Symbols of Lent“Ashes” Genesis 3:19
This Lenten Season, for our midweek series, we will ponder some of the symbols of Lent. These are some of the tangible things, the items that we associate with this season of penitence and reflection. They are taken mostly from the Passion narrative of our Lord – markers in the text that accompany different aspects of his suffering on our behalf.
We will consider the crowing rooster, the 30 pieces of silver, the whip or scourge, the crown of thorns and the seamless coat of Christ. May these images from the text of our Lord’s passion serve as windows to draw us in and consider the depth and breadth of both his suffering for our sin, but also of his great love for sinners.
Today, however, Ash Wednesday, a slight departure from that. The image before us is not directly from the Passion account, but rather it is in the name of the day – Ashes. The symbol that marks the beginning of this season for us. A symbol that we even wear on our brows in a ceremonial expression of repentance.
This is from the pages of Scripture. But as we chase down this symbol and how it has been used, we will see several things: Yes, ashes were a sign of deep sorrow and repentance. Ashes were what was left after God’s wrath and judgment are poured out, even with fire. But ashes were also what remained of a sacrifice – a burnt offering. And that draws us to consider the once-and-for-all sacrifice that Jesus made for us all.
Ashes as mark of repentance: Consider some of the passages in which ashes are used as an outward expression of a deep inner sorrow over sin:
The people of Nineveh used ashes in their expression of repentance – when the prophet Jonah preached, “40 days and Nineveh will be destroyed”.
Mordecai and the Jews in Babylon expressed their sorrow and repentance by sackcloth and ashes in the book of Esther.
Likewise Daniel speaks of his use of ashes in Daniel 9; “Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.” Job also repents in “dust and ashes”. And Tamar, after she was violated, put ashes on herself, in an expression of deep shame and sorrow.
Time and again, ashes serve as an outward sign of inner sorrow, remorse, shame, guilt, grief and mourning. While we express our thoughts and feelings with words and now emojis and other various ways, the ancients used these types of symbolic actions in a powerful display, just as they tore garments and donned sackcloth.
Today, as we partake of a similar ritual, and receive ashes on our foreheads – let it not be for show as if to impress other people – but rather as a community of faith to remind ourselves and each other that we are dust – and that because of our sins, to dust we will return. Death is the wages of sin, and that we have each earned well. When you see the ashes on your fellow Christians – let it remind you – that you are one of them – and that together we bear the same sin, together we mourn our own shame. Just as together we make confession of it.
But that same community is also the baptized – so that the filth of sin is daily washed away. This body is connected to each other and to Christ in a blessed communion, and so we will also come forward to receive the remedy – the blessed Sacrament of Christ’s body and blood. The ashes are a temporary reminder. But the blessings and promises of God are everlasting.
Ashes as leftovers of judgment:
Another use of the image of ashes in Scripture is to show what is left after judgment comes. And since judgment is often served or at least pictured by fire, ashes are all that remain. When an invading army conquers a city – they burn it to the ground. When the hot anger of the Lord breathes from his flaring nostrils, the wicked are burned up like stubble.
Daniel 3: [the king decreed that any] who speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made an ash heap.
One of Isaiah’s more colorful threats is that those who have a deluded heart will feed on ashes (Isaiah 44:20)
2 Peter 2:
[God] condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly.
Ashes are a reminder that the judgment of God is fierce and thorough. His punishment is serious. This is no slap on the wrist. For the wicked, no hope remains.
And this is also a reminder to us when the ashes are applied to our foreheads – remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Adam was formed from the dust, and because of sin Adam returned to the dust, the ashes. You are a child of Adam, born in sin and continuing to sin. And so one day your body will return to the ground, return to the dust, ashes to ashes. (Genesis 3:19)
It’s a sign of repentance but also an acknowledgment of death – we wear it on our foreheads today. But we wear it in our bodies every day. The aches and pains, the sniffles and coughs, the conditions and diseases – all are signs of what sin has wrought. Death is the real problem. Only Christ has a solution.
And finally, ashes may been seen as the results of a burnt offering, a sacrifice.
Ashes as remnants of a sacrifice:
The burnt offerings of the Old Testament were some of the most important sacrifices. There, the fires burned upward – as if lifting the sacrifice up to heaven to God himself. A pleasing aroma to the Lord. Bulls, Lambs, Rams, small birds, all sacrificed for sins. Abraham almost sacrificed Issac as a burnt offering, until God provided the substitute – a Ram caught in a thicket.
But not all the blood of beasts on Jewish altars slain could give the guilty conscience piece or wash away the stain – of sin. Not all the burnt offerings we could imagine, not thousands of rams, could satisfy God’s fierce and hot wrath over sin. Shall I give him my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? Shall I do like Abraham almost did? Will that suffice? No, not even that.
But also like with Abraham and Issac, for us, God himself provides the lamb for the offering. He provides his own Son. And Jesus willingly offers himself on the altar of the cross. He is consumed by the wrath of God – he becomes the one sacrifice for sin. The cross.
Now, normally crucifixion victims were burned, as was the custom of Pagan Romans for disposal of bodies. It was the Jews who buried their dead. So when Jesus predicts that he will be buried (and therefore not cremated) it is a notable point about his sacrifice. Unlike all other sacrifices, which end only in a pile of ashes – Jesus has a different destiny, a burial but also a resurrection. Not hopelessness, but the source of all hope. Not sadness and sorrow but joy that springs eternal. A body that died and was buried but would rise again in glory, appear to many, ascend to heaven, rule at the right hand of the Father, and will one day come again to judge the living and the dead, bodily.
Adam died, and death brought him to ashes. All of Adam’s children follow in his deadly footsteps. And dust you are, and to dust you shall return. But that’s not the end of the story for you. Instead it’s, “Ashes to Ashes, dust to dust… to resurrection.” Jesus died and conquered death, bringing death and sin and hell and devil to nothing. And so in him you have a future far beyond the dust of death. In him you have life, and have it abundantly.
Repent and believe. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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