As I was growing up in my public school and my Baptist church in suburban Ohio, “Lent” was always a curious time of year for me. Never talked about at my church, I always wondered why on Fridays many of my friends had to eat fish and weren’t allowed to have meat. I wondered even more about this when I discovered this had some connection to Jesus!
While there are definitely exceptions, the vast majority of my high school Catholic friends didn’t give a rip about Jesus. Many lived life just as any other typical suburban high school American would, sleeping around, smoking pot and getting drunk, and showing no visible or audible demonstration of faith that I could see. Whatever Lent was, it wasn’t for me.
Being Baptist, I just assumed all Catholics were legalists (and going to hell!). Now, to be fair, some Catholics are legalists and some are going to hell, just as some Baptists are! But I digress… Lent was just part of their legalism–something they thought was earning their salvation.
When you’re Baptist, you kind of think everything Catholics do is just part of their effort to earn their salvation, so you intentionally avoid everything Catholics do.
Like Lent.
Which is a tragedy.
Baptists have a “personal relationship with Jesus.” I don’t put that in quotations to be sarcastic or to demean it in any way, that’s just a phrase we used a whole lot. It has some obvious strengths to it, but some glaring weaknesses are we ignore Church being a community and we ignore all of Church history. And I mean all! Anything that happened after the book of Acts is seen as heresy until Martin Luther came along with his Ninety-five Thesis in 1517. Not that we knew what the Ninety-five Thesis was either, but again I digress. The point is, if it was church history, it’s like it never happened.
This point of this article is not to give a full history of Lent, but is to show Protestants how helpful (and biblical) it can be. While observing Lent is not commanded in the Bible (and no one claims it is), fasting certainly is. Whatever different church traditions (or individuals within those traditions) have done with fasting, it was never meant to be a way to earn your salvation. Fasting in Scripture (both the Old and New Testaments) is meant to be an intentional time to have more intimate communion with the Lord. Catholics didn’t invent fasting. Jesus and his disciples would have fasted regularly as practicing Jews, just as their Jewish forefathers like Isaiah and Elijah would have done before them. The early Church fasted regularly as well. Fasting didn’t even have to be commanded by Jesus, he merely assumed it was being done (“When you fast…” Matthew 6:16-18). Sometimes fasting was used to discern God’s will, other times it was used for more intentional prayer, and still others (and the concept of abstaining from something) as a way to give something up so we remember what Jesus gave up for us.
Do you ever forget things?
Do you ever forget Jesus throughout your day? (of course we do)
Then you should observe Lent!
Lent is an intentional 46-day period to fast from something, to give something up, to be reminded of what Jesus gave up for us on the cross, and to build anticipation for the celebration and abundance of Easter Sunday, when Jesus won the ultimate victory over sin and death.
Don’t worry about rules when it comes to Lent. Some don’t fast on the Sundays during Lent, some do; it doesn’t matter. We need all the help we can get to remember what Jesus has done for us so let’s celebrate that Lent has been built into the Church calendar for centuries, and let’s use this great opportunity.
Helpful things to fast from are things you have become dependent on for comfort. Things you have been conditioned to “go to.” Things like TV, Facebook, smartphone apps, caffeine, dessert, eating after 7pm, or anything else you can think of that fits you. The point is, it should be something that you will automatically go to and when you do, and it’s not there, you will then naturally look toward Jesus to be your comfort. You will remember, just as you have given up your daily Snicker bar, Jesus gave up his home in heaven and his life for you on a cross! Depending on what you are abstaining from, you can also use the extra time you have just inherited to spend intentional time reading Scripture or meditating on how much Jesus loves you, how much he gave up for you, and how awesome the Resurrection is! Easter should be a party, and abstaining from anything for 46 days helps make it that.
We are very forgetful, addicted people and we live in a very noisy world.
We need anything that forces us to stop and listen to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit reminding us how much Jesus loves us and how our lives can revolve around that love, rather than the many cheap substitutes we typically rely on.
Remember Jesus this Lenten season.
You don’t have to! But why would you want to miss this opportunity?
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