An examination of our spiritual health

Thoughts for the season of Lent

David Sellnow


A health care worker expressed frustration with her patients. “That’s the second time this week I’ve had to use the warning, ‘You could die!’ … and again it didn’t work.’” A diabetic man with blood sugar numbers off the charts keeps neglecting to take his insulin.  A woman whose EKG shows she’s in the process of having a heart attack says she doesn’t feel that bad and refuses to be admitted to the hospital.

When it comes to spiritual diagnosis and treatment, are we much different? We think, “Meh, my sins are not that bad. I’ll be okay.” We’re not eager to deal with our problems, our failures, our chronic iniquities because we’ve become accustomed to living our lives with those issues.

Jeremiah once lamented, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?” (Jeremiah 8:22)  Plenty of balm and balm-applying physicians did exist in Gilead. And plenty of gospel healing was available to God’s people in Israel—but they did not avail themselves of it. They suffered as a result.

Lent is a time for us to give attention to what ails our hearts—spiritually. We are directed to our need for a physician that can heal our souls. Jesus is that physician. In his ministry, Jesus showed us our sinfulness and offered balm for healing through his redemptive work. Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick” (Luke 5:31). Every one of us remains continuously in need of treatment for sin-sickness. The path to health and life for our souls is in Jesus.

Let’s not get lost in superficial approaches to Lent. Giving up this or that food or this or that habit during Lent doesn’t do something redemptive for us. The season’s intent is for us to be honest about our spiritual need and look to Jesus for wholeness and holiness. It’s not about beating ourselves up with guilt over all that Jesus suffered on our behalf. He gave himself for us to set us free from guilt and shame. As Scripture says, “We have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us …. Since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience” (Hebrews 10:19-22). In the midst of Lent, let’s not lose sight of the path of life and fullness of joy that we have in Christ (cf. Psalm 16:11).

As a kid, I couldn’t figure out why people referred to the “40 Days of Lent.” If you count the days from Ash Wednesday through the Saturday of Easter weekend, there are 46 days. Did we mess up the math? Later I learned the reason for the mathematical discrepancy. There are 46 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter, but six of those days are Sundays. The Sundays are not really part of Lent. Every Sunday is a celebration of Jesus’ resurrection. Even in the midst of a Lenten focus on Jesus’ passion (his sufferings and death), we never forget our ultimate hope. We have “a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). And we “hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering” (Hebrews 10:23). We meet together and encourage each other all the more as we see the Day approaching (Hebrews 10:25). Jesus’ resurrection gives us constant and certain hope. The life of a Christian—including days when we dedicate time to thinking about our sins and Christ’s suffering—is a life filled with hope because Jesus’ life did not end in the grave but in glory.

The 40 days of Lent go back to an old tradition of fasting for 40 days prior to the celebration of Christ’s resurrection, reminiscent of Jesus’ own 40 days of fasting in the desert as he worked out our salvation for us. But even in the most somber days of the church’s history, those days of fasting were interrupted each Sunday. Sunday is the Lord’s Day, the day of his resurrection. Knowing Christ is resurrected, all somberness and shame are chased away, and our hearts rise up to where our home is with our Lord in heaven.


For additional Lenten thoughts, see previous posts:

 

Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.