Ash Wednesday is only a few days away. For most of us Ash Wednesday means a time of sackcloth and ashes, repentance, mourning, sadness, the beginning of a season of Lent, a solemn time of contemplation and seeking until we enter Eastertide. The shift from Lent to Easter is the shift from cerebration to celebration.

But most of all, Ash Wednesday reminds us of our ashes-to-ashes mortality. “From ashes we came, to ashes we return” is a reminder of our humanness, our inevitable cycle of birth, life and death, and the humility that comes with our humanity. Outside of Good Friday, it’s our most serious and solemn time of the church calendar.

Our scripture for today bears that same kind of solemnity. The story drops in on Jesus’ disciples at a time of fear and confusion over when their master …