When you fast, do not look somber
as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are
fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But
when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be
obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen;
and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you (Matthew
6:16-18).
Ash
Wednesday marks the first day of Lent. Lent is the 40 fast days before Easter.
The name, as you probably figured out, comes from the practice of the ancient
church of sprinkling ashes on the heads of penitents as a physical act of
contrition and repentance for their sin. Ashes are a symbolic mark of
humiliation, contrition, and mourning (Harrison, Bromiley and Henry 1990) . During Lent, many
of the faithful commit to fasting or giving up certain types of luxury as a
form of penitence. Many churches strip their altars of candles, flowers, and
other devotional offerings, while crucifixes, statues, and other elaborate
religious gear may be veiled in violet.
I
grew up in a congregation of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod that
practiced the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday. That is to say, on Ash
Wednesday, parishioners would line up during the worship service to have the
pastor put ashes on their head. The people would approach the pastor, who was
standing in the front of church. In his hand he held a silver vessel containing
an unappealing black substance – the burned remnants of the palm fronds from
the previous year’s Palm Sunday mixed with oil. As the people would come to the
pastor, he would blacken his thumb with the ashes and make the sign of the
cross on the person’s forehead. During this process he would tell each parishioner,
“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
I
never realized, however, that this was "fasting." Growing up when and where I
did, I also didn’t realize that what was to me a natural part of the Ash
Wednesday worship service was, in other places, quite a contentious issue.
Later,
attending college in what is referred to by some as the “Bible Belt,” I met many
people, Christians and non-Christians, who were shocked by the worship practice
I shall refer to as the Imposition of Ashes. Lutherans were few in number in
Murray, Ky. All my friends were some flavor of evangelical protestant. Knowing
that I professed to be a Christian, when the inevitable discussion would arise,
many would quote this passage of scripture to me. “Jesus said, ‘…do not look
somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they
are fasting.’ This practice is not Biblical.” I had to admit that I had not
thought about it in that way before. It certainly seemed logical, when cast in
that light. My only allies on campus were the Roman Catholics, who also
practiced this tradition. This only made my position worse. Most of the
evangelicals thought of Lutherans, if they thought of them at all, as “Catholic
light.” They tended to think of Roman Catholics as some kind of non-Christian
cult.
Jesus,
however, doesn’t forbid fasting. In fact, it seems as if he sort-of expects his
followers to fast. Jesus begins by saying, “When
you fast…” The issue with fasting is not, “Should it be practiced?” Jesus takes
it for granted that his followers would fast. When Jesus was lead by the Spirit
into the desert to be tempted by the devil, he himself fasted forty days and
nights[1]. This
issue is, rather, does our fast merely make an outward show of repentance, or
do our hearts feel true sorrow and humility. In his commentary, Paul Kretzmann explains
Jesus’ words this way:
Again the
Lord emphasizes the contrast. A mere outward show of repentance without change
of heart does not befit the followers of Jesus. Fasting they may practise [Sic.]
indeed; that is a laudable custom and may be productive of good. But in doing
so, all ostentation must be avoided. It is the heart that should feel the
sorrow and humility, not the body. Therefore the usual daily washing and anointing
should not be omitted, in order that men might not even know the conditions (Kretzmann
1921) .
Fasting
was an integral part of the Jewish religion. The problem Jesus had with “fasting”
was not the practice, but rather that the hypocrites turned this profitable
practice into a work of self-glorification. It is clear from Matthew’s Gospel
that the hypocrites were neglecting their daily washing etc., in order to give
the impression that the fast was taking a great toll on them.
They
neglected the daily care of the face, to make the effect of the semiweekly fast
appear all the more harrowing. It was an empty show in order that they might
play a more important figure and get the reputation of greater holiness. They
have all the reward they will ever get. They need expect nothing from the Lord (Kretzmann
1921) .
Fasting,
such as that undertaken by some during the Lenten season, and including the
Imposition of Ashes, is neither commanded nor forbidden by Holy Scripture. The
decision whether or not to do these things has been left by God to the
individual Christian. This issue – what is referred to by theologians as “Adiaphora”
– was important to Luther and the reformers. While they wished to see many of
the historic practices of the church retained, they objected to Rome’s
assertion of its authority in these matters of Adiaphora, and to require them
as necessary for salvation. Luther writes the following to the congregation at
Esslingen, in a letter responding to his critics when they accused him of
requiring works (particularly private confession):
…Likewise
I prevent no one from fasting, making a pilgrimage, eating meat, observing
days, etc., if only it is done of one’s own accord, and not done as though he
had to do it in conscience and as though omitting it would be a mortal sin, as
the Pope with his blind leaders raves… (Pieper 1953) .
In
the Augsburg Confession Philipp Melanchthon writes Article 26 to address
complex rules and regulations devised by the Church commanding fasting:
First,
the chief part of the Gospel – the doctrine of grace and of the righteousness
of faith – has been obscured by this view[2].
The Gospel should stand out as the most prominent teaching in the Church, in
order that Christ’s merit may be well known and faith, which believes that sins
are forgiven for Christ’s sake, be exalted far above works. Therefore, Paul
also lays the greatest stress on this article, putting aside the Law and human
traditions, in order to show that Christian righteousness is something other
than such works (Romans 14:17). Christian righteousness is the faith that
believes that sins are freely forgiven for Christ’s sake. But this doctrine of
Paul has been almost completely smothered by traditions, which have produced
the opinion that we must merit grace and righteousness by making distinctions
in meats and similar services. When repentance was taught, there was no mention
made of faith. Only works of satisfaction were set forth. And so repentance
seemed to stand entirely on these works (McCain, et al. 2005) .
This
view of fasting and human tradition presented in the Book of Concord is
distilled by Pieper in his work, “Christian Dogmatics”:
Scripture
instructs Christians to regard teachers who pretend to know more than Christ’s
Word contains as bloated ignoramuses (1 Tim. 6:3 ff.). And those who attempt to
impose what the Word of Christ leaves free, e.g., forbidding to marry or
commanding to fast and abstain from food and drink, are properly regarded by
the Christians as arrogant deceivers and disseminators of doctrines of devils
(1 Tim. 4:1-5; Col. 2:20-23). The Pope may impose a fast on himself, but on no
one else in the world (Pieper 1953) .
Working
to curb one’s sinful desires through the application of bodily discipline can,
at times, be appropriate and necessary (McCain, et al. 2005) . It should never be
taught, however, that such outward activities earn God’s favor. Only the Lord
can look into people’s hearts and know if their actions stem from penitence, or
if they are simply putting on a show for men. Like many other historic
practices of the church, the Imposition of Ashes has been retained in the
Lutheran Church because it is profitable, and not as a work to merit
righteousness. It has been the Lutheran view, from the time of the Reformation
until today, that the Church should not do away with good traditions and
practices, but only those things that take away from the Gospel.
The
Imposition of Ashes is one of those good traditions. It seems to get people’s
attention, and not just because of the strange black mark on the forehead.
Hearing the pastor’s reminder that you are dust – perishable – is humbling.
Hearing him tell every man, woman, and child that they will return to that dust
someday is sobering. As a young person I remember looking around at all my
friends and neighbors, young and old, rich and poor, thinking that, no matter
what our earthly differences might be, we were equal in one aspect – we would
all die. We would all die, and there was nothing within our power to change
that fact. We were, in fact, dead already, in our sin[3]. We
could not ignore our sin.
After
leaving church on Ash Wednesday, sometimes people would forget that they had a weird,
nasty smear of ashes on their forehead. They would inadvertently scratch their
foreheads sometime and be reminded by the residue on their finger that they
were dust, and to dust they must one day return. Before going to bed, looking
in the mirror, one would once again be reminded they were marked with the black
stain of sin, and that they were dust, returning to the dust from whence they
came.
Those
ashes, however, are drawn on the forehead in the sign of a cross. Not as if the
cross is some kind of magic sign to ward off evil, but also as a reminder. The
cross reminds us that the guilt of mankind’s sin has been paid for by Christ’s
death. The blood of Christ shed on the cross has justified us. We did not
participate in Christ’s saving work at all. It happened, as St. Paul wrote,
while we were still powerless:
But God
demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ
died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall
we be saved from God’s wrath through him (Rom 5: 8-9).
Fasting
can be good training for our will, but God does not command particular times,
places, or forms of fasting (Luther 1991) . There is nothing we
have to offer, no work we can do, no ceremony we can perform, in order to merit
God’s forgiveness. God has given us forgiveness as a gift, through Christ
Jesus, and he sends His Holy Spirit to us to create faith in our hearts through
the means of his Word and Sacraments. He enables us to do works that please him
– not in order to earn his grace – but to glorify his most holy name. Fasting,
and other traditions like the Imposition of Ashes, can help us to look at our
sin, confess it, and acknowledge our need for a savior. These traditions, used
properly, and not imposed as a law, focus us on Christ and Him crucified.
Works Cited
Harrison, Everett F, Geoffrey W Bromiley, and Carl F
Henry, . Wycliffe Dictionary of Theology. Peabody, Massachusetts:
Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1990.
Kretzmann, Paul
E. Popular Commentary of the Bible: New Testament. Vol. 1. 2 vols. St.
Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1921.
Luther, Martin. Luther's
Small Catechism. Translated by Concordia Publishing House. Saint Louis,
Missouri: Concordia Publishing House, 1991.
McCain, Paul
Timothy, Robert Cleveland Baker, Gene Edward Veith, and Edward Andrew
Engelbrecht, . Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions. Translated by
William Hermann Theodore Dau and Gerhard Friedrich Bente. St. Louis, MO:
Concordia Publishing House, 2005.
Pieper, D.D.,
Francis. Christian Dogmatics. Vol. 3. 3 vols. Saint Louis, Missouri:
Concordia Publishing House, 1953.
End Notes
[1]
Matthew 4:1-2
[2]
Not only the people, but also those teaching in the churches, have generally
been persuaded to believe in making distinctions between meats, and similar
human traditions. They believe these are useful works for meriting grace and
are able to make satisfaction for sins (AC XXVI 1).
[3]
Ephesians 2:1
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