The Case for Lent

If we view Lent as a season to focus our attention on mortifying the sins that so easily entangle us, we can then consider the cross in light of the resurrection, not apart from it.

As we come to the final day of Epiphany, there is already a steady stream of opposition towards Lent on-line.¹ Some out of good evangelical zeal find the whole thing too much to accommodate. Others for fear of Romanism, pull out their best puritan impersonations. Still a few good men argue that the Day of Atonement was the only commanded fast in the Old Testament Scriptures, and therefore 40 days seem extra-biblical.

Reformational Lent

While I understand the sentiment behind some anti-Lent apologists, as a committed Protestant, the Church Calendar is deeply embedded in our broad Reformational tradition. The Second Helvetic Confession sums up my perspective:

"Moreover, if in Christian liberty the churches religiously celebrate the memory of the Lord's nativity, circumcision, passion, resurrection, and of his ascension into heaven, and the sending of the Holy Spirit upon his disciples, we approve of it highly..." ~The Second Helvetic Confession, CHAPTER XXIV Of Holy Days, Fasts and the Choice of Foods

Furthermore, Luther's approach to Lent was profoundly shaped by the Gospel narratives. He emphasizes faith in Christ's work rather than human works. He rejected the traditional idea of penance as a means of earning forgiveness, instead advocating for the forgiveness of sins through the absolution of God.

During Lent, Luther preached extensively, covering the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer each year. He urged the saints to prepare their hearts for Holy Week and Easter by praying and fasting.

My own experience as a Presbyterian in the PCA was filled with meaningful habits during Lententide. And since I became a pastor of a CREC congregation, we have been participants in the season of Lent for over 15 years. So, outside of my early years as a Baptist, I don’t recall going through the year without intentionality in the 40 days before Easter.

Arguments against Lent mean less and less to me as the years go by. Attempts to change my mind failed long ago. The blessings of Lent individually, its biblical rhythm, and corporate benefits make it more compelling every year.

The Benediction of the Calendar

I am committed to the Church Calendar, not because I want to be a slave to it, but because I know its inevitability. We all follow some calendar. Remember that the calendar aims to draw you closer to Jesus. It allows us to understand the times and to show our finiteness before the God of time. It reframes times and seasons after the life of the new Adam. The Old Testament feasts established patterns for life in the old creation, but in Christ, all of time has been restructured and functions to exalt the Lord of time.

The absence of a church calendar leads to ecclesial individualism where the man imposes his calendar on the people instead of sharing a common calendar with the people. It's never a matter of whether to calendar but which calendar.

God created a world in rhythms and seasons. Time is deeply ritualistic and repetitive. Time is divinely cyclical by nature. God created the world to point us to the light of the world. Time, therefore, should direct us to Christ.

Lent is an indispensable portion of this system because Lent is Trinitarian. As the Trinity is a communion of love, so Lent provides the season to express that love to one another in the community. Where sins are confronted and battled, you find a vigorous Trinitarian community and vision. Lent serves the community by giving us a season of determined war against sin for the sake of our neighbors.

It offers a vision of history that undergirds the biblical history and reflects the normal routines, liturgies, and rituals of human beings. Lent is a form of restructuring our lives. It compels us to do an inventory of our souls. All Christians need to re-balance and re-form areas where there is disproportionate indifference.

Lent reveals the God who suffers in the Person of Jesus Christ. He is our salvation. God’s image-bearers are formed from the dust of a fallen Adam and out our trust in the Crucified Final Adam. To disconnect Lent from the Church Calendar is to minimize the Cross in its redemptive work.

We indeed live in the age of an ascended Lord, but this same Lord guides a Church that is still suffering and healing in a fallen world. The removal of Lent is to proclaim an over-realized eschatology.

It is true that Lent can be abused, and history teaches us that it has. Mysticism and asceticism are rampant in the history of the Church. But it is also true, as Luther so memorably stated, “the abuse of something is not an argument against its proper use.” So if Lent can be proven to be profitable, then is there a legitimate way to benefit from it without falling into some of its former abuses?

Protestant Christians are not bound by Romish structures of food or rituals. We use wisdom in forming healthy habits for the Church and individuals while not binding the Church or the individual to particular habits.

Lent and Wilderness

Lent teaches us that Satan’s gifts are easy to master. They come with first grade instruction manuals. They are made to be learned quickly and enjoyed rapidly (fornication, drugs, alcohol, and sexual immorality). God’s gifts, however, are a little harder to master. They require self-control and patience. They demand spiritual growth; they demand a kingly attitude to grasp kingly wisdom. God’s instructions mean you have to seek others in the community to understand them properly.

In the wilderness, we found a garden stripped of colors, fruit, and water. It was there that Jesus faced the devil again in a re-match. He knew well that temptation had a triumphant history of subtly winning arguments. Jesus wasted no time and rebuked the Tempter. He does the same with the demons and the demonic-like religious teachers of the day.

We are not to sit in temptation’s classroom. God already said we are to flee it and rebuke it with the only source of authority that is permanent and stamped with divine truth.

In Lent, the Church finds herself in a wilderness scenario, except she stands under the rule of an ascended King. She is destined to journey from glory to glory like her Lord and Master. Lent instructs us in wisdom for 40 days. We sit at God’s school-house. We need to be trained by the two-edged sword that muzzles the Tempter and tells him not to come back again. He is not welcome and neither are his offers.

Lent is a 40-day class on temptations and the glories and rewards of resisting them.

But Why 40 Days?

But what is the significance of these 40 days?

Lent follows the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness. His fasting for 40 days speaks to the evil and the hardness of heart of the Israelites who succumbed to the Serpent’s whispers. So as the Church walks with Jesus from wilderness to Golgotha she re-lives the messianic journey. The 40 days are symbolic for that wilderness testing, and as a result it is chronologically set before the Great Paschal Feast, commonly referred to as Easter.

Should Lent be Observed?

Many in the Southern Presbyterian tradition argue that Lent has a history in the merit-theology of Rome. Lent was a way to earn something. The Reformation fixed this soteriological error, and therefore Lent is no longer to be observed. But Luther used the Lenten season precisely to fight against a merit-theology to offer the forgiveness of Jesus through a dedicated season of contemplation of the Crucified Lord.

Modern-day evangelicals do not quarrel about Easter and Christmas. They do not view it as a threat. They say that those festivals offer no such harm. If that is the case, then the question is not whether one day (or Season) is more beneficial than the other, but instead is it explicitly stated in the Bible or not? If the “explicit reference” argument is used, then opponents of Lent will have to conclude that this will have to be applied across the board.

I concur with Vance Freeman that the observance of Christmas and Easter undercuts the arguments “for not observing Lent.” Mr. Freeman also concludes:

The biggest threat to Christianity today is not the church in Rome, or that Americans are prone to elevate traditional Christian rituals, like Lent, over discipleship. The biggest threat to the church is that our rituals are increasingly only secular ones. We are Americans before we are Christians. Super Bowl Sunday not only competes with the Lord’s Day, it dominants it. And when we relegate the Christian life to a mere facet of our American lives we fall into Moral Therapeutic Deism.

The formation of godly habits is the issue at hand. In other words, is there an adequate time of the year when the Church should explicitly focus on the cross of Jesus and how that cross must shape our understanding of sin? Is there room for setting aside a season for a cruciform hermeneutic? I believe there is.

As Peter Leithart so ably summarizes:

Lent is a season for taking stock and cleaning house, a time of self-examination, confession and repentance. But we need to remind ourselves constantly what true repentance looks like. “Giving up” something for Lent is fine, but you keep Lent best by making war on all the evil habits and sinful desires that prevent you from running the race with patience.

If this is true, then Lent serves an enormously important role in the life of the Christian. Naturally, to quote Luther’s first thesis, “the Christian life is a life of daily repentance.” A faithful understanding of the Lord’s Service provides that for us weekly. However, an extended period where our sins are deeply brought to our attention by the preaching of the Word and prayer (and fasting) are regularly considered, practiced and meditated upon can provide significant benefits for all Christians on each Lord’s Day and throughout the week.

The legalism concern is legitimate. We are all tempted to fall into this trap, but it does not have to be so. If we view Lent as a season to focus on mortifying the sins that so easily entangle us, we can then consider the cross in light of the resurrection, not apart from it. If we do so, Lent will become legalism’s greatest enemy and repentance’s best friend.

---

Uriesou T. Brito

FOLLOW ALONG

FACEBOOK / X / YOUTUBE / INSTAGRAM
PODCAST / KUYPERIAN / SUBSTACK

1. Lent means “to lengthen” the days or “refrain from” from food.