Audio only:
In this episode Trent shows why not just Catholics but every Christian should celebrate Ash Wednesday.
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Trent Horn (00:00):
Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of the Christian Penitential season of Lent, and so I want to encourage not just every Catholic, but every Christian to celebrate Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent itself. Two quick qualifiers though. First, I’m giving Eastern Orthodox Christians a pass on this one because even though they don’t celebrate Ash Wednesday, they do take Lent, which they call the great fast, very seriously, and in some cases they fast from all meat, dairy, eggs, fish, and wine until Easter, they just start lent on clean Monday instead of Ash Wednesday. Second, if you want to start this sacrificial season off right, then consider sacrificing a fraction of your time to like this video. Leave a comment below and hit the subscribe button. Now, some people will say, why would Protestants celebrate Ash Wednesday? Isn’t that just a Catholic thing? Except it’s not just a Catholic thing.
(00:55):
It is true. Some Protestants and evangelicals have a very strict regulation of worship according to them. If it’s not in scripture, then they don’t do it as part of their worship. That’s why in the 17th century, Puritans in Massachusetts banned Christmas, calling it a Poppish Unbiblical Pagan holiday. However, Protestant traditions rooted in the classical reformation, both English and continental like Anglicanism, Methodism, and Lutheranism, and many branches of the Presbyterian denomination continue to celebrate Ash Wednesday and lent as Penit potential season. The Lutheran scholar, Jordan Cooper writes, the entire church celebrated this season throughout its history until some Protestant groups rejected it in the 16th century. To observe Lent is to connect oneself not only to the universal church on earth, but to the historic church to reject Lent is to reject the piety of Christians for almost 2000 years. So if you’re critical of Catholicism, just because some of its devotions or traditions are not found in scripture, then many Protestants will say you have an overly restrictive view of how scripture should guide our worship.
(02:02):
If you restricted Christian piety to only what is found in scripture, then you wouldn’t have Bible studies or even worshiping together in a building dedicated for that purpose. Since the first Christians worshiped in house churches, you also couldn’t celebrate weddings or funerals. Since the Bible doesn’t describe Christians engaging in those kinds of activities. Now, Protestants and other Christians who reject Lent and its beginning on Ash Wednesday might say, the problem isn’t just scriptural silence. They say, the Bible commands us not to do things like wear ashes on our forehead, and they cite Jesus’s teaching on the Sermon on the Mount to prove this. And when you fast, do not look dismal like the hypocrites for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward, but when you fast anoint your head and wash your face that your fasting may not be seen by men, but by your father who is in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you.
(02:59):
Even many Catholics might think after hearing this, doesn’t that mean I shouldn’t do anything that gives away? I’m fasting, like wearing ashes. But notice that Jesus does not say if you fast, Jesus expected his disciples to fast and it would be hasty to assume Jesus’s disciples only did secret personal fasts that nobody else knew about. But if Jesus told people to fast, doesn’t that contradict the Pharisees criticism that Jesus’s disciples did not fast like they did or John the Baptist disciples fasted? But this isn’t a contradiction because as the Protestant scholar Craig Keener notes Mark cannot mean that they never fasted because omission of the biblical fast Yom Kippur would’ve yielded serious charges of which the gospels provide no hint. The Pharisees criticism was probably that Jesus’ disciples did not keep certain optional fasts that were popular among the Pharisees. Luke 1812 gives us a clue about them when the Pharisee praises himself for fasting twice a week, even though this is not required of all Jews, keener makes a good point that if Jesus’ disciples were known for not fasting on obligatory Jewish holy days like Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, then Jesus’ enemies would have used that as an argument against their movement.
(04:14):
Jesus was saying that just as one cannot mourn while the bridegroom is present, Jesus’s disciples do not fast while he is still with them. But that would change after the bridegroom is taken away from them. Indeed, acts 13, two says, the Holy Spirit spoke to a group of Christians and Antioch who quote, we’re worshiping the Lord and fasting. The diday likewise testifies to early Christians, fasting twice a week on Wednesdays and Fridays. Jesus’s warning was not about doing something that revealed your fasting. Jesus commanded his followers to fast, and if it was Yom Kippur or a similar Holy Day, everyone would’ve expected these faithful Jews too fast. In fact, yo Kippur may be the fast Luke mentions in Acts 27, 9. Instead, Jesus’ warning is about doing something to draw attention to your fasting and the toll it takes on your body just for vain glory.
(05:04):
That’s why Jesus gave the following command. Do not look dismal like the hypocrites for they disfigure their faces. But how would someone look dismal by disfiguring his face and what makes him a hypocrite? The word hypocrite refers in part to the masks that an actor in a Greek play would wear on stage. A hypocrite only plays a part. So a religious hypocrite is someone who appears pious but actually is not, which is one of Jesus’ stock complaints about the Pharisees. But in general, Christians don’t wear ashes in order to merely appear to be pious. Ashes are instead a genuine sign of internal repentance and a recognition that the wear of the ashes comes from dust and to dust he shall return. Jesus even speaks in a positive way of wearing ashes as a sign of repentance. Matthew says, Jesus began to upgrade the cities where most of his mighty works had been done because they did not repent.
(06:00):
Jesus then thunders at them. Woe to you Coan. Woe to you Beth saa, for if the mighty works done in you had been done entire inside, they would’ve repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Jesus’s criticism is not of people who engage in religious activities that outwardly manifest genuine repentance or spiritual sacrifice. Instead, Jesus criticized people who engaged in exaggerated behaviors who disfigured themselves in order to draw attention to their fasting or even to fabricated. That’s why St. John Criticism said, I know many not merely fasting and making a display of it, but neglecting to fast and yet wearing the masks of them that fast and cloaking themselves with an excuse worse than their sin. In other cases, the person may be sorrowful, but he’s also vainly seeking some measure of glory through his fasting. For example, rabbinic literature like the Talmud criticized Nick p Pharisees, who knock their feet together out of exaggerated humility or the kaza black and blue Pharisees who walked into walls because they kept their eyes closed out of a desire to avoid temptation.
(07:10):
Another kind of Pharisee were those who would strike themselves against walls or run into walls to show how weak they had become from their fasting. The Protestant scholar Craig Evans connects this kind of pharisaical behavior to Jesus’s warning about those who disfigure themselves to show that their fasting. That’s why Jesus says to the hypocrites, they have their reward, but when you fast anoint your head and wash your face, notice that the goal here isn’t to hide the fact that you’re fasting. After all, friends and family would’ve noticed during meal times that a disciple of Jesus wasn’t eating. Jesus must have told someone also about his 40 day fast in the desert so that it would be recorded in Matthew four, two instead, the goal is not to draw unnecessary attention to your fasting, my making it look as if the lack of food has caused you to become gaunt or sickly.
(08:03):
We also have to remember that Jesus often used hyperbole in his teachings. Jesus’ commands that we pray in secret, for example, but Jesus also prayed in the sight of others. Jesus says not to make any oath to God, but St. Paul made oath calling on God as a witness to his truthfulness. Likewise, Jesus says we should fast in secret to emphasize that we should not fast in order to receive praise from other people. Not that our fasting should always only be done in secret. So Matthew six 16 does not condemn wearing ashes for the purpose of entering into a spirit of repentance for observing the season of Lent. But that doesn’t mean Jesus’ warning is totally irrelevant to us today. If we treat wearing ashes on Ash Wednesday as just a hip way to stand out from the crowd and announce to others that we’re Catholic, then Jesus will tell us that we already have our reward.
(08:57):
This also applies to people who might not disfigure their faces, but enjoy complaining about how difficult it is to fast or give up something during Lent in order to get sympathy from other people. But if we maintain a wholly disposition while wearing ashes or fasting during Lent, then we will carry out Jesus’s command to let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven. Thank you so much for watching. I hope you have a very blessed day and a very blessed Lent.