6 mins
Lenten reflections
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Sunday February 21 I wonder what you’re like when it comes to waiting for things? We usually associate the agony of waiting with positive life events.
Birthdays, weddings, holidays, Christmas, etc. Lent is a period of waiting and preparation in the life of the church. A more challenging form of waiting. A time when we’re encouraged to deny ourselves, so we rely more on God.
I want to suggest that this year’s observing of Lent should be more poignant. It was just over a year ago that our world forever changed with the arrival of Covid-19. Who could have believed it? During the months that followed, we experienced the agony of waiting. Waiting for sorrow and loss to stop. Waiting for lockdown to be over. Waiting for a vaccine to be found. As we struggled from day to day, I think we all discovered a new agony in waiting. One that many are still living through and struggling with. We’re thankful that Lent makes us look to Jesus.
In 325AD the Council of Nicea decided to encourage a 40-day Lenten season of fasting. Interestingly, it was a time of preparation of candidates for baptism and a time of penance for ‘grievous sinners’ who had been excluded from communion and required restoration. In these early centuries, fasting rules were strict. One meal a day was allowed in the evening, and meat, fi sh, eggs, and butter were forbidden. Today fasting can be much more practical. People fasting from TV, social media, their phones, and even from gossip and negativity. There’s a thought! According to the lectionary our focus for this week’s Lent refl ection is Mark 1:9-15.
We have the remarkable account of Jesus being baptised by John in the Jordan, and Him being fi lled by the Spirit. Baptism is the outward sign of the washing away of our sins. Jesus had no sin to be dealt with. So why be baptised? To fully associate with us and to ‘fulfi l all righteousness’. (Matthew 3v15) As Jesus was baptised the heavens are torn open, and the Holy Spirit descended on Him like a dove. This was the main distinguishing factor for John the Baptist.
The One on whom the Spirit descended and remained was the Messiah. (John 1v32-34) The Holy Spirit felt totally at home in Jesus.
A way of life that we seek to emulate.
As soon as Jesus is baptised, He is immediately affi rmed by His Father. (Mark 1:11) He hadn’t preached a sermon, He hadn’t performed a miracle, but He was living in total obedience to His Father. This is a helpful and healthy reminder for us. We don’t work towards our Father’s affi rmation; we live from it. As we begin our journey of Lent let me remind you that God would say to you today, ‘You are my Son, my Daughter, and I love you and am pleased with you!’ Modern feel-good theology would have us believe that everything would be plain sailing for Jesus from here on in. Not so. His baptism of love and life would be followed by a baptism of fi re. ‘At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan’.
(Mark 1:12-13) Here we have the timing of Lent and the test of Lent. In a world of selfcentredness and self-serving, God invites us to deny ourselves. If we do, our self-denial will lead us to know more of God’s power.
Not human wisdom, but God’s will and God’s way.
Having had His own experience of Lent, Jesus begins His ministry with gusto. He makes His way into Galilee proclaiming the Good News of God. His message was that a key part of seeing and experiencing the Good News of the Kingdom, is that we fi rst of all must own the bad news about ourselves. We have sinned. We need to be forgiven. So in this fi rst Sunday of Lent, let’s repent and believe the Good News!
Sunday February 28 Have you ever rebuked God? ‘Unthinkable’ I hear you say. You would think so, but it’s exactly what Peter did on hearing the news of Jesus’ future suff ering, rejection, and ultimately, His death. I love what Mark tells us concerning this: ‘Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him!’ (Mark 8:32) Good luck with that Peter! Maybe we’re not as hot-headed as Peter, but I’m sure there have been times where we felt the need to have a little word with God because we struggled or even disagreed with what He was doing. Maybe part of our Lent refl ections needs to be our saying sorry for getting things so wrong. He knows. He understands. He forgives.
Last week we saw that John the Baptist resisted the idea of him baptising Jesus.
(Matthew 3:14) Peter went a step further. He stated he would refuse to allow Him to be crucifi ed. ‘Not on my watch’ said Peter. We know it didn’t work out too well for him. He promised he would defend Jesus with his life, but he ended up denying Him. To protect himself, he then made sure there was good distance between them. (Matthew 26:58) And this at a time Jesus needed Him most.
Have we ever looked to create distance between us and God? The best of us can be fi ckle at times. He knows. He understands.
He forgives.
Rebuking God is stark enough. But imagine the all-knowing and all-seeing God then calling you Satan? You know you’re having a bad day when God has reason to call you Satan! It wasn’t that Peter was Satan, it was that he had a limited understanding of the plans and purposes of God. As such he inadvertently looked to resist the perfect will of God. His fi nite mind couldn’t comprehend the concept of the Son of God dying so that we might be forgiven.
Jesus made it clear to Peter and so for us: ‘You don’t have in mind the things of God, but the things of men’. When we put pleasing ourselves fi rst, Jesus challenges us with the truth that we’re in danger of resisting and rejecting the One who loved us and gave Himself for us. None of us want to do that. He knows. He understands.
”We have sinned. We need to be forgiven. So in this fi rst Sunday of Lent, let’s repent and believe the Good News!
He forgives.
Peter and Jesus have had an intense exchange. How would Jesus lead out of this? Rather than lessen the challenge of following Him, He turns up the heat. He speaks to the crowd and introduces them to further aspects of His ‘upside-down Kingdom’. To follow me means you must deny yourself, and ultimately die to self. If you want to save your life, you have to lose it. Hold on a minute? This isn’t what I signed up for. Actually, as a disciple of Jesus it is.
He doesn’t ask us to do anything that He didn’t fi rst do for us. Maybe we need to be reminded of that today.
Over the past 12 months how many things have we thought, said, or done that we really wished we hadn’t? How can we hope to make sense of what’s happened in our world? Don’t worry. Let Peter remind you and let me reassure you – He knows.
He understands. He forgives. Let’s live unashamedly for Him who gave His all for us. The Rev Tommy MacNeil is minister at Stornoway: Martin’s Memorial.
The series continues next month with a range of contributors.
This article appears in the February 2021 Issue of Life and Work
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