This past Wednesday was Ash Wednesday. It’s officially the start of the Lenten Season in Christianity, marking the period of time when Jesus knew it was time for Him to willingly die as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, giving fallen humanity a wide-open door to reconcile with God. It leads up to Passion Week, the week of Jesus’ death and then resurrection and Easter on Sunday.
Many Christian churches offer a service or a time of meditation for Christians to begin a journey of remembrance. If they do, most of the people put the mark of a cross on their forehead or the back of their hand with ashes. Maybe you saw people and didn’t know what the mark meant.
The theme verses of Lent are “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” – Genesis 3:19 NIV
And the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. – Ecclesiastes 12:7
These verses are not meant to be morbid, but to remind us that because sin entered the world by humanity’s choice, death also became our destiny, and one day we will all die. This is not what God desired for His most loved creation, and Jesus came and died in our place so that we may once again live forever through our relationship with Him. That’s what Easter made possible.
The average person rarely thinks about death however, and the ashes on our bodies are to remind us of the fact, “ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” The most wealthy, wise, and powerful among us will die. No one has the power to stop it.
This practice during Lent reminds Christians of human mortality and the importance of reconciling with God. This is something that we should keep at the forefront of our minds. Again, not in a morbid way, but a motivating way. I am mortal; I will die someday. I don’t know when.
When my physical body dies, when I breathe my last breath here, I will meet God face to face. My forever will be determined by the choice I made in the present; the here and now. God has prepared the way through Jesus for me to be reconciled with Him, no matter how dark my sins and past have been or how relatively small I may think they are. The only way to reconciliation through God is to have the debt of my sin paid by Jesus, and then to spend my life in regular relationship with Him.
Hebrews 2:14-15 describes the fear of death as a form of slavery that the devil uses to control people. The verse also describes how Jesus' death and resurrection broke the power of death and freed people from this slavery.
The Resurrection is the most life-altering event that has ever taken place. It gives us hope in a broken and dark world. May today you be reminded of your mortality and the resurrection offered us. This is just temporary. It is not your home. There is something more through Someone more.
No one can overestimate the importance of being reconciled and made right with God. No one can overestimate the love and desire of Jesus Christ for you to receive Him as Savior and follow Him as your forever King. It’s vital for you and the people you love and do life with.
Think about it. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust someday. Maybe sooner than you think.