The Beauty of Lent...err....Easter

*This blog was written several years ago during Lent. Hopefully you will find it illuminating.*

Someone reminded me today that it was Ash Wednesday and that Lent was starting. I had never grown up doing anything special for Lent and never really fully understood what it was all about, so we proceeded to look it up (thank you, Wikipedia) and I did a little further research.

Since somewhere around the 2nd Century, the Church (primarily the Catholic Church), in some form or another, has observed Lent. Simply stated, "Lent is a special time of prayer, penance, sacrifice and good works in preparation of the celebration of Easter" (Fr. William Saunders). Later on, the round, Biblical number of 40 days (the Flood, Jesus' temptation, etc) was established as the duration for Lent, and even later, it somehow progressed to what we more commonly hear about today, people "giving something up" for Lent.

I won't begin to speculate how Lent progressed to the form which we now see (my guess is that the same guy who came up with Santa and the Easter Bunny had something to do with it), and though there's probably little Biblical basis for the specifics of it outside of fasting, I've recently decided that something can, in fact, be gained from it (other than just losing weight or resolving to go to the gym more).

I recently read a blog by Diana Butler Bass found at www.beliefnet.com/blogs/godspolitics called "Giving Up Lent for Lent." It would probably be an interesting article to read if Lent is something you're accustomed to, but I wanted to comment on a couple of things that I had never thought about before.

Origins and reasons behind Lent aside, the idea of "giving something up" probably seems pretty hard to some people. Surely after 40 days of trying to give up chocolate, soda, or watching TV, you're likely to take a "mulligan" at least once.

Just the fact that something as worldly and inconsequential as giving up chocolate can be so hard and so frustrating reminds us just how short we fall in the end and sheds light on the depravity of our situation. (Obviously eating chocolate isn't a sin, but if we can't resist eating chocolate for any length of time, surely we come up WAY short in a lot of others ways.)

"The journey to Easter is not a mournful denial of our humanity. Rather, Lent embraces our humanity – our deepest fears, our doubts, our mistakes and sins, our grief, and our pain." (Bass) Forty days of this and one is sure to become guilt-ridden and feel absolutely horrible about themselves...The beauty of this process is not in Lent itself, but in its leading up to Easter.

When Easter finally comes and we are reminded of Christ's resurrection from the dead, the significance of his doing so becomes even more apparent. Christianity is not about trying to fulfill laws and strict rules for our lives…If you want to do that, try doing Lent 365 days a year. In Jesus' resurrection from the dead, we are free to cast off "our deepest fears, our doubts, our mistakes and sins, our grief, and our pain" on God because all of that has already been paid for. That means that Easter, the celebration of Jesus' resurrection from the dead, is a celebration and remembrance of the sacrifice that He made and the triumph that we ALL have over death and the guilt and condemnation of our human situation.

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Whether it's from having to take a "mulligan" after eating chocolate cake, a past sin that continues to haunt you, or feeling like no matter how hard you try, you just can't overcome an area of sin in your life, let go of the guilt. It's been taken care of and we have the victory over those things in the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

-CK