Today is Ash Wednesday, and the church that I attend had an Ash Wednesday service.
The pastor opened his sermon by saying that he did not have a poker
face. One can look at his face and tell what he is thinking and feeling.
When he was a circuit pastor, he had to attend installation services
for new pastors, and a professor at one of these services was droning on
and on. People told the pastor that he needed to work on his poker
face, since he looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there, listening
to that professor!
This story was a transition to a discussion of “disfigured faces.” In
Matthew 6:16, Jesus tells his disciples that, when they fast, they are
not to be like the Pharisees, who disfigure their faces so that people
know and admire that they are fasting. But did we not disfigure our
faces when we put ashes on our foreheads? Not necessarily. The sort of
behavior that Jesus was criticizing was like when people remind others
continually that they are giving up chocolate for Lent: they are trying
to show people how pious they are.
Ashes on our head, however, testify to God. The ashes are in the
shape of a cross, which evokes Christ’s crucifixion for our sins. The
ashes remind us of death: dust we are, and to dust we shall return.
Christ experienced death to deliver us from death. The pastor also
compared the ashes to the ashes of a red heifer in Numbers 19: the ashes
of a red heifer ritually purified those who touched a corpse, and the
ashes on our forehead remind us of Christ, who cleanses us of impurity.