Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday, like Lent, is not mentioned in the Bible.  However, Ash Wednesday is set aside as the beginning of the Lenten season.  Lent is a time of reflection and repentance, a time of turning our hearts back to God, and a time of preparation for the resurrection of the King. 

Joel 2:12-13 says this, “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.”

Ashes were of significant importance in the Old Testament.  Ashes are a symbol of sacrifice and of mourning.  Esther 4:3 tells us of a time when the Jews were to be killed, and says, “And in every province, wherever the king’s command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.”  The mourner puts ashes on his or her head.  In the case of Esther, the Jewish race was about to be destroyed.  Her nation showed intense grief and distress.

When God appointed Jonah to tell the people of Nineveh that God was going to destroy them for their wickedness, Jonah 3:5-7 tells us of how they responded:  “And the people of Nineveh believed God.  They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.  The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.  And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, ‘By the decree of the king and his nobles:  Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything.  Let them not feed or drink water.”

When you think of these two instances, how do you feel?  I feel ashamed.  I feel ashamed because when I face trouble or I face my sins, I’m not mournful.  I’m not mournful for the sins of the world around me.  I’m not mournful when disasters happen.  I’m not mournful when terrible things happen.  Are you?  Be honest with yourself. 

True mournfulness is when we express true grief, woe.  That is what Ash Wednesday and Lent are all about.  It is about a time of realization that we are not mournful of the things going on around us, nor for the sin in our own lives and for the lack of recognition of sin in our lives.  It’s a time to ask God for forgiveness and to turn from those sinful attitudes.  When we do this, God will bless us for it.  Turn back to him.  Create in me a clean heart, O Lord!

“Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a right spirit within me.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from They presence;

Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.

Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation;

And renew a right spirit within me.”