About Ash Wednesday

Next week Lent begins with Ash Wednesday. So from LCMS here is a little of its history and application. By the 12th century, ashes had become associated with the beginning of Lent, thus providing the first day of Lent with its name, Ash Wednesday. However, by this time, pastors and people alike had ashes either sprinkled on their head or traced on their foreheads in the sign of the cross. By the time of the Reformation, the imposition of ashes was a regular mainstay of Lenten piety and practice. However, for unknown reasons Lutherans at the time of the Reformation did not choose to retain the Imposition of Ashes, even though Lutherans began Lent with Ash Wednesday. The use of ashes on Ash Wednesday is a more recent custom among most congregations, although some have done it for decades. The ashes are usually derived from the burned palms from the previous Palm Sunday. A contemporary Lutheran appropriation of the Imposition of Ashes should begin with the two-fold Biblical understanding of ashes: as a sign of our mortality (Genesis 3:19) and as sign of our repentance (Matthew 11:21). Likewise, the traditional formula, “Remember, you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” is most appropriate, since it paraphrases the words of God in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:19). By receiving the ashes, the worshipper acknowledges that Godʼs judgement against our sin is right and just. But the ashes are also made in the sign of the cross – 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.

Pastor Darryl