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Ash Wednesday, Lent & Fasting

10 February 2016 Hits:5345

Ash Wednesday, a day of fasting, signals the start of Lent in Western Christianity. It falls 40 days before Easter (excluding Sundays) and is observed by many Christians.

Origins

Lent comes from Jesus’ 40 days of fasting in the desert, where He faced three key temptations (Matthew 4:1-11): denying Himself instant gratification, seeking human approval, and taking shortcuts around God’s plan. John the Apostle summed up these temptations as “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.”

Jesus’ fast prepared Him for His earthly mission—the salvation of all people. The purpose of Lent is to fast for 40 days in preparation for Easter. Sundays are not included because they are regarded as a celebration of Christ’s resurrection, so they should be feasting days, not fast days!

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday derives its name from the tradition of blessing ashes made from palm branches blessed on the previous year’s Palm Sunday and placing them on people’s foreheads while saying “Repent, and believe in the Gospel” or “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Both phrases highlight important truths in the Christian faith, reminding us of our sinfulness and mortality, and thus our need for a Saviour. The good news is that through Jesus’ death and resurrection, there is forgiveness for all sins and guilt, and removal of all punishment.

Ash Wednesday was originally called “the day of ashes.” It is first mentioned in the earliest copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary and probably dates back to at least the 8th Century. One of the earliest descriptions of Ash Wednesday is found in the writings of the Anglo-Saxon abbot Aelfric (955-1020). In his Lives of the Saints, he writes, “We read in the books both in the Old Law and in the New that the men who repented of their sins bestrewed themselves with ashes and clothed their bodies with sackcloth. Now let us do this little at the beginning of our Lent that we strew ashes upon our heads to signify that we ought to repent of our sins during the Lenten fast.”

Sackcloth and Ashes

Sackcloth and ashes are mentioned 23 times in the Hebrew Scriptures and four times in the New Testament. As Aelfric suggests, the pouring of ashes on one’s body (and dressing in sackcloth, a very rough material made from goats’ hair) was an ancient practice as an outward sign of inner repentance or mourning. In the New Testament,

Jesus mentions the practice twice in the gospels: “Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.”

Overflow

The practice of the Ash Wednesday tradition and the season of Lent is meaningless unless there is a corresponding inner repentance, and that overflows in changed behaviour, especially towards those suffering injustices.

Consider Isaiah 58:5-7 when God says,

Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?

⁶ “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loosen the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

The genuine fasting God desires is for His people to go without something to help those who have little or nothing. Fasting is not only about self-denial but also a way to promote equality in a world where the divide between the rich and the poor is growing.

With that in mind, I encourage you to remember what Jesus has done for each of us. Through His death and resurrection, Jesus defeated sin and death, offering eternal life and a full pardon to all who place their faith in Him. During Lent, we can draw closer to Jesus and look for ways in which denying ourselves can bring some life and joy to others and support those who are struggling. As Jesus said, “When you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers and sisters [the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the prisoner, the foreigner], you were doing it to me!”

 

(Updated: 16/02/2026)

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