Ash Wednesday Reflection

Fat Tuesday starts it off all wrong. No wonder there is a massive misunderstanding of what the Lenten season is all about. Apparently this is the idea: go and eat and drink as much as you can – like a Biggest Loser contestant going out for one last night of nacho’s and beer and justifying it by saying something like: “Starting tomorrow it’s all over. No more fun for 46 days. So I might as well get my fill now. After all, even if I gain 10 pounds tonight that’s just 10 more pounds I can be proud of losing (or rewarded for losing) over the coming weeks of misery.”
That’s how so many see Lent – as a time of miserable self-sacrifice, the only redeeming value of which is that we can be proud of ourselves at the end of it for giving up chocolate or smoking or cuss words. Is this the purpose of Lent? To be a time of dark foreboding strictness? Some sort of self-flagellating penance that makes us the hero of the Lenten story?
NO! A thousand times no. Yes, it is to be a time of sober reflection, no doubt about it. And yes, we should examine the sin that lies deep within each one of us during Lent. But not so that we can become more attractive or more competent or more heroic. On Ash Wednesday (and all 46 days of Lent for that matter) we ought to look much like we do when approaching the Lord’s Supper. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11 in his instructions on the Lord’s Supper that those who do not “examine” themselves – who do not “discern” or “judge” themselves truly are not fit for the table. The whole season of Lent ought to be a time of honest reflection and confession of the darkness deep within. But that’s not where the story ends. After that we are to eat and drink – being filled with the glorious victory of Christ for us that the elements show forth.
See, friends, we are to get really honest about our sin during Lent simply so we can see our need for Good Friday and Easter – so that we can see how attractive and competent and heroic our Savior is. It’s not some marathon race that we get a T-shirt for competing in – that we can somehow take pride in. The Ash’s that some churches give out on Ash Wednesday have long been perverted into this kind of outward symbol that says that the recipient has done his duty – been a good Christian – and is seriously religious. They have lost their intended meaning to help the recipient realize that save from the work of Christ, he is nothing but ashes and dust.
So if you want to give up smoking for Lent – go for it! You will feel better! If you want to take up recycling for Lent – go for it! The planet will feel better too! But don’t do it under the guise of being a good Christian or of doing good penance or out of any sense of proving your worth to others or God. Instead – examine the real problems of your heart. Pray – today – that God would reveal your own nasty, pitiful condition to yourself – would reveal that you are indeed but dust without Him. But then eat and drink of the victory won for you anyway!
My hope is that these reflections will be helpful for all of us to see our need for Jesus’ death and resurrection. That we would be hungry and thirsty for His help like never before. But also that we would be filled with the victory won for us at the same time – the sweet taste of freedom and victory over that nasty dark stuff deep within each one of us that Jesus came to cure.
Thanks be to God – the hero of the story of all stories. Amen.