Dust and Ashes
“Dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” These were the words God spoke when Adam and Eve fell into sin.
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” At funerals, we hear these words as we commit the dead to the Lord’s care. It is a reality we cannot escape. It is a fate we cannot avoid.
Why start the season of Lent this way? Why remind ourselves of our inevitable death?
Ashes: A Sign of Repentance
Ashes have long been a biblical sign of repentance, grief, and humility before God. In Joel 2:12-13, the Lord calls His people:
“Return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments.”
The outward signs—ashes, fasting, and mourning—are meant to reflect an inward reality. True repentance is not about external rituals but a heart turned back to God.
When David confesses his sin with Bathsheba before God in Psalm 51, he does not simply ask for forgiveness but for a new heart:
“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” Ashes remind us of our sin and need for mercy. But, in Matthew 6, Jesus warns that repentance is not for show. Fasting, prayer, and acts of devotion should not be done for human recognition but as a genuine turning to God.
So tonight, as we receive ashes, we remember: this is not an empty ritual. It is a call to real repentance, a reminder that without God’s mercy, we are dust. Yet even in our sorrow over sin, there is hope—for God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
Dust: A Reminder of Death and Hope
“Dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” We are confronted with the reality of our mortality. This phrase comes from Genesis 3:19, spoken by God to Adam after the fall into sin. Because of sin, death is inevitable—we will all return to the dust from which we were formed.
If death had the final say, this truth obviously leads to despair. But, for those who have faith in Christ, we are instead led to Him. Paul urges us:
“Be reconciled to God… Now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation.”
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” The ashes we wear tonight remind us of sin and death, but the shape of the cross reminds us of our redemption. Jesus Himself took on our dust—He became fully human, walked in our broken world, and bore our sin upon the cross. He was laid in the dust of death, but He didn’t stay there.
Dust we are, and to dust we shall return, but dust is not the end of the story. God breathes life into dust—He did it at creation, He does it in our baptism, and He will do it again on the last day. The ashes we wear are temporary—you’ll wash them off when you get home—but God’s promise of resurrection is eternal.
So we begin Lent not just in sorrow but in hope—hope in the One who turns dust into a new creation.
Conclusion
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”
Tonight, we will be marked with ashes as a sign of repentance and a reminder of our mortality. These words are sobering, but that’s the whole point—when we are sober, we are more fully aware of reality. And the reality that we face is that we will one day return to the ground from which we were formed, but not without hope.
The cross traced on our foreheads in ash is the same cross traced on us in baptism—a sign that though we are dust, we belong to Christ. He took on our sin, our death, our dust, and through His death and resurrection, He gives us new life.
Lent is a journey that begins with ashes but leads to the cross and the empty tomb. The dust of death does not have the final word—God does. And His word to you is grace, mercy, and life in Christ.
So tonight, we repent. We return to the Lord. Some of us begin a season of fasting.
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”
And we trust in the One who makes beauty from ashes and breathes life into dust. Amen.
