Reflections on Lent for Ash Wednesday
For most, Lent is probably thought of as a time you’re supposed to be sorrowful, maybe even miserable. This year, Ash Wednesday is wedged between Mardi Gras and Valentine’s Day, so it’s understandable if Ash Wednesday is not the highlight of your week.
You’re supposed to give up something for Lent, right? Chocolate or coffee or something else you really want, but don’t necessarily need. Or you might add something to your daily routine – daily exercise, or quiet time with God…
Here’s how Lent came about:
40 Hours
About two hundred years after Jesus, a group of dedicated Christians started fasting for the forty hours leading up to Easter. To prepare their hearts for Easter. Pretty soon, the idea caught on.
7 Days
Years later, they bumped it up to seven days of fasting and called it Holy Week.
40 Days
For some though, seven days just wasn’t enough time to fast and repent. After all, Jesus fasted forty days in the wilderness. Right after Jesus was baptized, the Bible tells us that Jesus went out into the desert to fast and to be tempted by the Devil for forty days. For Jesus, those forty days were a time of introspection, a time when he battled the temptations of the Devil and emerged stronger than he had been before. So austere saints of old would fast as much as forty days. By 325 AD, the church officially made Lent forty days. (Forty-seven if you count Sundays)
For us, Lent is a time when we make that journey with Christ. We think about our temptations, our sins, and we repent. After these forty days, we hope to emerge stronger than we had been before.
So, we observe Ash Wednesday – the beginning of Lent. While there is no mention of Ash Wednesday in the Bible, the idea behind it is alluded to. When someone was in grief, they would wear sackcloth and sit among the ashes in their fireplace. Or they would smear themselves with ashes so others would know they were in grief. So ashes represent sorrow. Christians would use ashes as a sign of repentance and sorrow for sin.
Lent is a time for deepening our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Lent is a time to try new spiritual practices. It’s a time to renew your commitment to spiritual disciples, like:
- Prayer
- Fasting
- Meditation
- Bible reading and study
- Solitude
- Community
- Worship Together
Spiritual disciplines are not what we do to gain favor with God. They’re practices we do because we are favored by God. Because God invites us to come near – walk with God.
So on Ash Wednesday, I encourage you to examine yourself. Take a close look at yourself, and ask yourself some hard questions – what are my sins? Where am I “not so Christian” in my life? What kind of person am I? Am I really loving? Do I show love in my words and actions? Am I really patient? Do I really love God more than anything else in my life? Do I make sacrifices for him? Am I peaceful? Or, do I like to assert my will over other people? What kind of person am I? What are my weaknesses? What are my sins? Where do I need to get better in my life?
That is the first part of repentance, the first part of Lent. To look at yourself and to recognize your sins. Then comes the second part – to look away from yourself, and to Christ.
Receive Christ’s forgiveness. Receive Christ’s love. Accept the righteousness of Christ and believe it.
Do you want to give up something for Lent? Give up sin. Give up guilt. Give up self-condemnation. Give up fear of death and fear of truly living in freedom. Give up worry.
Then receive the love of Jesus Christ. He loves you. You are forgiven and free. Receive the peace of Christ. Live in the joy of a prisoner set free.
Rev. Dr. Dave Weidlich is Pastor of The Vine Church of Petaluma, a new non-denominational church in the San Francisco North Bay Area.Ash Wednesday Petaluma
We invite you to a brief invitational service to observing Lent.