Powdery, nitrogen rich, residue left behind after burning a substance |  |
Wednesday this week sees the start of the season of Lent as Christians celebrate Ash Wednesday. This is normally marked with a Eucharist including the imposition of ashes - the cross is drawn on the forehead of each person using ash. But why do Christians do this? Why ash?
First of all the ash is made from the burning of last year’s palm crosses given out on Palm Sunday when Christians remember Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This is symbolic of where the season of Lent is heading to - Ash Wednesday is the start of this penitential season and Christians are look forward to Holy Week which begins with Palm Sunday.
First of all the ash is made from the burning of last year’s palm crosses given out on Palm Sunday when Christians remember Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This is symbolic of where the season of Lent is heading to - Ash Wednesday is the start of this penitential season and Christians are look forward to Holy Week which begins with Palm Sunday.
Another major symbol of ash is that it reminds them of their mortality - as the ash is placed on their foreheads the priest says: “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return. Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ”. This is an echo of Genesis chapter 3:19 when Adam is cursed following his sin with the words “"Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return”. This is also picked up the book of Ecclesiastes when the writer says “All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return“. “Dust to Dust, Ashes to Ashes” is also part of the funeral liturgy. So it is that Christians are focused on the shortness of their lives and the need to be faithful to God during such a short time during Lent.
Ashes also have a long history of being used to express grief and repentance in the BIble - for example Job repents when he doubts God in chapter 42 of the eponymous book of the bible and says: "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes”. And Jesus himself talks of this practice when criticising the scribes and pharisees: “If the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago (sitting) in sackcloth and ashes." (Matthew 11.21). Early Christians such as Tertullian suggested that Christians should confess their sins accompanied by lying in ashes.
Finally Christians might like to reflect on the power of ash - out of such an apparently dead thing comes new life. Ash is a fantastic fertilizer and this seems to be a perfect metaphor for the message of Easter when Christians believe that Jesus used his death to secure new life for the world in the resurrection. Christians remember how in a few short weeks they will celebrate that in Jesus’ death and suffering their future salvation has been bought.
Finally Christians might like to reflect on the power of ash - out of such an apparently dead thing comes new life. Ash is a fantastic fertilizer and this seems to be a perfect metaphor for the message of Easter when Christians believe that Jesus used his death to secure new life for the world in the resurrection. Christians remember how in a few short weeks they will celebrate that in Jesus’ death and suffering their future salvation has been bought.
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