The season of Lent is a 40-day journey the Christian church embarks on ending with Easter. Lent is the period between Ash Wednesday and Easter, the holiest day of the year that marks the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The period is marked by solemnity and contemplation. Christians also often fast or sacrifice things during this time in preparation for Easter. For Lutherans, there are generally three different categories into which Lenten practices can be placed: visual, historical/traditional, and emotional/spiritual.
The first visual component is the color purple that adorns the Lord’s house in various manners throughout the season of Lent. This deep hue has come to represent solemnity, penitence, and prayer as God’s people meditate on the agony God’s Son willingly endured. Twice in the Lenten season, on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, the Lord’s house may be adorned with the color black which represents the absence of light and the curse of sin and darkness which fell over creation that only the death of the perfect Son of God could abolish. The second visual component is the sign of the cross applied upon the repentant Christian’s forehead during the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday. This symbolic rite is a reminder of the sign of the cross that was placed on us in our Baptisms, our mortality, and our sin that has been washed clean by the blood of Jesus.
A historical/traditional component of the Lenten season is the omission of the word “Alleluia” from the liturgy and hymns as well as an omission of the Hymn of Praise. “Alleluia”, a Hebrew word meaning “Praise the Lord”, returns in the glorious celebration of Easter morning.
The emotional/spiritual character of the Lenten season is one of penitence. The season of Lent may also be one of preparation. The practice of fasting (or “giving up something”) during Lent is not required for Lutherans because it is not commanded in Holy Scripture. Rather, as a matter of Christian freedom, starving oneself of a pleasure of the flesh is a way to remember daily the great sacrifice of Jesus on the cross to pay for the world’s sin.
You may already be well-along your Lenten journey. May it be a blessing to you as you again experience the depth of Jesus’ obedience and sacrifice as well as the great love of God to redeem a world so desperately in need of salvation.