance. On Mundy Thursday, the day we celebrate the Passover meal and the Lord’s Supper, they were allowed to return back into the Christian community, reconciled with the Lord and with their brothers and sisters in Christ. Ash Wednesday was for the church a time for reflection, repentance, reconciliation.
In the year 1091, at the Synod of Beneventum, Pope Urban II made the receiving of ashes on the forehead a required ritual for all Christians. At the Synod the pope officially called this solemn day, in Latin, Feria Quarta Cinerum, “Ash Wednesday.”
The ashes used on Ash Wednesday typically come from the burning of palm branches from the previous year’s Palm Sunday celebration. After Palm Sunday, the palm branches are collected, dried, and burned to create the ashes used in the Ash Wednesday service. These ashes are then mixed with a small amount of water or oil to create a paste, which is applied to the forehead of a penitent worshipper in the shape of a cross as a symbol of repentance and mortality.
The ashes remind us of our humble origin and of how the body of Adam, our forefather, was formed out of the dust of the earth; also, to remind us of death, when our bodies will return to dust. This ritual requires doing penance for our sins. While the ashes remind us that we will die and return to the ground, believing in Jesus affirms that we will be raised with Him in glorious new bodies.
Let us recall the placing of ashes on the forehead as a sign of repentance. From a biblical perspective, ashes can be an expression of spiritual repentance that is appropriate for any day of the year. Physically in practice, or perhaps spiritually in thought, placing ashes upon our forehead can be a ritualistic means of reconnecting with our God.
Ash Wednesday began a six-week journey of repentance. As we now come to the close of our pilgrimage, standing in the horizon of Good Friday, we must search our souls, asking ourselves: Have I repented of my sins? Have I abandoned a life of worldly living? Have I discarded the flesh to live in the Spirit? Have I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior?
Capt. Tim Scott is the rector of the Salvation Army community of believers in Florence, where I presently worship, preached a sermon on Sunday, March 17 of this year, titled “One More Soul.” In his sermon, Scott recounted three men nailed to three crosses on Calvary Hill. “One man died in sin. One man died from sin. One man died for sin.” The man on left refused the message of salvation. The man on the right accepted the message of salvation. The man in the center was salvation. The pastor then asked a very poignant question: “Which thief are you?”