Easter is early this year. This means that Ash Wednesday will be here on February 10th. Until 2004 many of us evangelical Christians in America didn’t give much thought to Ash Wednesday. But on that day in 2004 Mel Gibson released his epic movie, “The Passion of the Christ”. Suddenly evangelical Christians began to ask about Ash Wednesday.
Most Americans view Ash Wednesday as a high holy day {of some kind} for Catholics and a few “high church” Protestants. Many evangelicals tend to view things like Ash Wednesday as a religious ritual which detracts from what really matters, which is having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Obviously Ash Wednesday, or the season of Lent which it begins, is not a biblical requirement. But then neither is Christmas or Easter, neither of which are mentioned in Scripture. In the early beginnings of the church, Christians who felt trapped in some sin had ashes sprinkled on their bodies as a sign of repentance. This was modeled after the Jews who would throw ashes above their head when they experienced deep grief. Job repented “in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). Around the tenth century, most believers began to show their need for repentance by having ashes placed on their foreheads in the shape of a cross.
Those who take part in an Ash Wednesday service are openly acknowledging their sinfulness and the sorrow they feel because of it. The shape of the cross symbolically points toward the Good News which all Christians celebrate just six weeks later, on Easter morning.
It is important for all Christians to engage in the soul-searching which Ash Wednesday symbolizes. Easter has a much greater impact upon us once we have honestly reminded ourselves of just how much we desperately needed a Savior.
Bro. Dennis