God saw this act of repentance and spared the people (Jonah 3:1-10). When Jonah reluctantly preached to the people of Nineveh after the giant fish spit him up on the beach, the King and his people put on sackcloth and sat in ashes. People in ancient times wore sackcloth and ashes as a way of expressing their repentance of their sins.

Repent…Īshes also signify our sorrow for the mistakes we have made. In them we recognize that our bodies will not last forever, and come face-to-face with the reality of our eventual death. They remind us that we are not God, but God's good creation.

Receiving the imposition of ashes is a powerful way to confront our humanity and mortality. The prophet Jeremiah later calls the people of God to 'roll in ashes' as a way of mourning the coming devastation from an opposing army (Jeremiah 6:26). For example, Mordecai puts on sackcloth and ashes to grieve the many deaths he sees coming from an order King Ahasuerus gives to kill all Jewish people (Esther 4:1-3). A sobering thought for each of us.Īncient people wore ashes as a sign of mourning. Our humanity also calls to mind our mortality.Īfter expulsion from the Garden of Eden, the first humans are told by God, 'you are dust, and to dust you shall return' (Genesis 3:19 NRSV). 'Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord,' he said, 'I who am but dust and ashes' (Genesis 18:27). When Abraham felt the need to acknowledge the difference between him, a human being, and the infinite God, he referred to himself as dust and ashes.

The Hebrew word translated dust, is occasionally translated ashes elsewhere. In Genesis, we read that God formed human beings out of the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7).

Remember that you are dust…Īshes were an ancient symbol of our humanity. In ' A Service for Worship for Ash Wednesday' in the United Methodist Book of Worship, two suggestions of what worship leaders may say as they make the sign of the cross on another's forehead are offered: 'Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,' and 'Repent, and believe the gospel.' Each points to an aspect of what the ashes represent. Kim Kinsey offers ashes to a youth on the sidewalk outside of Christ United Methodist Church in Albuquerque, NM.

Imposition of ashes