Within the season of Lent lies a deep liturgical beckoning to turn. This 40-day journey asks those who believe in Jesus to once again fully embrace the rhythms of life-long learning that are inherent in the transformative call of following Christ. As the authors of the study “People of Remembrance” note, “It is a daily choice to let God’s past faithfulness shape and steer our thoughts, prayers, habits, affections, decisions, and relationships.”
Matthew 11:28-29 recounts Jesus teaching the crowds in the town of Galilee. Within this passage, the reader will find the ongoing invitation to bring the substance of their exhausting and overwhelming lives to Jesus and to begin a daily choosing to allow the life and cross of Christ to “shape and steer” the entirety of one’s existence.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Jesus is inviting his audience to turn and learn; as he does, he is displaying the very core of his purpose and character. He has come to exchange our heavy burden of sin and purposelessness for his light, easy, and restful yoke of learning who he is and partaking of his gentle humility. His Kingdom Come.
Turn and Learn.
Often, Lent is associated with a time of fasting and giving up either a detrimental habit or something that one truly enjoys. Any season of intently giving oneself over to the contemplation and meditation of Scripture while also surrendering ourselves to the work of the Holy Spirit is bound to draw us deeper in our love and understanding of God. This is true whether we are participating in a fast or simply wholeheartedly committing to the journey itself, and we find we are walking a Lenten Road in the footsteps of our Savior. As we lean into the lessons of Lent, there are four areas in which we have a genuine opportunity to learn of His humility and gentleness.
Remember. Reflect. Relationship. Revive.
1. Remember
“God knows how our forgetfulness takes away from the abundant life that He alone can give.” She Reads Truth
The Old Testament calendar is full of rituals, traditions, and celebrations. These forms of remembrance were given to the Israelite people not only to help them keep the goodness of their faithful and consistent God at the forefront of their minds but also to carry them into a place of rejoicing in his character and goodness. The people were invited to the holy ground of offering their sacrifice and to the sacred beauty of a purposeful party.
As we step into Lent, we can learn about God through interacting with Scripture and our local church. We can freely seek and ask questions such as “Who is God?” and “What does the life and sacrifice of Christ mean for me in this time and place?” We can echo the Psalmist as he declares, “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will consider all your works and meditate on your mighty deeds” Psalm 77:11-12.
Learning to recall and remember where God has taken us also invites us to look forward to the purposeful party called Easter, anticipating the hope of our future as we journey in his footsteps.
2. Reflect
One intent of Lent and its elements of sacrifice and the act of remembering is to move us toward a more focused contemplation and reflection. Learning to meditate on God’s Word and reflect on the goodness of God while also allowing for turning and repentance can be facilitated through considering the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
Reflection might be facilitated through the simplicity of journaling through a series of questions about what you have read in Scripture or something you are currently experiencing while inviting the Holy Spirit to be with you in the process. You may choose to sit quietly and allow your heart to simply be still or express gratitude in a tangible manner, reflecting on God’s generosity and faithfulness.
David prayed out these words, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” Psalm 139: 23-24
Through the process of reflective questioning that relies on the Holy Spirit, we can come to a renewed awareness that it is only through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross that we can culminate our 40-day journey of Lent readied for the celebration of his resurrection.
3. Relationship
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5
While the practices of Lent often lean toward self-denial, sacrifice, and the contemplation of what can be given up as a symbol of participation in the season, the truth of anything we might deem to give up for God, whether it be a bad habit or a deeply enjoyable food, is that aside from the power and direction of the Holy Spirit, any sacrifice simply falls short, and we are powerless to follow through.
Christ in us is not only the hope of glory and our only source of salvation; his life in us is the singular strength and power of our moment-to-moment life. The goal of our practice of Lent and the whole of our salvation experience must be to know God more fully with each passing day and to abide more and more in Jesus. Lent is more than a call to a liturgical calendar or a tradition for the church; it is a call to know the Father and the Son more intimately through the power of the Holy Spirit. The fullness of the sacrifice of Christ and the entirety of Scripture is that we might know and have an intimate relationship with Jesus.
4. Revive
“Lent is a meaningful liturgical season in which we walk the road to Calvary with Christ…this is a time to be contrite of heart, humbling ourselves before God and each other, and to revive our endeavor to walk like Jesus as healers in our relationships, our work, our nation. It is a time to recall ourselves to lives of evangelism and discipleship, what the cross calls us to do.” Dr. Barry Corey, President of Biola University
The 40 days of Lent are a cruciform path. To revive oneself is to seek God to reset our focus toward being a student of the life and character of Jesus. To learn of him and be about the living out of his gospel message. Reading through the entirety of the gospels is a beautiful Lenten practice of revival that can be accomplished by reading two chapters daily, including Sundays up until Good Friday. Finishing this final chapter of John as you prepare for Silent Saturday and Easter Sunday can revive your sense of purpose and deepen your sense of celebration.
In Philippians, Paul illuminates the shape and substance of this cruciform pilgrimage with this passage: “Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 'Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient even unto death.”
Learning as we walk through the liturgy of Lent offers the participant untold opportunities to remember and reflect, build relationship with God and their community, and be revived in the call to a cruciform life. It is a time when the believer can deepen their reliance on the Holy Spirit and their relationship with God. As Russell D. Moore writes, “The kingdom of God ought to reshape our vision of what matters.”
Perhaps the most salient understanding we can learn throughout the season of Lent is what truly matters.
Originally published Wednesday, 21 February 2024.
