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Over the next 5 Sundays, we will be preparing for Easter by looking at five themes related to Lent. Today will be an introduction. Then we will look at Lament, Waiting, Humility, Repentance, and on Palm Sunday, Forgiveness.
These themes are all specifically regarding our relationship with God. Lamenting in prayer to God, waiting on God, humility toward God, repentance toward God, and forgiveness from God.
For our introduction today, I want to give a bit of background on how Lent started, distinguish between fasting and self-denial, and then look at the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. We will end with a reflective practice and commitment to becoming closer to God during the Lent season.
Early Christians felt that the magnitude of the Easter celebration called for special preparation. As early as the second century, many Christians observed several days of fasting as part of that preparation.
Over the next few centuries, perhaps in remembrance of Jesus’ fasting for 40 days in the wilderness, 40 days became the accepted length of the Lenten season. Since, from the earliest years of Christianity, it had been considered inappropriate to fast on the day of the resurrection, Sundays were not counted in the 40 days. Thus, the Wednesday 46 days before Easter came to be regarded as the beginning of Lent. (“Lent” in Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Fred Grissom)
That’s a bit of background. But, of what value is it for us and how can we enter this season in a meaningful way?
“Lent is a season to journey with Jesus in his passion, to survey the cross, taking the measure of Christ’s love in his suffering and death… It is a somber journey of spiritual preparation and renewal, marked especially by repentance and prayer… not shrinking away from suffering but cultivating in us wisdom that growth often comes through suffering… Lent invites us to willingly identify with Christ’s suffering through fasting or other forms of self-denial… Lent prepares us to experience the reality of resurrection joy only by first recognizing the depth of our sin that pinned Christ to the cross.” – (Seeking God’s Face, Philip F. Reinders)
Perhaps you are searching for joy, for meaning, or for God’s direction in your life. This is a season that could lead you closer toward these things.
Fasting and self-denial are ways of identifying with Christ’s suffering and death.
Although these practices are not a requirement for salvation, they are an expectation for followers of Jesus so that we will become closer to him and thus better represent who he is to the world around us.
Matthew 6:16-18 – When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
He did not say “if you fast” nor did he say “you must fast.” He simply said “when you fast.”
Matthew 9:14-15 – Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.
These passages give us an indication that Jesus expected his followers to fast.
Fasting is a term with a very loose definition these days. People can talk about doing a juice or liquid fast for health reasons, or a media fast to try and eliminate an addiction to entertainment.
In Scripture, fasting refers to abstaining from food for spiritual purposes. Other forms of fasting are not wrong, but in the Bible, it always revolves around spiritual purposes. It reveals that which controls us.
Fasting is not the only form of self-denial we can practice during Lent. Consider practices you have in your life that could be shifting your loves and desires in a way that does not represent the character of Christ.
This could be the sort of entertainment you consume, social media, books, or various habits that are causing separation from God.
The point is to seek a deeper experience with Christ, which requires the denial of something. This isn’t just about trying to be rid of unhealthy things in your life. Approach Lent more with the desire to be close to God.
I want to take a few moments to examine where Lent really started. It started with Jesus fasting for 40 days.
Let’s read this account from Matthew:
The Temptation of Jesus – Matthew 4:1-11
There are two main things going on in this passage. The first is that Jesus fasted for 40 days. He intentionally went through a period of withdrawal and self-denial. The second is that Jesus was tempted by the devil at the end of the 40 days.
The first question that comes to mind is, why? Why did Jesus do this? What benefit did it bring him? The next question is, what is the example Jesus set for us to practice?
In short, Jesus did this so that he could demonstrate the right way to satisfy our desires.
The three temptations involved satisfying his own hunger by making bread, performing a miracle to prove his power, and becoming ruler of the entire world.
Jesus did all these things, but not in the way the devil wanted him to. He did them God’s way. He made bread, he performed miracles, and he became the ruler of the entire world.
He did this through obedience to God, keeping himself completely holy and righteous, proving that everything we could possibly desire can be obtained through obedience to God.
He also did this so that he could be our sympathetic high priest by subjecting himself to self-denial and temptation.
We see in Hebrews 2:16-18 that Jesus had to be made like his brothers and sisters, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
He had a body like ours. He got hungry and had cravings. Hunger and withdrawal from what our body is used to makes us to crazy things. Jesus experienced this fully so that he understands you when you are going through pain and suffering.
But, he showed that the solution is to lean on the power of God, not to get whatever we want, but to get us through the temptation to take whatever we want for ourselves.
I want to take a moment to do something unusual. On the screen and in the bulletin insert there are two questions. I’m going to read Psalm 51 and then we will have a few minutes of silence for you to reflect and answer those questions.
You can write down your answers, or simply think about them and come back to them later today or this week. Over the next 6 weeks, commit to becoming closer to God by putting into practice a form of fasting or self-denial.
You can give something up because it is keeping you from closeness to God. Or, you can practice fasting or self-denial in order to identify more closely with Christ in his suffering.
The point is to prepare ourselves for the joy of resurrection by first recognizing the depth of our sin that pinned Christ to the cross.