Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed,
“My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.
Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Matthew 26:39
I used to think Lent was strictly a Catholic thing. Growing up, none of the churches I attended observed Lent. Neither did my family. I just assumed it wasn't something Protestants observed.
But Protestants do observe Lent, starting with Ash Wednesday. I confess that for many reasons - from Lent's foreignness to its seeming ritualism - I am only now and very slowly learning to appreciate these holy days, for reasons I am just beginning to be able to articulate. I'm not big on making a show of ashes on the forehead and grand gestures of denial, and I probably never will be, but I do think there is something to this season. For me, it comes down to a sentiment expressed by Mike Cosper in an article entitled Ash Wednesday, Criticism, and the Fear of Death:
It quietly reminds us, in the days before Easter, that death comes for all born under the curse, and it lays groundwork for the hope of Easter Sunday to ring all the louder and more powerful....We live in a culture loaded with death-denying strategies. How are we, as the church, refusing the blinders they offer, staring death in its face, and saying all the more boldly, “Where is your sting?”
So, I'm coming to view Lent not as ritual, not as show, but as a time of preparation and expectation... and as a challenge to live as one who has been redeemed from Sin and Death. Similar to the Advent season leading up to Christmas, Lent asks us to ponder the wonder of the crucifixion and resurrection. It asks us to think for a moment of Death and Christ's defeat thereof. It compels us to consider the bitter cup from which Christ drank in order to turn us from Death to Life, from bitterness to joy. I hope it also inspires us to love Christ all the more deeply, as we taste the heavenly sweetness He pours into the most bitter of our earthly cups.
No comments:
Post a Comment