Today Is Ash Wednesday

Today marks the beginning of the holy season we call Lent. The word Lent originally meant “springtime” or the lengthening of days. The early church celebrated Lent only for a few days before Easter, and instead of a small smudge of ash on the forehead, the ashes were sprinkled over the person’s head. In the seventh century, the church set the period of Lent at 40 days (excluding Sundays) to remind people of the duration of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness.

Lent isn’t really a long funeral. It is instead a celebration of life as we know it. Easter is a season of the Christian calendar that lasts until Pentecost. The traditional statement associated with Ash Wednesday is “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” This is a reminder of the frailty and morality we all experience in life. I’ve often thought “Hey, man, you are dirt,” isn’t exactly uplifting, but this is not the point. Before we can appreciate the new life of Jesus Christ, we must place in contrast with what we know. Watch the news! Listen to your neighbors, or check your bank account. We all know scarcity and fear. We all at times have dashed hopes and brokenness. We know ashes!

Read Matthew 6. This reading should make us all wonder if we have missed the mark in our piety. The true reward waiting at the end of Lent is not that our piety will be rewarded, but that our ashes are precisely the material God will use to bring new life. This season will make us look at our ashes in a whole new way. Ashes are the beginning of so many of our stories. Christ will use our “ashes” to make new life. On this Ash Wednesday, celebrate that Christ has come and died for each of us. Share the joy of Christ!

Prayer: Create a clean heart in me, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Amen.

Matthew 6: 1 – “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”

By the Rev. Tommy Herndon
Image: Adobe iStock