I’ve never received ashes on Ash Wednesday, but this may just be the year I do it. Protestant Christians may scarcely notice that many people walking around them this Wednesday will have a dusty, grayish-black substance on their foreheads, but some will see it and become curious. Maybe they’ll even ask what the substance is and receive a simple presentation of the gospel message. Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the liturgical season—the seasons of public worship, and it always comes six and a half weeks before Easter. It marks the beginning of the Lenten season, and many Christians receive ashes on their foreheads to remember the life, suffering, and death of Jesus. There are countless reasons why Ash Wednesday is important for Christians all around the world, but three reasons stand out as paramount. For Christians, Ash Wednesday is a special time of reunifying, remembrance, and reawakening.
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It’s a Time to Reunify the Church.
The first reason Ash Wednesday is important is because it unifies the body of Christ. God values Christian unity, and Jesus instructed Christians to be one as He and the Father are one. In the seventeenth chapter of John, when Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prays to the Father for his disciples in verse 11 (NKJV) saying, “Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. After Jesus prays specifically for his disciples, he continues. He prays for all believers in verses 20-21 (NKJV) by saying,
“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world will believe that you sent Me.”
In Ash Wednesday, Christians everywhere can collectively stand united across denominations and faith backgrounds, especially across Catholic and Protestant traditions.
About ten years ago, I became interested in receiving ashes on Ash Wednesday. Even though I had known about Ash Wednesday since I was a child, it was never part of the Baptist and nondenominational rituals I grew up in. But I also grew up around many Catholic believers. One of my closest high school friends, Cindy, often obsessed about what she would give up for Lent. I was marginally curious about Lent then, just enough to ask her a few questions, but that curiosity eventually fizzled out. Later, when I became involved with an Episcopal church in college, I was exposed to new names for the worship rituals I knew. In the Episcopal tradition, communion was called Eucharist. That same church collectively participated in Lent, but I never considered getting ashes. It wasn’t until years later that typical “holy days” gained much more significance for me.
Good Friday took on new meaning and so did Lent. Ash Wednesday started feeling like more than just the day after “Fat Tuesday.” I had an increasing desire to show solidarity with believers of different traditions and heritages and participate in the celebrations and sacrifices of the seasons. Maybe I was looking for an antidote to the factions and points of separation between believers. I wanted tangible and practical ways to identify with other believers. Ash Wednesday can be not only a symbol of unity with Christ, but unity with the body of Christian believers. Tegucigalpa, Bogota, Beijing, Manila, East Timor, Panchimalco (El Salvador), Jamaica, Haiti, Rome, and Ireland are just a few of the many cities and countries outside of the US where believers celebrate Ash Wednesday.
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2. It’s a Time to Remember the Life, Sacrifice, and Death of Christ.
Another reason Ash Wednesday deserves attention from Christians is because it is an outward sign that prompts us to remember the life, sacrifice, and death of Christ. As time progresses and new eras emerge, the historical Christ becomes more obscure because developed societies prioritize secular rituals. In times like these, it’s important for believers to observe meaningful symbols that point to Christ’s reality. By participating in Ash Wednesday and ensuing Lenten activities (receiving ashes, fasting, and reading prayers), we demonstrate that we believe a reality—that Christ, lived, died, was resurrected, and is coming again.
While Christians commemorate Lent in many ways, fasting is one of the most common ways to participate in the Lenten season. Since it was a regular part of ancient Jewish and Christian life, fasting is a way for contemporary believers to show continuity in historic Christian tradition. According to Brittanica, before the ninth century, “grievous sinners” began their public period of penance on the first day of Lent “in preparation for the restoration of the sacrament of Eucharist.” Those ancient rituals must have taken their cues from the famous 40-day fast of Jesus and fasts by Job, Moses, David, Esther, Ezra, Elijah, Nehemiah, Daniel and others who prepared themselves to meet with, inquire of the Lord, and wait for His answer. Jesus instructed us in how to fast in Matthew 6:17 (NKJV) saying,
“But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face.”
Fasting was so customary in the days of Jesus that the Pharisees criticized Jesus and his disciples for not fasting. When Jesus responded to their criticism, he said in Matthew 9:15 (NKJV) “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”
We live in the reality of those days when Jesus is not just taken away physically, but our secular society sometimes tries to take away Jesus from our celebrations and public spaces. Ash Wednesday, as the beginning of the Lenten season, presents us with an opportunity to hallow the Lord in our minds and hearts systematically with the rest of the Christians who practice this remembrance.
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3. It Reawakens Us to Live Life with Purpose
If you’re like me, you appreciate all the wake up calls you can get, whether human or technological. Ash Wednesday alerts us that our lives serve a high purpose. We live to tell others about Christ in hopes that they will accept His sacrifice and be reconciled to God, to live an abundant life on earth and an eternal life thereafter. In the hectic pace of contemporary living, I welcome individuals, groups, seasons, events, and rituals that direct me back to Christ. Ash Wednesday is a profound pronouncement of the finished work of Christ. The prayers, the Lenten gatherings, and the fasting serve no other purpose than to awaken us to the reason we exist and why the Lord tarries. In Second Peter 3:9 (NKJV), the writer says, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” In the words of Pope Francis, “Lent comes providentially to reawaken us, to shake us from our lethargy” (Hallow).
Whether or not you receive ashes on Ash Wednesday, you can hallow the Lord in your heart by participating in one or many acts of this season that point others to the reality of Jesus. Ash Wednesday comes just in time for so many of us. It unifies us under the single banner of the gospel message—the life, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s a fresh reminder “that we are dust and to dust we shall return.” It’s a physical reminder that Christ is still with us, and He has awakened us to new life. His story is still being told by those who have believed He is who he said He is.
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Additional Sources:
“Ash Wednesday Celebrated Around the World.” USA Today. Feb, 2018. https://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/news/2018/02/14/ash-wednesday-celebrated-around-the-world/110428624/
“Ash Wednesday: Christian Holy Day.” Brittanica. Feb, 2025.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ash-Wednesday-Christian-holy-day
Von Dohlen, Cate. “Ash Wednesday.” Hallow. March, 2025. https://hallow.com/blog/ash-wednesday/#definition
Originally published Tuesday, 04 March 2025.