What is Ash Wednesday?
For the past several years it has been my tradition to write about special days and seasons of The Christian Year or The Liturgical Year. This coming Wednesday will be Ash Wednesday, a special day for Christians to reflect upon our frailty, mortality, and sinfulness. Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, is the beginning of our preparation for Easter. The post that follows is an edited version of something I have put up before. If you're interested in my series on this subject, check out: Ash Wednesday: Practice and Meaning.
Many Christians, mostly Protestants and independents, had never given Ash Wednesday a thought until a three years ago. Then, in 2004, Ash Wednesday became a huge day in American Protestant consciousness. Why? Because on that day Mel Gibson released what was to become his epic blockbuster, The Passion of the Christ. For the first time in history, the phrase "Ash Wednesday" was on the lips of millions of evangelical Christians, not just Catholics and other "high church" folk.
I grew up with only a vague notion of Ash Wednesday. To me it was some Catholic holy day that I, as an evangelical Protestant, didn't have to worry about. During the spring of my first year of college, I was startled to see a woman who worked in my dining hall with a dark cross on her forehead. At first I wondered if it were a bizarre bruise. Then it dawned on me what I was seeing. Here was my introduction to Ash Wednesday piety. I felt impressed that this woman was willing to wear her ashes so publicly, even though it seemed a rather odd thing to do. Let me assure you, it never dawned on me that this would be something I might do myself.
Fast forward sixteen years. During my first year as Senior Pastor of Irvine Presbyterian Church, I learned that this church had a tradition of celebrating Ash Wednesday with a special worship service. It included the "imposition of ashes" on the foreheads of worshippers. I, as the pastor, was expected to be one of the chief imposers! So I decided it was time to learn about the meaning of Ash Wednesday. I wanted to be sure that the theological underpinnings of such a practice were biblically solid, and that it was something in which I could freely participate.
Ash Wednesday is a Christian holiday (holy day) that is not a biblical requirement (rather like Christmas). Nevertheless, it has been honored by Christians for well over ten centuries at the beginning of Lent, a six-week season of preparation for Easter. In the earliest centuries, Christians who had fallen into persistent sin had ashes sprinkled on their bodies as a sign of repentance, even as Job repented "in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6). Around the tenth century, all believers began to signify their need for repentance by having ashes placed on their foreheads in the shape of a cross. Even this sign of sinfulness hinted at the good news yet to come through its shape.
Today, celebrations of Ash Wednesday vary among churches that recognize this holiday. In my church ashes are placed on our foreheads as a reminder of our mortality and sinfulness. The person who imposes the ashes quotes what God once said to Adam after he had sinned: "You are dust, and to dust you shall return" (Gen 3:19). This is the bad news of our sinfulness that prepares us to receive the good news of forgiveness in Christ.
What I value most about our Ash Wednesday worship is the chance for me and my congregation to openly acknowledge together our frailty and sinfulness. In a world that often expects us to be perfect, we can freely confess our imperfections. We can let down our pretenses and be truly honest with each other about who we are. We all bear the mark of sin, from the youngest babies to the oldest seniors. We all stand guilty before a holy God. We all are mortal and will someday experience bodily death. Thus we all need a Savior.
