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The Season Of Lent

Lent is a period of time in the Church year that many people have heard about, but may not know much about. The first church holy day to be celebrated was Easter. The death and resurrection of Jesus was such an incredibly momentous event that the earliest Christians began to remember it with joy every spring. The death and resurrection of Jesus meant that God had forgiven them and had conquered sin and death, our two greatest enemies. The heart of the Christian faith is God's proclamation of mercy through Jesus taking our sins upon himself, suffering the judgment that our sin deserves. His death was on our behalf, and his rising to life again showed that Jesus was stronger than sin, which had killed him, and stronger than the grave. Indeed, since Jesus had risen on a Sunday morning, the Christians worshipped on Sunday to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus. Each Sunday was regarded as a “little Easter.”

As the Christian faith grew and spread around the Roman Empire and beyond, many converts to Christ were baptized on Easter morning. To be a Christian is to be alive in Christ, filled with his life, and so Easter was the day most appropriate for Baptism. The period before Easter became a time of preparation for baptism. Converts to Christ would be instructed in the essentials of the Christian faith. They would learn the facts about Jesus and his life and death. They would learn the great promises which God makes to all those who place their trust in him. They would learn the spiritual practices that could help them grow in a personal relationship with God. Often, to mark the fact that a believer in the Lord Jesus was not at the mercies of his body’s demands, but rather dependent upon God first and foremost, these Christians preparing for Baptism would fast from some particular food or beverage. As Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

Because the Israelites had wandered in the wilderness for forty years after they had been freed from Egypt, and because Jesus had fasted in the wilderness for forty days after his baptism, Christians began their preparations for baptism forty days before Easter. However, since Sunday is always a “little Easter,” Sundays were left out of the count. Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, is forty six days before Easter. Six of those days are Sundays, because the Sundays are not counted to reach the forty days before Easter.

Lent is a time of preparation. We are getting ready to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus, God's great victory that gives us life. To recall his sacrifice, and to train ourselves in greater trust, we who follow the Lord Jesus often make a sacrifice of some special food or activity. Since a “negative” discipline often does little by itself to draw a person closer to God, many people also add some special aspect of devotion, such as a longer time of prayer, or taking part in a group Bible study, or assisting in a service project of some type.

Lent is not a time to be miserable for the sake of being miserable. It is a time of preparation, a time to get ready to celebrate to best news of all: that Jesus came to buy us back from death and to give life that lasts forever to all who place their faith in him.

May you who reads this have a blessed Lent and a joyous Easter.

3/7/2003