Ash Wednesday emphasizes part of the “already but not yet” reality of Christian life: it acknowledges that death is still in all our futures, and that therefore repentance must be part of our lives. It thus establishes a theological context for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. The link with Good Friday is especially significant because Ash Wednesday reminds us that we are the reason for Good Friday.
With Job we say, “I repent in dust and ashes”.
The ashes traditionally come from burning the palm leaves from the previous Palm Sunday, some of which are formed into crosses. That they go onto the forehead in the form of a cross reminds us that we are united to Christ in His death and thus that we are also united to Him in His Resurrection. Wearing them publicly is a testimony that we acknowledge that we are still people in need of a Savior.
As Christians, technically our current physical bodies may temporarily return to dust before being resurrected, but according to my theological perspective, this is not death in any substantive sense for a Christian. “Death” is just a momentary phase-transition into eternal life. So, I disagree with the statement (or its implication) on Ash Wed. that “to dust we shall return”. That statement perhaps applies to nonbelievers.
By the way I like David Meece. Wore out is “7” album on my tape deck back in the 1980s…
I appreciate your devotion to repentance. For me, repenting is a good thing, but I don’t need ashes or a public display to do it effectively. Jesus seems to discourage public displays of ritualistic piety in the Sermon on the Mount. And You expressed that the ashes proclaim publicly that we still need a saviour but I would disagree, thinking that what Christians should proclaim is that Jesus has already accomplished our salvation. No?
For me, communion functions as Jesus-given ritual to remind us of being united with Christ in his death and in the His new life, so personally see no need for another ritual day with so much confused theological baggage accreting over the centuries. But if you feel you get something out of it, more power to you.
Yes, its a quote from the OT before Jesus’s work and resurrection. And in the context of the Genesis narrative, likely indicating the natural fate of humans (they are not immortal) in the absence of supernatural intervention by God.
And sure we all need a Saviour… and fortunately he has already come and accomplished salvation for us “it is finished”!
If we don’t recognize the good news of what he has already done for us, how can we convey that to others so that they might choose to follow him also ? Why go back and dwell on the grave that no longer holds us captive?
As I explained above, theologically, I don’t think Christians are subject to death in any substantive sense, it is only a momentary phase-change to eternal life. That which is truly “us” will never die and even our material body is not doomed to dust but will be resurrected. Think of the deep theological truth of everyone’s favourite sunday school verse, John 3:16. they shall not perish
But we don’t still need to be saved. We do still need to ask for forgiveness for our sins, but according to scripture, the person to ask for that is the one we have offended–either the human we have offended (make things right with your brother) or God (e.g. via the Lord’s Prayer). There is no suggestion that we need to parade around in random public settings to display to unbelieving strangers that we are asking someone else for forgiveness… that seems very odd!
I don’t think that is correct. I would say he was opposed to insincere public displays of ritualistic piety. I’m sure Jesus was involved in plenty of rituals and customary worship at the time. I never understood Matthew 6:6 to mean prayer groups or a preacher praying with his congregation is doing it wrong. We should not be praying for public attention with a holier than thou attitude. Our prayer should be sincere and directed towards God, lifting ourselves and the community up. But getting together in prayer with the body of Christ is not a sin.
And as you noted, Jesus himself initiated communion and gave us the Lord’s Prayer. He attended a wedding, he was even baptized!
One could also say they don’t need to go to church to repent effectively. That is true. That does not mean there is no value in doing so.
It really just seems you don’t like ritual. Public worship is a time to grow spiritually as part of a communion invested in Jesus. Saying we don’t need that is, well, something I do not support.
Insincere rituals: bad. Sincerely performed rituals in the service of God: good.
Theology is fun and nice, but many of my theological views are not always relevant to my daily affairs. Yes, belief in heaven provides hope, but that’s precisely hope from this mortal and sinful predicament I am in. It’s far too easy to slip into sin or become complacent. Dedication to rituals, the tactile touch of a rosary and so forth, help millions of people worship God and grow in faith.
To live is Christ, to die is gain. I believe it but I struggle to “live Christ” on a daily basis. Ash Wednesday is meant to help that first part. Maybe some of us just aren’t as mature as you in our spiritual walk and need things like Ash Wednesday to keep us grounded?
No one said to do that. But if people see God at work in our lives and we attempt to live by a holier standard, the Gospel, in my opinion, is being spread. Theological debate does not spread the gospel in my experience.
Seeds could be planted by a scientist with ashes just by friends seeing it and saying, isn’t that a scientist, why do they believe in God? Or by a teacher or anyone anywhere. Many students are astonished when they find out their (favorite! ) science teacher believes in God.
You should give up your dislike of Ash Wednesday for Lent!
Who doesn’t recognize that Good news? Ash Wednesday is doubling down on it.
And what is finished? How did Jesus accomplish salvation for us? Are you an advocate of penal substitution?
If he already did all that I wouldn’t even need to repent. His work was finished. My work is ongoing.
Many Christians have deluded themselves into thinking that works are not needed for salvation. Sure, works of the law are not needed, but it seems many like to skip James and a thousand other Biblical passages stressing works.
I’d say that In the end God wins the war for us but we are still here in the middle of the battle every day and we are supposed to soldier on.
You might want to distinguish between sincere and insincere public displays but Jesus doesn’t in his commands. I wasn’t thinking of Matthew 6:6 (although the principle is also there) but Matthew 6:16-18 " But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. "
Note that Jesus does not say “Make sure you are sincere before you go out displaying your fasting and piety publically”.
You are exaggerating what I mean to convey. Of course I think communal worship, and those sacraments commanded by God (baptism, communion) are important to express physically within the context of a community of believers. This is different than a display of one’s piety among nonbelievers what I was calling “the public”. And if you read my comment through, I don’t think ceremony is always bad in itself, but I AM cautious about it, recognizing a very real human temptation to become distracted by the packaging. That is why I think it is important that believers really consider the theology behind what they are doing. Before engaging in a ritual I ask myself “is this practice something that teaches me about God more deeply or something that is theologically misleading? Am I doing this ritual because I am so enamored by the frission of the act that I have become fixated on the decoration of the chalice and forget to drink the real wine?”
Like I told St. Roymond, if you get something positive out of Ash Wednesday, then more power to you! Personally, I find its theological baggage misleading and unhelpful.
Yes they did. I was responding to Vinnie’s comment about walking around with the ashes on one’s forehead in public on Ash Wednesday. That is the practice, is it not?
Jesus’s death on the cross and resurrection conquered death for us. He conquered death by death. Its done. Finished. I’m not sure what PSA has to do with it, but for the record I do not hold to that model of the atonement.
Please show me in scripture where it says works are needed for salvation. I don’t think works are needed for salvation but only living faith. However, the mark of living faith is that it transforms our behaviour such that good works naturally flow as a result of it.
By the way, I find it interesting that James 1:27 says Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
No mention of a need to engage in religious rituals there.
Well, yes and no. Jesus told the thief on the cross that he would be with him in paradise that day, so a body is not required for “the personhood” to exist with God. But yes, we are intended to be embodied creatures which is why we will receive new resurrected bodies. That is why I find it theologically misleading (or odd at best) that Ash Wednesday focuses on a momentary phase-shift which is not our final destination (which is eternal life with a physical body).
Paul may worried about loosing his salvation if he abandons his faith and hence encourages persistence in that faith. That is not saying that the salvation he currently had is not sufficient.
I imagined it because you mentioned it (or I though you did) —In the practice of Ash Wednesday, people walk around in public settings with ashes on their foreheads? No? And if you are saying the ashes are a sign that we are asking forgiveness, how is that not the odd scenario I described?
For me, the resurrection is where we see death conquered. The cross is death. Jesus was tortured and died. Willingly for our sake. That is what makes it life. Death was defeated when Jesus rose from the grave. Bodily resurrected by most Christians so dismissing our mortal coil is not so easy.
Try reading the book of James without modern blinders on. Faith without works is dead. I presume a dead faith is not a saving faith. Try reading Romans in its ancient Jewish context of Jew vs Gentile, Law vs No Law. His arguments are a lot more nuanced than how the gospel is presented today in many conservative circles (Just believe and be saved).
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Surely that faith cannot save, can it? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
Classic tests from James above, the book Luther, the leader of the Protestant reformation actually wanted removed from the Bible. The Bible, including Paul in parts, IMO, tells us we need faith and works to be saved. Works alone probably won’t do the trick and “faith” alone won’t do it either. Sure, faith produces works but an atheist can do charity as well. Faith is not needed to feed the poor.
Something not being an absolute necessity does not mean it’s not helpful or useful. You are confusing the two.
You are also over reaching in your exegesis. James doesn’t comment on baptism here. He may or may not have it in mind based on this verse alone. James certainly does not have Lent in mind though as it didn’t exist. It’s has no real place in this discussion. But lent is supposed to keep us “from being polluted by the world.” We are supposed to start it by giving up something an effort to draw closer to God. Ash Wednesday is the start of doing what James tells us we should be doing everyday. Many of us can use the kickstart as complacency is a real problem.
A special holiday devoted to celebrating the resurrection of Jesus is not needed either. Neither is one devoted to His birth. We should celebrate that everyday.
You are just picking an arbitrary part of a hill to defend and claiming all the special days and practice you probably do follow (like Christmas and Easter) do make sense but the ones you don’t celebrate or follow make no sense. Well, billions of Christians disagree with you.
As Christians we should celebrate Jesus every day. No need for special days like Christmas and Easter. You are doing it wrong.
I’m guessing the above lines sound silly, specious or wrong to you. Just know that is exactly how your arguments against Ash Wednesday (and Lent?) sound to me.
And a text without a context is a pretext. We really don’t know exactly where, when and to whom this was said by Jesus. Go constantly seems to run into conflict with the holier than thou types so that is where I locate it. If some people had a habit of ostentatious shows of faith then Jesus was probably commenting against that. He disliked hypocrisy.
Nowhere is Ash Wednesday an ostentatious display, anymore than communion, going to church, baptism, praying in a group setting or anything else of the nature.
You can dislike ritual but you don’t get to eisegetically make Jesus agree with you and not get called out on it. He initiated a very ritualistic prayer, communion at the last supper and was himself baptized (which was for the remission of sin) as most Christians are. He went to synagogues regularly, attended Jewish festivals and went alone to pray regularly.
The white Jewish who fought against the evil Jews and their silly purity, and food laws is a relic of the past. Jesus the Jew is now routinely understood within his own culture. For most Christians Jesus fulfilled OT Holidays (Passover, Tom kipper) and he apparently observed them (Passover in Luke 22 with fervent desire), the feast of Tabernacles (John 7), he shows up in winter at the Feast of Dedication (John 10) and so on.
Many modern Protestants often have an unhealthy dislike of ritual and repetition. This is to their own loss.
Ahh…yes, the supposed conflict between James and Paul. I figured that’s what you would bring up. And yes, I am well aware of the historical misuse of by some of an “easy-faith gospel” consisting solely of professed intellectual ideas. Recite the 4 spiritual laws and punch your ticket to heaven. I, like you, reject that sort of “faith” which both Paul and James would agree is no faith at all. But the debate within James is one of living faith versus a dead faith not one of faith versus works for salvation. So, one can consistently hold theologically salvation by faith alone with the knowledge that any true faith will be subsequently evidenced by works in the believer’s life.
Doesn’t evidence from scripture suggests that true faith alone can be sufficient? (Jesus tells the thief on the cross that he would be with him that day in paradise). And doesn’t the evidence suggest that works aren’t sufficient (the atheist doing good works example that you mention).
And I never condemned all ceremonies and rituals for all Christians did I?!
How? I never said that James addresses baptism…you putting words in my mouth that I never said
Gee… at least I tried to be respectful of your practice without a dogmatic statement that it was wrong for you! Thanks brother
I actually celebrate Christmas and Easter so the “doing it wrong” applied to me as well. The point is I don’t think you are doing it wrong but the same arguments can be used against Christmas and Easter.
In university some of us who started our day on Ash Wednesday early in the morning got a chance to explain what the ashes were about as we attended classes in the science building. One of the guys got the ashes because he knew it would likely end up requiring him to actually share his faith with others; he could never get up the courage before that – and afterwards he said all he had to do was touch his forehead and remember the ashes and the courage came.
So seeds got planted by science students, while over in the geology building the reigning professor emeritus spent much of his day explaining to (mostly freshmen) why he had a “gross gray cross” (to quote one sorority gal) on his forehead.
Yes! The ashes are us, the Cross is Jesus – and just as the original cross, the one on our foreheads is ‘dirty’.
If works weren’t needed, why did God prepare some beforehand for us?
Something Ash Wednesday is supposed to point out is that any time there is a good work we could have done but didn’t, that is as much sin as breaking any command. An illustration I used once was that if you go to the grocery store and on the way find a grocery cart someone ditched by the street, that’s a good work that God set in your path, and passing it by is a sin of omission. But at the same time that is a gift, an opportunity to build your new life in Christ, and it’s a bit rude to turn down a gift.
Or in somewhat ancient terms that Martin Luther picked up on, our “old man” is still around and needs to be killed daily – as that Australian Lutheran theologian I knew put it, “That ol’ bloke bin baptized, but he can still swim, so drown 'im ev’ry day!”
You skipped the introductory phrase that states the principle: “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them”
That theme is repeated every time He points out that hypocrites are intending to be seen.
That’s not what Jesus said – the declaration “τετέλεσται (teh-TEH-less-tie)” includes everything, all the work Jesus came to do was finished on the Cross. In first century terms, the Resurrection isn’t the victory, it’s the “triumph”, the parade given for a conqueror to display his victory over enemies – indeed Paul uses that very imagery.
The interesting thing here is that humans are inclined to engage in ritual. This point was made in an anthropology class where so-called nondenominational churches were used as an example: they all end up adhering to patterns in worship, and patterns are what make ritual.
The only question is whether the rituals we engage in teach us and so edify us. That’s why what Luther led has been called the conservative Reformation: he and his colleagues admonished everyone to keep everything that was useful — and thus Lutheran churches can be found using incense, having statues and/or icons, using vestments, and more; all those things which had built up over the centuries that were or could be edifying. The only things they threw out were those that were contrary to the Gospel, and that meant keeping Ash Wednesday.
In Orthodoxy, what Protestants do for Lent is the norm all the year; Lent requires giving up things that we consider integral to our lives.
I met a Roman Catholic priest who had carefully transferred the ashes from his forehead to his bathroom mirror, so that every day he was reminded that we are dust.
I also knew a very devout Roman Catholic who, pondering that every Sunday is Resurrection Day, quietly added to his weekly devotions Monday as Christmas, Wednesday as Ash Wednesday, Thursday as Maundy Thursday, Friday as Good Friday, Saturday as the Sabbath for remembering Christ’s time in the tomb, and back to Sunday as Resurrection Day – so he went through the big events of Christ’s life every week.
This is certainly a heartwarming anecdote, and I agree that one should not be afraid to identify with Christ in public but in that case why only wear ashes on the forehead a single day of the year? Maybe we should legislate the wearing something like the Sikh’s turban to identify ourselves as Christians? Or a cross on a chain? I’m being a bit facetious of course, but at the end of the day, I think the most effective witness is how one actually shows love to others (our actual behaviour), as opposed to display of a symbol which could be faked. It seemed that it was such displays of the pharisees that Jesus warned about. **NOTE that I am NOT saying that all people who practice the ashes are pharisees! I’m only noting the very human temptation and potential to abuse any public display of personal piety. It is much more costly to actually behave in self-sacrifical ways, caring for widows and orphans, as James puts it.
God expects that Christians that live out their faith will be involved in good works. (works flowing as a result of faith). This says nothing that works per se are required before one can receive salvation.
I agree that sins can be ones of omission. And I also agree that repentance for sins is important. But I think scripture (and common sense) indicates that repentance and forgiveness occurs between the offended parties. So I still don’t understand from the practice of ashes why one is supposed to display one’s repentance in a random public setting, to strangers not involved with the offense one is repenting about.
Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them
. . . you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to . . . be seen by others
do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others.
The first is the introductory statement to the entire section; the other two are examples of applying that principle.
Or, as the early Christians were known to do, making the sign of the Cross in public. There’s a secular writer in I think the fourth century who wrote that Christians could be identified because they made the sign of the Cross on themselves at every bad event happening to not just themselves but to anyone, so it could be observed in the marketplace and on the streets. It was a sort of a shorthand prayer that didn’t need words because the Father knew what they meant.
And as that anthropology professor observed, they have their own rituals, they just don’t recognize them as that.
That wasn’t absent of works – that thief made a proclamation of faith that everyone around could hear, which when nailed to a cross by Roman soldiers was a lot of work; it was difficult enough to breathe, let alone talk.
Odd that not many celebrate the Annunciation, which is the beginning point of the Incarnation. Christmas is just when the Incarnation became bodily manifest.
Oh man, now you’re stretching Do you think that if the thief had lacked the strength at the last moment to vocalize loud enough so the audience to hear but only feebly mumbed a few syllables that Jesus would not have saved him?
) science teacher believes in God.