Ash Wednesday
When the prophet Jonah began preaching in the Assyrian capitol of Nineveh that God would destroy it in forty days, the Assyrian king “laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat it ashes” (Jonah 3:6). He commanded his people to do the same, saying “Who can tell if God will turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?” (verse 9).
In the Old Testament, dressing in sackcloth and sitting in ashes was an outward sign of inner repentance. Jeremiah told the people of Judah, “Dress in sackcloth and roll about in ashes! Make mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; for the plunderer will suddenly come upon us” (Jeremiah 6:26). The Lord God forgave the people of Ninevah; but He delivered Judah to the Babylonians because they did not repent.
The name “Ash Wednesday” comes from the ancient practice of the Christian Church to place ashes on the forehead as both a call to and a sign of repentance. Repentance is first of all a confession that we have broken God’s Law, failed to do good, and that we deserve God’s just and eternal punishment. As we examine our lives and compare them with God’s Ten Commandments, we need to acknowledge that we are not perfect as God requires and that we have broken all ten in our thoughts, words, and deeds.
This repentance is an important preparation for celebrating Holy Week. For when we acknowledge our sinful nature, confess our many sins, and see where we have failed to be holy; then we can see our need for a Savior from sin and understand why Jesus died on the cross.
Faith in Jesus is the second part of repentance. St. Paul wrote, “The Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe” (Galatians 3:22). The more we recognize that we have fallen short of God’s holiness, the more we need to cling to Jesus and the salvation He earned for all people by His holy life and innocent death as our substitute.
As we “sit on the ash-heap of our sins” this Ash Wednesday, may we ask God to “wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin” (Psalm 51:2)—through faith in Jesus. Then we can pray that God would “create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Ps. 51:10), in order that God can help us love Him so that we fight against sin and do what pleases Him in our daily lives.