MARDI GRAS, ASH WEDNESDAY, LENT

Hugo McCord

The two words, “Mardi Gras,” mean “fat Tuesday, so called from the French custom of parading a fat ox” on the day before Ash Wednesday, so called from “the practice of sprinkling the foreheads of penitents with ashes on that day” (Webster). Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, a

period of 40 weekdays from Ash Wednesday to Easter, observed in Christian Churches by fasting and penitence to commemorate Jesus’ fasting in the wilderness (Webster).

“Mardi Gras takes place at the end of a long carnival season that begins on January 6, or Twelfth Night” after Christmas Day (WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA). Mardi Gras “is a lively, colorful celebration held” on fat Tuesday, “the day before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday” (ibid.).

On Ash Wednesday

a priest or pastor blesses the ashes and uses them to mark a cross on the foreheads of worshipers. This blessing is based on the Biblical passage, “for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,” Genesis 3:19 (ibid.).

The ashes are “only a symbol,” says the Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Portland, “to remind us that we are going to die” (THE OREGONIAN, 2-21-1998). Ash Wednesday is “a time of fasting and doing penance,” says the director of the Portland Grotto” (ibid.).

The 40 days of Lent (derived from lang, “long”) are so called from the lengthening of days in the spring” (Webster), and are observed “with fasting, prayers, and self sacrifice” (WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA).

Several times ashes are mentioned in the Old Testament, not pointing to human mortality, but displaying grief or penitence.

After David’s daughter Tamar had been raped she “put ashes on her head, and tore her robe of many colors that was on her, and laid her hand on her head and went away crying bitterly” (2 Samuel 13:19).

Job, with “painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head” sat “in the midst of the ashes” (Job 2:7-8). Later, after arguing with the Lord, Job in deep penitence said, “Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:1-6).

Because of Jonah’s preaching, the king of Nineveh “laid aside his robe” and “covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes” (Jonah 3:1-6).

In Babylon the prophet Daniel prayed “with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes” (Daniel 9:3).

In the capital city of Susa, when the word went out that all Jews were to be killed, “there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes” (Esther 4:1-3).

Besides the use of ashes, Daniel and the Jews in Susa also did without food (Daniel 9:3; Esther 4:4). Also, David did without food when a baby son was dying, pleading with God to let the child live (2 Samuel 12:15-22). Only after the baby had died did David take a bite of food (2 Samuel 12:20).

David also fasted in lamentation when he had heard of the deaths of Saul, Jonathan, and Abner (2 Samuel 1:11-17; 3:35).

Humility of mind and fasting by King Ahab caused God to change his mind, canceling the king’s death sentence (1 Kings 21:17-29).

In addition to sackcloth and ashes, the king of Nineveh, convinced that God was going to destroy the city in 40 days, commanded all his citizens to forego eating and drinking water, and he even included the animals in his proclamation (Jonah 3:1-9).

Before Ezra led the Jews on the long trip from Babylon to Jerusalem, he “proclaimed a fast” that

we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions. ... So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and he answered our prayer” (Ezra 8:21-23).

In response to Nehemiah’s “fasting and praying before the God of heaven” that he might be allowed to go from Susa to Jerusalem to rebuild the city’s walls, “it pleased the king (Artaxerxes) to send me” (Nehemiah 1:4; 2:6).

However, not all the Jews were sincere in their public fasting and praying. Fasting without good deeds is hypocrisy. God saw that some of the Jews “in the day of” their fast found pleasure, and exploited all their laborers, while they themselves bowed their heads and “spread out sackcloth and ashes” (Isaiah 58:3, 5).

Such fasting is “not the fast that I have chosen,” said the Lord (Isaiah 58:6). Instead, the fast he demands is “to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke” (Isaiah 58:6).

The fast that pleases God is “to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast off,” and “when you see the naked,” you “cover him” (Isaiah 58:7-8). If good deeds accompany fasting, said the Lord,

Then your light will break forth like the morning, your healing will spring forth speedily, and your righteousness will go before you; the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry, and he will say, “Here I am” (Isaiah 58:8-9).

Similarly, God challenged the sincerity of the Jews’ fasting and mourning during the 70 years of their Babylonian captivity, and he asked, “Did you really fast for me--for me? (Zechariah 7:5).

Similarly, Jesus condemned a man going “up to the temple to pray” who there bragged on himself, “I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess” (Luke 18:12). And Jesus condemned anyone who makes a display of his fasting:

When you fast, do not be like the sad-faced hypocrites who disfigure their faces to let people know they are fasting. Indeed, I assure you, that they have received their reward. When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that you do not appear to be fasting, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you (Matthew 6:16-18).

Jesus taught that his disciples would fast after he had gone back to heaven: “Are the bridegroom’s friends sad while he is still with them? When he is gone then they will fast” (Matthew 9:14-15).

Clearly Jesus’ fasting 40 days and 40 nights is not a practical example (Matthew 4:2). However, the dedication required in acceptable fasting is seen in Jesus’ example when he had walked all day and arrived at Jacob’s well about six o’clock in the evening (John 4:6, Roman time; as in John 19:14). There, “being wearied from his journey,” and sitting “by the well,” he was hungry, and his “disciples had gone away into the city to buy food” (John 4:6-8).

While they were gone, Jesus became so engrossed in talking with a sinful woman, his hunger for food disappeared. When the disciples brought his meal, they “urged him, saying, ‘Rabbi, eat’“ (John 4:31). Then he explained, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to finish his work” (John 4:34).

The “will of him who sent” Jesus into this world was “to seek and save that which is lost” (Luke 19:10). On this occasion the privilege of talking with the sinful woman caused Jesus to forget his hunger. True Bible fasting thus means that one temporarily puts the aside food to concentrate on things spiritual, to put personal evangelism ahead of a meal.

Another example of acceptable fasting is in Saul of Tarsus. Saul, afterwards called Paul, being suddenly shocked from being the chief of sinners to become a believer in Jesus, did not eat or drink for three days (Acts 9:9). His body’s need for food temporarily was ignored in meditating on his newly found faith.

The same meaning of unselfishly giving precedence to things spiritual is set forth in the exhortation to husbands and wives to forgo sexual satisfaction temporarily in order that more praying might be done (1 Corinthians 7:5). Also, some manuscripts teach not only that more praying might be done, but also more fasting (1 Corinthians 5:7, KJV, Textus Receptus).

New Testament Christians, following “the apostles’ doctrine” (Acts 2:42), “came together to break bread” on “the first day of the week” (Acts 20:7), but “the apostles’ doctrine” gave no schedule for Christians’ fasting. Jesus had said that they would fast after he had gone back to heaven (Matthew 9:14-15), but apparently each Christian decides for himself when and how often he will miss a meal and spend the time in extra praying. Sixty years ago I asked n old preacher how often should a Christian fast. He told me that anytime a Christian feels he is not as close to his Lord as he needs to be, any day of the week, it is time for him privately to add fasting to his praying.

Christians in the church at Antioch “ministered to the Lord and fasted,” and, in dispatching Barnabas and Saul on a missionary trip, “fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them” (Acts 13:1-3). Likewise, fasting was coupled with praying when elders were appointed in New Testament churches (Acts 14:23).

But to make “decrees” for others to follow in fasting, such as “neither touch, nor taste, nor handle,” (Colossians 3:21), is foreign to the Scriptures. Nothing in the New Testament authorizes an Ash Wednesday or a 40 day fasting period called Lent. “These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom, in self-made worship, and abasement, and severity to the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence” (Colossians 3:23). The “commandments of men,” even from the so called “clergy,” men “of the cloth,” are “vain” worship (Matthew 15:9).