God’s people have many ways of expressing godly grief over our own sin or over tragedies we endure in this fallen world. Here are a few examples.
From 2 Samuel 13:
[19] And Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the long robe that she wore. And she laid her hand on her head and went away, crying aloud as she went.
From Esther 4:
[1] When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and he cried out with a loud and bitter cry. [2] He went up to the entrance of the king’s gate, for no one was allowed to enter the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth. [3] And in every province, wherever the king’s command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.
From Jonah 3:
[5] And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
Of course, we are never required to perform such outward rituals when we grieve over sin or the fallenness of the world. But to condemn all such rituals is Gnostic. They have their place, as physical manifestations of a repentant heart, just as feasting and gift giving are proper manifestations of a thankful and joyful heart.
In Matthew 6, Jesus condemned outward fasting and mourning rituals done to look pious or as a kind of religious showmanship. But we know he was only condemning the hypocritical abuse of these rituals, not the rituals themselves, because a few chapters later, he tells us what real repentance would look like if those cities that saw his mighty works had humbled themselves. In Matthew 11, we read:
[21] Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
So disfiguring your face to show others you are a superstar believer and a holier-than-thou Christian is forbidden. Do not be a Pharisee. But manifesting genuine brokenness and contrition over sin, even in sackcloth and ash, is commendable.
Welcome to Lent.