Ash Wednesday at Faith

“Remember that you are dust,

and to dust you shall return.”

For nearly a thousand years, these words have been spoken to young and old alike as the sign of the cross is traced on their foreheads with ashes—the Imposition of Ashes, as it has come to be known.  “What does this mean?”

Ashes in the Bible

The Bible contains a number of references to ashes and dust (cf. Joshua 7:6; 1 Samuel. 4:12; 2 Samuel 1:2, 15:32; Job 2:12, 16:15; Jeremiah 25:34; Lamentation 2:10; Ezekiel 27:30; Jonah 3:6). In fact, the Lord's curse on Adam, “dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19) is echoed in the Imposition of Ashes formula. 


In the New Testament, Jesus declares: “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes” (Matt. 11:21). Thus, in the Bible, ashes carry a two-fold meaning: as a sign of human mortality (Gen. 3:19) and as a sign of public repentance (Matt. 11:21).
 
Ashes Today?

A reminder of your baptism. Lutherans use the Imposition of Ashes with the two-fold biblical understanding of ashes: as a sign of our mortality and as a sign of our repentance. The pastor traces the cross on the forehead with the traditional formula, “Remember, you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” It's a paraphrases of the words of God in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:19).
The worshipper acknowledges that God's judgment against our sin is right and just. Made in the sign of the cross as a reminder of the very instrument by which our Lord took upon himself the punishment for our sin, in our place. Thus, the cross of ashes serves to remind us that we are sinners, and that Christ died for us sinners.

Imposition of Ashes at Faith

Ash Wed begins with,

Dear brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ, on this day the Church begins a holy season of prayerful and penitential reflection. Our attention is especially directed to the holy sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. From ancient times the season of Lent has been kept as a time of special devotion, self-denial, and humble repentance born of a faithful heart that dwells confidently on His Word and draws from it life and hope. . . .

 
So what happens after you leave Ash Wednesday with those ashes on your forehead? The first thing that happens is that you go out into the world where others will see that cross on your forehead. Although reactions may vary, your silent witness has been given: you have been marked as one redeemed by Christ the crucified!

But the other thing that happens is that you will eventually go home and wash those dirty ashes off your face once and for all. And doesn't that water also become a concrete, tactile reminder of the water of your baptism, where your sins were washed away forever? God's grace abounds!


(Thanks to www.lcms.org for much of the info.)