The Forty-Day Preparation

The Forty-Day Preparation

Mark 1:12-13

            Lent begins Wednesday—Ash Wednesday.  Wednesday is also Valentine’s Day.  Interesting!  I’m sure that must have happened before in my life, but I can’t remember when it was—and my memory isn’t that far gone. 

I looked it up.  The last time Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day coincided was 1945, when I was a mere three years old.  No wonder I don’t remember!

            Now that we’ve established my age and my memory, what is Lent?  The word is derived from the Old English lencten which means spring season.  Lent is also called (in Latin) Quadragesima, which means fortieth.  Lent is the forty days (minus Sundays) before Easter.  It ends on Maundy Thursday, which is three days before Easter.  This year Easter falls on April Fool’s Day (April 1), which presents another interesting set of possibilities. 

            Lent is a time of introspection, a time when we are invited to look closely at our lives, see where we’re going wrong, and affirm our desire to make corrections.  It is a time of penance, of self-denial, and of repentance. 

Repentance is one of those words we use more casually than we should.  One young child asked to define repentance, said, “It means being sorry enough to quit.”  I couldn’t say it any better.  It means to turn around from the direction in which we have been going and to start moving in the opposite direction.  You can see why “being sorry enough to quit” is such a good definition.  You can also see what I mean when I say we use the word much too casually.

How should we observe Lent?  I’m tempted to say “celebrate” Lent, but I’m not sure that’s the correct word.  If it is, it opens up a whole new definition of celebrate. 

Some people fast as a replication and remembrance of the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness.  Mark tells us that Jesus was alone during that time, accompanied by wild beasts and angels—quite a combination.  Mark doesn’t say Jesus fasted in the wilderness, but other gospel writers make that a part of his experience there.  Mark also doesn’t tell us whether the wild beasts bothered Jesus.  Perhaps the presence of the angels made that impossible.  We are told that the angels ministered to Jesus.  Perhaps that ministry included food and water, perhaps it didn’t.  We can’t be sure. 

What we can be sure of is that Jesus would have been alone with his thoughts.  He had just been baptized—ordained for ministry—when the Spirit drove him into the wilderness, there to be without human contact for what must have seemed a very long time.

Many people who choose not to fast choose instead to give something up for Lent.  Whatever that something is, it should be real self-denial.  If I gave up Brussels sprouts that wouldn’t be much of a sacrifice since I don’t eat them anyway.  In our church we are invited to contribute the money we would have spent on whatever we give up to a scholarship fund that helps children attend our denominational camp.  That’s a positive way to enhance self-denial.

There are some who, instead of giving something up (or perhaps in addition to giving something up), take on a spiritual discipline—a period of personal devotions, or a commitment to spend more time in prayer or in Bible reading.  Fasting is also a spiritual discipline.

My suggestion for this year is that we make an effort to connect whatever we do to the specialness of this Ash Wednesday.  The point of Valentine’s Day is love.  The point of Jesus’ life and death is love.  Perhaps we could focus on loving more—loving more people and loving the people we love more fully.  That seems like a fitting way to observe—celebrate—Lent.