What's with Ash Wednesday?
"Yet even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment. - Joel 2:12-13"
Today, millions of Christians around the world in various denominations will take time out of their weekday to make their way to Church, to be marked with a cross of ashes upon the forehead.
Why?
It is not, or at least should not be, a mark to show how holy a Christian thinks they are. We do not boast in our righteousness, for our righteousness is like rags before the throne of God.
Rather the ashes serve a dual purpose: as both a reminder of the shortness of this life and as a witness of faith in an increasingly secular world. A world which will look at you askance and perhaps say, "What's with the thing on your forehead?" (Giving you an excellent opening to talk about Christ with respect and gentleness.) A world which will not understand you setting aside 40 days for repentance and renewal, nor understand the importance of doing such. A world which will think you are odd for marking yourself for Christ.
We saw this week, to our horror and sorrow, of the 21 Coptic Christians, members of our family in Christ Jesus, beheaded for "belonging to the People of the Cross." They are not the first Christians ISIS has killed, nor shall be the last of the precious martyrs for Christ. In a world where people are dying for belonging to Jesus, it is good to remember on this Ash Wednesday that this life is brief, and that it is an eternity with Christ which we are journeying towards. A journey that will take us through the Cross before we can arrive.
As we are marked with ashes, we are told, "Remember, you are dust and to dust you will return." It is a reminder of the brevity of this life, of the death that will come to us all, yet also a promise of the life that is to come. For as we die to self and cling to Christ, we are assured that as He defeated death and lives, so we shall live with Him. That though the crosses we must bear in this life may be heavy or even cost us our lives, He has already borne the ultimate Cross and won the great victory for us.
And so we use this Lenten season, beginning today, to turn away from the things of the world, from sin, and turn again to God who calls to us, "Return to me with your whole heart." He who loves us enough to die for us beckons us to use this time to come closer to Him.
Ash Wednesday is a day of humility and repentance, but also of hope and joy. For we know that in and of ourselves, we are not worthy of the vast and unfathomable love Christ Jesus has shown to us, especially upon the Cross. We know this it was because of that abounding love for us Jesus willingly became the lamb, taking our sins and bearing them, so that we might be redeemed. In the face of such love, we are humbled, and we should seek to repent of the sins we still cling to, laying them at the foot of the Cross. We are also filled with the hope of the life to come, and the joy of the Lord which is given to us by the Holy Spirit.
Is not such hope and joy worth being marked as the Lord's own? You don't have to have ashes upon your forehead for the world to know you belong to Jesus; hopefully your witness and life shine unmistakably out with His message and love. I don't know about you, my friends, but I want to be known as belonging to "The People of the Cross," no matter what the cost.
On towards the Cross,
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