The Meaning of Ashes

On February 18th, Ash Wednesday, we begin the journey to Easter. This spiritual journey will take us to the foot of the cross where Jesus died. The journey ends, however, at the empty tomb, where on Easter Sunday we will stand with Martha, Mary and the disciples and experience the power of resurrection. The beginning of the journey is as dramatic as the end. We begin the journey to Easter with the sign of ashes. Ashes remind us that we are formed from the earth; and in death it is to the earth our human bodies return. This is an amazing cycle of life.

Traditionally, ashes marked the penitence of religious communities. They symbolized human sin as well as human frailty. They were used to remind us that Jesus cancelled sin’s power. In the words of the gospel hymn:

Would you be whiter, much whiter than snow?
There’s pow’r in the blood, pow’r in the blood;
Sin-stains are lost in its life-giving flow;
There’s wonderful pow’r in the blood.
There is pow’r, pow’r, wonder-working pow’r
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is pow’r, pow’r, wonder-working pow’r
In the precious blood of the Lamb.

Here’s the thing about gospel hymns. Like the ashes we use, these hymns remind us that it took the “precious blood of the lamb” to save us from our own “sin-stains.” Theologically, they tell us that Jesus’ death sets us free from the debt of sin. Psychologically, they remind us that we are nothing more than “slimy worms,” to borrow some of John Calvin’s more colorful language.

It’s theological to remember the role sin plays in our relationship with God. It’s psychological to consider how a concept like sin continues to impact and affect human thinking. In Jesus Christ, God made sin irrelevant. In human thinking the focus on sin still falls on brokenness and separation.

Here’s where a reframe of ashes can help. Consider that all creation is present in all things. All the carbon and hydrogen, oxygen and so on is present in the redwood trees, the stars in the sky, and in you and me. Our ashes returning to the earth is nothing more than recycling. This year, on Ash Wednesday, let the ashes remind you—above all else—that you came from God, and the journey leads you back home. Thanks be to God!

~Harrell