On February 4, 2026 by Kevin Gurley

Ash Wednesday:
Why We Observe the Ancient, and Why It Still Matters Today

(Ash Wednesday 2026 is February 18.)

Most of us in the modern Western Protestant world grew up with Sunday worship, Bible study, and a personal relationship with Jesus. And thank God for that — our relationship with Christ is central. But sometimes, when we encounter parts of the ancient Christian tradition, like Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent, we either shrug it off, misunderstand it, or outright reject it.

At Word of Life Ministry, we want something different: a bridge — a cross-shaped way of life that connects the richness of the historic Christian tradition with the life-giving freedom of the Gospel in the 21st century.
 

So… what is Ash Wednesday?

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent in the Christian liturgical calendar, observed by Christians across history and geography as a season of prayer, reflection, fasting, and repentance, leading up to Easter. It’s called “Ash Wednesday” because of the ancient practice of marking believers with ashes in the sign of the cross, saying:

“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

This practice is symbolic, not magical:

• the ashes remind us of our mortality and our need for God;
• they remind us that without Christ we are dust apart from God;
• and the cross made in ash is a proclamation of Christ’s victory over sin and death.

Why do some Christians resist this?

Some people hear Lent or Ash Wednesday and immediately think, “That’s Catholic stuff… we don’t do that.” Others worry that observing liturgical days implies we are trying to earn God’s favor through ritual. These concerns are born out of good instincts — especially in a culture that rightly pushes back against religion-as-performance.

But I want to gently challenge a common confusion:
Jesus Christ is not the same thing as Christianity.

A quick definition check (so we don’t mix things up)

To understand what we’re doing on Ash Wednesday, we have to define some core terms clearly, because when people mix them up, they often push back in the wrong way:

Jesus Christ— the eternal Word of God, the incarnate Son, crucified and risen. This is what the historic creeds of the Church point to, not my opinion, not a denominational twist, but the faith confessed universally by Christians.
Jesus Christ is absolute truth.

The Church
— the gathered community of the baptized who confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and seek to follow Him in obedience.

The Bible
— the sacred and canonical text of the Church — not the other way around. The Church discerned the canon; the canon didn’t discern the Church.

Christianity
— the religion of beliefs and practices developed over time by the Church in response to Jesus Christ.

This last one is crucial. Christianity is a religion, not in the sense of religion-as-oppression, but in the sense that it is a way of living and believing that has been shaped over centuries in response to Jesus Christ.

We don’t have a relationship with Christianity. We have a relationship with Christ. Christianity is the riverbank that helps guide that relationship into expression, depth, and community.

So where does Ash Wednesday fit into this?

Lent, beginning with Ash Wednesday, is a season of discipleship. In Scripture, Jesus Himself fasted for forty days in the wilderness, seeking the Father and resisting temptation (Matthew 4). The early Church recognized the power of following Jesus’ pattern with intention. Lent takes that biblical shape and gives it space in our lives, not as a burden, but as a graced discipline.

On Ash Wednesday we are invited to:

• Pause — from noise, ambition, busyness.
• Reflect — not on how good we are, but on how much we need God.
• Repent — not in guilt, but in honest transformation.
• Reorient our hearts toward Christ.

Here’s the crucial thing:
We don’t celebrate Ash Wednesday because we think it saves us.
We celebrate it because it points us again to the One who does.

What Ash Wednesday is not

 

• It is not a ritual that earns God’s favor.
• It is not a substitute for Jesus’ sacrifice.
• It is not a symbol of religious performance.

Instead, Ash Wednesday is a holy invitation, a practice that helps us remember who we are, whose we are, and where we’re going. And it does that quietly, solemnly, and cruciformly, shaped by the cross of Christ.

A Bridge, Not a Barrier

Our goal at WOL is not to import a Catholic tradition, nor to reject Protestant convictions. Our goal is to live faithfully in the way of Jesus. Some Christians throughout history have embraced liturgical seasons. Some have not. But when a practice draws us closer to Jesus, when it calls us to deeper transformation, when it reorients our hearts toward the cross and resurrection — then it has something to teach us.

Ash Wednesday is one of those moments, not because ashes have power, but because the story they point us toward has power: the story of a Savior who took our dust, took our sin, and raised us to new life.

Peace and every good to each and all.

PK