A HOLY LENT
Each year, the Christian church embarks on a forty day journey known as the season of Lent. Each year. On Ash Wednesday, the Church calls us to begin ”a holy season of prayerful and penitential reflection.” Our attention is especially directed to the holy sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a time of special devotion, self-denial and humble repentance. Each of the seasons of the church year is observed and celebrated, but only Lent is ”kept.”
The holy season of Lent invites us to be ”keepers” who keep the fast, keep the silence and keep the focus through this Lenten season. Keeping the fast during Lent has been part of the holy observance of the season from its very beginnings. Lent is a parallel experience with the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness in prayer and fasting. The tradition of self sacrifice is not in the scriptures and from the perspective of the church is a matter of Christian freedom. ”Giving up something for Lent” is supposed to connect you with Jesus in the wilderness and finding blessing and spiritual benefit. For Christians, to ”keep the fast” is to follow Jesus on the cross to pay for the world’s sin.
Another spiritual dynamic of Lent is a time to ”keep the silence” in reflection and devotion. Our vocal and instrumental music is subdued and reflective. The color purple adorns the church in various manners. It is the’ ‘quietest” of the colors used throughout the church year. The dye to make purple was very difficult to source in ancient times and became attributed to royalty. Jesus was adorned with a purple robe by the soldiers. He was mocked and ridiculed as the ”King of the Jews” prior to His gruesome execution. Purple has become to represent solemnity, penitence and prayer as God’s people meditate on the agony His son endured. Twice, in the Lenten season, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, the church may be adorned in the color black. It represents the absence of light and the curse of sin which fell over all creation. Only the death of the perfect Son of God could abolish the darkness. On Ash Wednesday, the sign of the cross is applied to the forehead of the repentant Christian during the imposition of ashes. The ash is created by the burning of palms from the previous Palm Sunday. It is a reminder of the sign of the cross that was placed on us in our Baptism and the filth of our sin that has been cleansed by the blood of Jesus.
In the early centuries of the Church, the season before Easter was used to teach the faith to those who wanted to become Christians and asked to be baptized. Today, establishing a proper setting for reflection in our fast-paced world may require extra determination. The observance of holy Lent has a sacred purpose and can be of benefit.
As we keep the fast and keep the silence and keep the focus, we learn more of our Lord and His loving plan to redeem a world in desperate need of salvation. You may be well along on your Lenten journey. May it be a blessing to you to experience the great love of Jesus.
As Christians, you are part of what God is doing through the Lutheran Hour Ministries. Your gifts and prayers make a very real impact on this ministry every day. Remember the Lutheran Hour Ministries and look forward to see how God will work through us.
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