Ash Wednesday

Even though we are in the midst of cold temperatures and an occasional snow shower, we are coming upon a dusty season. No, I’m not predicting another dry spring, although I could be, since God cursed the ground when Adam and Eve first sinned thus meaning that we would have to labor and toil all our days. Instead, though, I am talking about the dusty season of Lent, beginning with Ash Wednesday.

God punished our first parents Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:19, “for you are dust and to dust you shall return.” We also live under that same punishment. Ash Wednesday then is a reminder of our mortality caused by our first parent’s sin and yes even our own sin. “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” You hear this at nearly every Committal Service just before the body is lowered into the ground. Death.

God sent His Son, Jesus into the dust of our human flesh so that the dusty mortal’s curse would be placed on Him. Jesus came into our flesh that dies and returns to dust. He surely did die our death on the cross. As we begin this season of Lent, a time of our repentance from sin and seeing anew the suffering that our Lord bore for us, it is good to see our mortality in light of our Suffering Savior. Our mortality is swallowed up with His immortality won by Jesus sacrifice on the cross. We look forward to the victory of immortality won as Christ’s tomb burst open, empty on Easter morn, showing the entire world that our sinful mortality has been purchased with the blood of Jesus.