In keeping with the series on the Liturgical Calendar, I thought it best to give a brief exposition on Lent.
If Advent is the beginning of the Calendar and one of the two ‘big’ celebrations, Lent is the second. Lent traditionally was the 40 days leading up to Easter. The significance of 40 in the Bible seems constant. The flood of Noah was 40 days and nights, the Israelities spent 40 years in the desert, and Christ spent 40 days being tempted while fasting in the wilderness. I remember once fumbling to answer the question in Bible College of why the Israelites had to spend 40 years in the desert and replying “Because 40 is God’s favourite number?” I was redirected kindly to Numbers 14:34.
In any case, people generally ‘give up’ something for Lent in an act of Penance. The medieval church forbid the consumption of meat during this period, making them a catholic version of Joel Osteen (Every day a Friday – Get it?! Catholics normally couldn’t eat meat on fridays, so every day was a friday in Lent). In the Swiss Reformation people ate sausages during Lent which really freaked people out, probably the last time Switzerland seemed scary.
If Advent was all about the time leading up to Christ’s coming, then Lent is all about the time leading up to Christ’s crucifixion, death, and resurrection. The purpose of the whole of the Liturgical Calendar is to lead us to Christ, to point us to Him who was able to do the penance we could not, Him who was able to fulfill the whole law which we can’t. Yes my Baptist friends, it’s true, the Tradition of the Church itself is a witness to Jesus (and Lent is much older than altar calls and church secretaries, and all your favourite ‘unbiblical’ traditions)
So. Lent is a great time not merely to do some penance or discipline to make yourself feel like a stronger Christian, but to fail in your attempt to live righteously, to repent, and believe the Gospel. In the life story of perhaps the most famous penitent and ascetic in the Christian Tradition, St. Anthony, St. Athanasius wrote of one instance of virtue: “This was Antony’s first struggle against the devil, or rather this victory was the Saviour’s work in Antony”. God’s grace provides everything we need, and Lent is a great season to remember this in, for what have we that we did not receive? (1 Cor. 4:7)