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Lent: Sharing the Passion
Having been raised a Baptist and spent most of my adult life in the Church of the Nazarene, there are certain things that I had not really been aware of in my spiritual walk. It seems that all churches have their points that they emphasize, but the time of Lent was not one of those for me. Then our children were in a Lutheran school. I loved the Lutheran Church. I loved the liturgy. And I especially loved the season of Lent.
“Hey, Mom, Tim didn’t eat any ketchup at lunch today! He says he’s given up ketchup for Lent.” Tim? Not eat ketchup? Remarkable!
Those were words from my son his first year in a Lutheran School. Lent, hmm? I’d heard of it, but didn’t really know much about it, since our church was of a denomination which didn’t “observe” Lent. Who were those strange people who walk around with a smudge of ashes on their foreheads on Ash Wednesday? Or the ones who say, “No, no chocolate for me. It’s my passion in life, but I have given it up for Lent.”?
It seems that so often, we have vague ideas about what we believe. We (kind of) follow handed down traditions. We (sort of) know about things. But until we put our thoughts into words, either verbally, or on paper, we often don’t have a good grasp about what we believe. I thought it might be a good exercise to look into this, to research it, and to decide what I really believed.
I found it to be not nearly as foreign as I had assumed. Lent is a wonderful season, a time of growing consciousness of the coming exultant Resurrection Day, a time of celebrating the victory over sin and death by our Lord and Savior. Lent is simply a preparation of believers’ hearts and minds for this coming celebration.
Most of us know about the Advent season and the preparation time prior to Christmas. I found that Lent can be similar to that. A misconception by many I have discussed this with is that this is just another religious practice whereby people attempt to manipulate or appease God. I did not find this the case at all. God has already granted us more favor than we could ask. God is far above our manipulations. He has a wonderful plan for each life. All we must do is set our hearts on Him, and He will give us the desire of our hearts – Himself.
No doubt there are those who are spending the Lenten season looking drawn out and drained through the wonderful and awful sacrifices they are making for the Lord. But that is not what it is all about. God does not desire our sacrifices; He has told us that in His Word. To celebrate Lent in that mind frame is without gain.
Some will celebrate Lent merely because it has always been done that way. But guess what I learned! You can celebrate it not as a religious tradition, but rather as a pleasing aroma to the Lord, from your heart. Because God loves us, and to show our love for Him, we can offer to Him six weeks of thought, denial, and preparation for a glorious Easter.
One friend asked where it talks about Lent in the Bible. The Bible says nothing about Lent. But, I reminded her, the Bible does not use the term “rapture”, or “apocalypse”, or “trinity” either. The Bible does not speak of organized Sunday Schools or Vacation Bible School, or Bible College, or Seminaries, or many other things. That does not make them wrong.
As one Lutheran pastor told me at that time, “Lent is a penitential season, a preparatory time when we take time to reflect on the passion of our Lord. We take time to evaluate our lives and hearts and ask ourselves, ‘Am I living up to what He would have for me?’ But most importantly, he said, it is a time to reflect on what Jesus did for us, and not on what we do (or don’t do).
The Holy Word admonishes, in many places, “Reflect…consider…turn from…come to…bring…study…think on…”. Romans 14:17 says, “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness.” Eating and drinking, not eating or not drinking, all are addressed in Paul’s letters. The important thing is not the physical acts, but the attitude of the heart in doing them.
It is easy to make Easter about bunnies and chocolate. But for some, the six weeks prior to Easter will be a time to try to align ourselves with the passion and sacrifice of our Lord. For those of us who do so, Easter will be a season of wonder and beauty and joy and celebration of God’s victory over sin and evil and death. And this may be, to some extent, through the observance of Lent.
Will Tim’s giving up ketchup really make a big difference? Will my giving up computer solitaire? Maybe not. Maybe. But a decision to deny oneself something in this material world will be a way to draw closer to the Lord, to magnify His Holy Name. Can’t hurt.
The next time of see a teen age girl give up chocolate, or a kid give up ketchup, or a family give up TV for Lent, I will rejoice and be glad. Because anytime one withdraws from the world and draws closer to God, God is glorified, and, to quote Jesus, that person is “not far from the kingdom of heaven”. What better place to be?