Is this not the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house…
Isaiah 58: 6-7
All Christian faiths celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. All Christian faiths do not observe Lent. We often see people go about their normal life on a Wednesday about six weeks prior to Easter with a smoky smudge on their forehead. They have been to church and the pastor has marked them for Lent. What is Lent anyway? What’s Lent all about?
The term “Lent” comes from an Anglo-Saxon term meaning to lengthen. This describes the longer days of Spring. Other than the Jewish Nazarite vows , there is no evidence of similar observances in the early Church up until the first Council of Nicaea in 325 AD/CE . The Church council instituted a time of prayer and fasting for the forty days prior to Easter. Lent had been primarily for those new converts who would be baptized on Easter Sunday. The observance became a time of fasting—no meat, fish, poultry, eggs, or dairy, and a time of abstinence from worldly activities, prayer, almsgiving and charity, reconciliation with others, prayers for the salvation of others, tears of repentance, intercession for others. By the fifth century, the Lenten fast included all Christians and fish was added back in as acceptable. Over the centuries a relaxation of the fast has been accepted by the Catholic persuasion to include fasting and abstention on Ash Wednesday, Fridays, and Good Friday. Fasting may go beyond food to include TV, social media, cursing, gossip, and other habits .
After the reformation some Protestant churches refused to observe Lent; however, many continued the observance, and today Ash Wednesday is observed by many churches, as a time of Spiritual renewal.
The non-observant churches may site the reason as the rite being pagan or only for Roman Catholics. If Lent is pagan, we must recall that both Easter and Christmas, as well, stem from pagan origins. In Christianizing such celebrations and rights, this opened a means to bringing the gospel to people who otherwise would never come to salvation. Observing Lent is neither right nor wrong; however, the real practice must be one of the heart. Perhaps you are religious and observe all the rites in the church calendar. You fast. You pray. You do good to your neighbor. These are all commendable, but no amount of fasting, praying, charity, or abstention will make us righteous:
We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
Isaiah 64: 6 a
Only the death Jesus died in our place on Good Friday can atone for our unrighteousness; only His resurrection on the first Resurrection Day can assure us of eternal life. To yield to Him in trust for our salvation is the only way to begin a true renewal. Only complete trust in Jesus as our substitute will give us a righteous standing with God and eternal life. Observe Lent or not, but apply Jesus’ righteousness to your eternal soul. Then you can live a righteous life to honor and serve Him.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12: 1-2
