Lent and Giving Up…

At this writing we are entering the holy and penitential season of Lent. From Ash Wednesday to Easter are forty days (not counting Sundays) of repentance and preparation for the joy of Easter. For some, this may involve the act of giving up something so that daily, or many times through the day, they remind themselves of Christ’s suffering, death, and ultimately His resurrection. Their giving up something should help them focus on Christ who gave up his life to pay the penalty for all of our sins. It might be giving up chocolate or some other pleasure that helps one remember the suffering of Christ. With this is also remembered the grace and mercy shown by God and the faith given to trust in Christ, freely repent of sins and receive forgiveness. The Lutheran church does not hold to the mandatory giving up of things or fasting during lent, but views doing so as within the freedom we have in Christ. We may personally do or not do this, and we should not look down on those that do or don’t so as not to create a law either way. But, we are called to repent.

The first of Luther’s Ninety-Five theses states, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said ‘Repent’ (Matt. 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” To Lutherans, repentance is part of our very existence as God’s children and it is brought into greater focus as we observe and remember the passion and suffering of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ in the season of Lent. We see His humiliation in His incarnation and humble birth where He took on the form of our humanness and laid aside the glory and power that was His in heaven. He chose not to use it to save Himself but to glorify His Father in heaven. This glorification took place on the cross where, as eternal God, He gave up His life, defeating the power of the devil, so that we could have life eternally with Him through the power of His resurrection. This is by no power of our own. God sent His Son to have the sins of all men placed on Him. God’s perfect law in the Ten Commandments shows us our sins and our total depravity and the gospel, the good news, shows us Christ who has taken the punishment we truly deserve. With faith in Christ and the atonement He has made for our sin, we are penitent and contrite about our sins and trust in the mercy and grace given to us in the forgiveness of our sins. The absolution we receive in the name of Christ Jesus.

On Ash Wednesday, as we begin Lent, you may have ashes placed on your forehead before the start of the service. The ashes are in remembrance that we are only dust and will return to dust. And, the sign of the cross they are applied in is a remembrance of our being made alive with Christ in our baptism, where our sins are forgiven, and we are given eternal life through the power of His resurrection. On the Last Day our dust will be gathered up again and our bodies given eternal life with God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. As Luther reminds us, our entire life as believers, is to be one of repentance. A life where we daily, with a contrite heart, confess our sins to God and have faith in the forgiveness God has freely given us through His Son. This gift of forgiveness, along with the gift of faith to believe it, allows us to be free to give up the one thing that Jesus tells us we must give up… “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” (Luke 24:5) As Christians, through the gift of faith in Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, we give up our entire lives to Christ, not just a piece of our lives for forty days, and He saves our lives and makes them eternal. 

A blessed Season of Lent to all of you!