Toward a Theology of Lent

Worship during Lent is often in danger of losing its identity, perhaps more so in the twenty-first century than in previous years. The music, liturgy, and sermons can drift away from the peculiar characteristics which distinguish Lent from other parts of the year.

This is true regardless of whether one holds to more traditional or less traditional worship styles, regardless of which modern songs or ancient hymns one prefers.

We can be thankful that many congregations properly express the characteristic aspects of Lent, and do so in a way that correctly expresses Lent’s essential and singular message.

Perhaps the most common risk is that Lent turns into a sort of slow-motion Good Friday.

The season - whether one calls it Passionszeit or Fastenzeit - should be kept distinct from Good Friday, yet exactly that distinction is the one most often blurred.

A concrete example of such confusion can be seen in the selection of Biblical texts for worship. It is not uncommon to experience Lenten worship services including the Words from the Cross and other Crucifixion passages. Yet such readings are more at home in Good Friday service than a Lenten service.

The pieces of music chosen likewise manifest a conflation of Lent and Good Friday: songs normally associated with latter appear during the former, e.g., O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden or O Sacred Head, Now Wounded.

On the other hand, Lent is sometimes diluted by the anticipation, and preemptive celebration, of the Resurrection. While a follower of Jesus always lives in the awareness of the Resurrection, Lent is not merely an anticipation of Easter.

If Good Friday seeps too much into the observation of Lent, not only does this detract from the unique character of Lent, but it also robs Holy Week of its specialness. If the congregation has been singing Go to Dark Gethsemane for forty days already, Good Friday may seem like merely an extension of Lent.

To properly formulate distinctively Lenten worship, an understanding of Lent must first be articulated. What is Lent? How is Lent different than Good Friday?

Lent is a time of reflection and self-examination. The sequence of Ash Wednesday, Lent, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter is a logical progression.

For many people, the primary significance of Lent is fasting. The physical act of fasting is related to a broader set of spiritual disciplines. Whether one refrains from food for a certain period of time, or engages in another spiritual discipline - e.g., works of charity, increased prayer, etc. - such actions can be good, but are not the primary meaning of Lent. Rather, they reflect Lent’s deeper purpose.

The familiar distinction between Law and Gospel may help to explain the distinction between Ash Wednesday, Lent, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter. Ash Wednesday and Lent are Law: they are about us as we examine ourselves. Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter are Gospel: they are about Jesus and what He did, i.e., die and come back to life.

To be sure, there is some overlap between Lent and Good Friday. The difference may be, in part, one of emphasis. Both present Christ’s suffering because of our sin. Lent may emphasize our sin; Good Friday may emphasize Christ’s suffering.

Identifying key themes in Lent, Ralph Spears writes:

The beginning of Lent starts with a Wednesday of ashes for repentance.

Repentance is conceptually connected to other themes and to spiritual disciplines, as Spears notes:

Since a least the Fourth Century, Lent or Lenz (Gr.), possibly relating to the lengthening days of Spring meant to Christians a period of fasting, penance, and inward looking, relating to the forty days of Christ in the wilderness (and Moses’ as well). Lately this has included for some a restricted diet and the replacing of meat with fish for a lighter body to properly contemplate Christ's suffering – the road less traveled. For this, the giving up of more worldly things and habits come to mind.

We tend to bypass or ignore the time without some liturgical or personal observation which takes us out of the everyday world into the mind of Christ.

Spears properly notes the Germanic etymology of the word ‘Lent’ and more importantly, its themes, and how those themes are reinforced by the liturgical calendar.

Lent emphasizes the repentance and painfully honest self-evaluation. Good Friday emphasizes the price of the failures which Lent uncovers. The points at which Lent and Good Friday overlap are mentioned by Scot Kinnam:

It was seen as a time of repentance and denial of self. All Christians were to examine their lives according to the Ten Commandments and other Christian ethical precepts and repent where necessary. They were to remember what it cost their Savior to save them.

Lent searches the soul and finds the sin. Good Friday pays the price for that sin. Kinnam quotes Luther on the value of Lent:

At the time of the Reformation, some Christians wanted to eliminate Lent since Scripture didn’t command it. Luther, however, urged that it be kept, for he saw Lent as an opportunity for the strengthening of faith. “Lent, Palm Sunday, and Holy Week shall be retained, not to force anyone to fast, but to preserve the Passion history and the Gospels appointed for that season.”

Luther saw the flow of the liturgical calendar as manifesting a spiritual process. Kinnam continues:

Here Luther instructs that Lent should be preserved, in part, because it reminded Christians of the Passion (suffering and death) of Jesus and encouraged them to meditate upon it. However, no one should be forced to participate. It should be voluntary.

Lutherans retain Lent to this day, because we see it as a salutary outward discipline that gives Christians a wonderful opportunity for spiritual renewal. As Lent begins, we are invited to struggle against everything that leads us away from love of God and love of neighbor by exercising the discipline of Lent: repentance, fasting, prayer and works of love (almsgiving). These may become specific occasions and opportunities for spiritual renewal during this season of renewal as we come face to face with the sin that hinders our walk with Christ. Living out a discipline takes our Lord’s words about self-denial seriously (Matthew 16:24). In the Lenten discipline, we come face to face with the Gospel of Jesus Christ as we focus (or refocus) on His self-sacrificing passion, death and resurrection, which has brought us acceptance, forgiveness and redemption by God. Through that same discipline, we make a loving response to God who gives us the power to live anew.

Ash Wednesday and Lent form one half of a dialectic; Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter are the other half. The believer spirals through them in a Hegelian fashion. Even as we distinguish between them, they point to each other.

It is part of the yearly task of the liturgical calendar to separate the two halves of this dialectic, even as their inherent bond is revealed.