ASHES

Last week was “Ash Wednesday” and I participated in its service at our church. At one point my friend to the left of me made the sign of the cross on my forehead and reminded me that I was made from dust and would return to dust. (Genesis 3.19) I did the same to the woman on my right. Everyone in the room performed the same deed and received it in return.

I was reminded that God had “formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” (Genesis 2.7)

“Dust” in this context means “dirt” and is not the dust we find on our dresser or TV. I read (on the Internet) that “Dust forms from a mixture of organic and inorganic particles that accumulate, settle, and aggregate over time.” It includes dead skin cells, hair, pollen, dust mites, and so on. I don’t think I was formed out of that kind of dust.

But dust is often referred to in the Bible. The NIV has 100 references to it. In the Gospels we read that if the disciple were not welcome on their evangelistic journeys, they should “shake the dust off their feet,” which would remind the people that they had denied Christ.

The sign of the cross on my forehead was with ashes, not dust and my wife Joice marked it on my forehead for several years. She is in heaven now, but the somber act reminded me of her, my mortality as well, and my repentance. The use of ashes, as part of “Ash Wednesday,” represents our mortality and our hope in the resurrection, when we “rise from the ashes.”

Ashes are what results when something is completely burned up. In the Old Testament we read of “sackcloth and ashes,” which were symbols of sorrow, mourning and repentance. Here are some examples, including a verse from Matthew:

• Daniel pleaded with God in prayer, fasting, and with sackcloth and ashes (Daniel 9.3)

• Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes as he wailed (Esther 4.1)

• Isaiah chose a day for the people to humble themselves before God and lie in sackcloth and ashes (Isaiah 58.5)

• Jeremiah told his people to put on sackcloth and ashes and wail before God (Jeremiah 6.26).

• Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the ark of the Lord, remaining there till evening. The elders of Israel did the same, and sprinkled dust on their heads. (Joshua 7.6)

• Hushai the Arkite was there to meet [David], his robe torn and dust on his head.  (2 Samuel 15.32)

• Tamar put ashes on her head and tore her ornate robe (2 Samuel 13.19)

• Job scraped himself with broken pottery and sat among the ashes (Job 2.8). He said that God had reduced him to dust and ashes (Job 30.19) and when he repented it was in dust and ashes (Job 42.5)

• David said that he ate ashes as his food and his drink was tears (Psalm 102.9)

• Ezekiel said that her rich and dishonest merchants to Tyre would “sprinkle dust on their heads and roll in ashes […] and put on sackcloth” (Ezekiel 27.30-31) 

• The cities of Tyre and Sidon would have repented in sackcloth and ashes if they had seen the miracles performed in Bethsaida and Chorazin (Matthew 11.21).

But why ashes? Their use comes from the biblical notion that we were formed from dust and ashes. Abraham spoke to God, even “though I am nothing but dust and ashes” (Genesis 18.27). 

The ashes of a burnt offering had to be gathered carried outside the camp by a man who was clean and placed where it was “ceremonially clean” (Leviticus 6.11).

A custom involving ashes occurred among the Kewa of PNG, with whom Joice and I and our two children lived for several years. We saw men put ashes on their heads when the leader of our village died. It was an act of mourning and respect. It may also reflect what Don Richardson referred to as “eternity in their hearts,” where cultures echo God’s historical interaction with them by means of some specific custom.

But as for us, let us remember the promise of Isaiah 26.19: “But your dead will live, Lord; their bodies will rise—let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy—your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.”

We can mourn, put on sackcloth and ashes, but we will rise like a phoenix from the ashes with a new body and all the dust of death will be shaken off.

Karl Franklin