Wednesday, February 9, 2005
Ash Wednesday
ASH WEDNESDAY
Ash Wednesday takes its name from the ancient custom of marking with ashes the foreheads of worshipers entering upon the observance of Lent. This is done as a gesture of repentance and recalls the actions of Job who said, "I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6).
While not a common custom among us, it is not hard to see how such an imposition of ashes could be a powerful reminder of the meaning of the day. If the ashes are applied during kneeling, that very posture expresses humility before God. The ashes themselves can both symbolize our mortality ("dust to dust") and remind us of our need for cleansing - and of the direct connection between the two. "The wages of sin is death" (Rom 6:23).
Where this custom is practiced the ashes are usually derived from the burned palms from the previous Palm Sunday. I'm told that one palm leaf will produce enough ashes for several years, for it doesn't take many ashes to "ash" a whole congregation. Like sin, they are very dirty and go a long way.
"But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more" (Rom 5:20).
Usually the pastor takes the ashes on the end of his thumb and makes the sign of the cross on the forehead of each worshiper. When done in connection with Confession and Absolution, sin and grace are both symbolized in a very personal way. Finally, though, as Paul reminds us (Rom 2:29), outward symbolism is worthless if what is pictured outwardly is not reality within - in the heart.
So the conclusion of the matter is this: on this Ash Wednesday, whether or not anything is applied to your forehead, take up the Word -- the Law and the Gospel -- so that God the Holy Spirit marks your heart with the ashes of true mourning over sin most deadly and with the symbol of faith's reliance,
the sign of the cross--
the CROSS
Where He in flesh, our flesh who made,
our sentence bore, our ransom paid. 