Lent

Wesley Grubb • Feb 01, 2024

The Season of Lent

The season of Lent is upon us. Lent is the liturgical season on the church calendar when we focus on sacrifice. Many people traditionally “give something up for Lent.” Many others, jokingly, give up Lent for Lent! What is the purpose of this tradition? We are supposed to give up something as a symbolic act of sacrifice. We lay something down from Ash Wednesday to Easter, and this is meant to teach us some important spiritual lessons.

First, giving something up for Lent reminds us that we all have things in our lives that we need to lay aside. We all have sins, vices, bad habits, negative attitudes, and destructive behaviors that put us in a bind mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. These things distort our relationships with the Lord and with others. Giving up something for Lent is a spiritual exercise that helps us practice putting things aside, especially those sins that so easily ensnare us (cf. Hebrews 12:1).

Second, giving up something for Lent teaches us the discipline of self-denial. The key to observing Lent in a meaningful and productive way is to choose something to give up that you really enjoy, or something that usually occupies a large amount of your time and attention. The point is to give up something you value, something good that you enjoy, so you can practice the biblical virtue of self-denial. By teaching ourselves to do without something we crave, or something we feel like we need in our life in order to be happy, we learn how to be content with less. We learn to appreciate the things that are truly important. Lent reminds us not to get too attached to our possessions and earthly enjoyments, and to seek our fulfillment in Christ.

Third, our small sacrifice in Lent directs us to consider the costly sacrifice of Christ. As we lay down some of our own comforts and conveniences, we are reminded that Jesus freely laid down his very life in our behalf. The culmination of Lent is Good Friday. Self-sacrifice is at the heart of Lent because the aim of the season is to help us grow in our imitation of Christ: walking with him, bearing our cross, sharing in his suffering, and embracing his call to give ourselves for something eternal instead of living for this world.

If Lent is about sacrifice, it is also about love. Paul says, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Lent and love—now that is a strange combination! But, strange as it sounds, love and Lent go together. This year Ash Wednesday falls on Valentine’s Day. How romantic! Perhaps at first thought we may feel amused and ask ourselves, ‘What’s love got to do with it?’ Actually, love has everything to do with it.

Lent is about falling out of love with this world and more and more in love with Christ. Lent is also about learning to love people like Christ loved us—to sacrifice self out of love for others. Even if you choose not to give something up for Lent, think about what you are willing to give up for Christ. What do you need to step away from this year in order to grow in your love for Jesus? What rights, freedoms, comforts, or conveniences are you willing to forego for the sake of another person? What are you willing to give up, if necessary, out love for others?

Grace and peace,

Pastor Wesley

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A Time for Feasting

By Wesley Grubb • 01 Apr, 2024

With the coming of Spring, the church enters into the joyous season of Easter. During Lent, we traditionally practice the discipline of self-denial. We give up something for Lent. This is an act of fasting for forty days. Easter is the mirror opposite of Lent. Just as we give up something for Lent, we are encouraged to take up something for Easter. Lent is about fasting, but Easter is about feasting. Easter is a forty-day period of celebration and rejoicing. The church greets the new life of Spring bursting forth in the earth by commemorating the glorious morning when our Lord burst forth from his tomb, bringing us eternal life. Here is how the apostle Paul says it: [God] saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:9-10). Here we have the meaning of Easter encapsulated. These are the things we celebrate, and all of them were accomplished and secured for us by Jesus on that first Easter through his resurrection. Our whole salvation is a sovereign work of God . It is not based on our holiness, our works, our purposes, or our merits. We are saved only by God’s purpose and grace, which he ordained to give us in eternity past. God saves us first, and then he calls us to live a holy life. And the way we obtain these gifts is only in union with Christ Jesus in his death and resurrection. As Paul says, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. . . . So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:4, 5, 11). Our ultimate salvation is rescue from death . Being saved means achieving immortality. God’s sovereign purpose and saving grace, which he prepared in eternity and revealed in history, are intended to do for us one day what he did for Jesus on Easter. The symbol of our salvation is not only the cross, but the empty tomb. In his resurrection, Jesus abolished our death and brought us life. Paul says, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom. 8:11). Easter is the celebration of Christ’s resurrection in the past and the anticipation of our own resurrection in the future. This is why we take up something for Lent. We do something joyful for others that promotes flourishing and well-being. We add something to our lives that brings more life to ourselves and others. More life, unending life, abundant life—that is what we celebrate, and we give Jesus all the glory. What will you take up this Easter that is life-giving? Make it your aim this Easter to be the kind of person who brings life and joy to the people around you. He is risen! Grace and peace, Pastor Wesley