Below is a religion column by Matt Friedeman:
“Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me.” Designating a special time every year to remind ourselves what that means for our lives may not be such a bad idea.
With the rhythm of the church year also comes a rhythm of personal editorials on social media about these ecclesiastical seasons.
For instance, Lent.
Certain traditions, Catholic and some Protestants, make quite an event out of Lent with special services and ashes smudged on foreheads that are carried with worshippers throughout their day of work and leisure. This year the ashes were most prominently seen on the foreheads of actors Mark Wahlberg and Jonathan Roumie on the Ash Wednesday episode of – of all programs – The View. They discussed, among other things, the Lenten practice of fasting or giving up something dear to the worshipper during the days and weeks leading up to Easter.
Predictably, people started weighing in on the legitimacy of Lent.
A Catholic holiday?
A high-church holiday?
A biblical holiday?
Something we all should be doing?
Something none of us should be doing?
Fasting – really?
Giving stuff up – is that necessary?
This Sunday, pastors in religious traditions that commemorate the Lenten season are most likely to preach on Matthew 4:1-11: the temptation narrative where Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Jesus fasts forty days and nights before the being challenged by Satan.
I have heard this passage called the “Discipler’s Boot Camp.” In other words, if Matthew is thought of as a textbook for disciplemakers, this event represents a testing period all would-be disciplers ought to undergo before seeking to train others.
The Devil initially challenges Jesus: “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to becomes loaves of bread.” Jesus responds, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
First major lesson in Jesus’ boot camp? Get your appetite straightened out.
Devotees of the Lenten season typically acknowledge this emphasis to some degree. Fasting may be one of the least-practiced spiritual disciplines among Christians in the West. But when Jesus addressed fasting in the Sermon on the Mount, He began that teaching with “When you fast…” Apparently, He assumed that all His followers would do so. Yet few modern believers have a regular program of fasting.
The Didache (an early church document) identified Wednesday and Friday as regular fast days, a pattern which many religious traditions still observe. But across the centuries, the practice among Christians has seemed to diminish as food has became more plentiful, appetites more voracious, and waist sizes more expansive. One of my current students, who has been challenged to enter into this Wednesday-Friday rhythm of self-denial, asked, “Why is it we have let this discipline totally go?” My only response was that, in a culture of general self-indulgence, fasting seems…out of step. Most notably, Americans are more obese than about 90% of all other nations.
This passage that centers on the fasting of Jesus calls out our self-indulgence and spiritual obesity. If we ever hope to disciple the next generation into the robust faith that Jesus designed for His disciples, we cannot escape the fact that one of the premier avenues of obedience to Christ is to say “No!” to all manners of things – including but perhaps least of all food – in order to respond with an enthusiastic “Yes” to all that Jesus has in mind for us.
Lent, whether you pay attention to it or not, places before us Jesus’ challenge: “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me.” Designating a special time every year to remind ourselves what that means for our lives may not be such a bad idea.
-- Article credit to Matt Friedeman for the Magnolia Tribune --
