Ash Wednesday devotion

Christ crucified

Introit (Psalm 130,5-8; 130,3.4)

O Lord, if You should mark iniquities, who could stand? But with You there is forgiveness, so that You may be feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His Word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with Him is plentiful redemption. And He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

Lent begins with ashes – the symbol of death and complete destruction – and thus, Lent begins with our recognition that one day we will become ashes. Ashes are the end result of God’s wrath and punishment upon sin and sinners. The curse of sin is death, and then after death comes the decay of the physical body until there are only ashes left. Even worse, after a millennia not even the ashes are left, unless you happen to be a mummified pharaoh. Where are Adam’s ashes? Abraham’s? Isaac’s? Jacob’s? Such patriarchs don’t even have ashes of their bodies anymore because so much time has passed that even their bodily ashes have broken down to molecules and atoms that have been reabsorbed by the ground and reprocessed elsewhere in nature. Ashes. We are dust, and to dust we will one day return. Ashes. 

Jesus tells us: „You have been beaten up by the law, and you are afraid of what awaits you when you die and your body turns to ashes, but do not fear, I will overturn Death. You will live with Me forever!“ Jesus accomplishes this for us and the entire world, and He accomplished it when He suffered and died on the cross in ransom payment for our sins, and He secured it when He triumphed over Death when He Himself rose from death unto life, and not just any life, but eternal life never to die again. Jesus gives us these gospel gifts freely and we simply receive Jesus and His promise by faith. 

Ash Wednesday and the liturgical season of Lent, then, are about Christ, His death and His resurrection. The Sinless One became the Chief Sinner; the Eternal One died; the Son of God who dwelt in heaven made a journey into the depths of hell; the One who died became the One who lives again. Jesus did all this for you! And He will form from your ashes a new body that will never die. 

Collect for the Day

O Almighty and Everlasting God, You despise nothing You have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent. Create in us new and contrite hearts so that lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness we may receive from You full pardon and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever.  Amen.