Lent can often be viewed as a time of drudgery. We are required to abstain from meet on Friday’s. We have to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. The common customer is to give somethign up for Lent. Even the liturgy is stripped back and simplified. However, if we understand why we do these things and the fruit that self-denial can product, Lent is no longer seen as a time of drudgery but rather a life giving time. For it is through self-denial that we grow in our understanding of our true identity in Christ. This lent, deny yourself and discover your identity in Christ.
Peter’s Declaration About Jesus
“The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” And he said to all, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? Luke 9 : 22-25
Scriptural Analysis
Jesus was in the middle of prayer when he stopped and asked the disciples the famous question, “Who do the people say that I am?” Upon answering that question, Jesus then asks the disciples who they say that he is. Peter responds with his profession of faith, “The Christ of God.” (Luke 9:20) That exchange leads into today’s Gospel passage.
Jesus uses Peter’s profession of faith as and opportunity to reveal to his disciples the events that must unfold: how he will suffer, die, and rise from the dead. The verb “must” used in this sentence is critical. It denotes that these events are necessary to fulfill the plan of God.
In this first passion prediction, Jesus again uses the title Son of Man to refer to himself. The same title is used in his later predictions as well. Those who will come after him comprise the Sanhedrin: the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes. Note that Jesus does not predict only his suffering and death. Equally present in his prediction is his resurrection on the third day. This prediction of his passion is a clarification of the type of Messiah that Jesus is. He is a suffering Messiah. Luke also uses this event to set the stage for the rest of the Gospel.
The revelation of this suffering has implications for all disciples. The one wishing to come after this suffering Messiah will suffer themselves. The followers of Jesus should not pursue their own desires but rather they must deny themselves. They must take up their own cross. The emphasis to do so daily is only found in Luke’s gospel.
Jesus then presents some sayings to help develop this teaching. The first is the paradox of the cross itself. Those who try to avoid it will actually be the ones who perish whereas those that embrace the cross will be the ones who will save their lives. Jesus points to the reward in heaven that awaits those who follow the path of the suffering Messiah.
Second, if people work to avoid the cross and gain the entire world, it is all for not. Life is not made up of posessions. Such a persuit will actuially cost that person everything. It will cost them eternal life.
Daily Application
Immediately, at the start of Lent, we are presented with the reality of what it means to be a disciple of Christ. We are called to pick up our cross daily and follow Jesus. To the modern reader, this image of the cross is something that we can very easily gloss over. It is very easy to reduce this to our personal struggles. The brutality of crucifixion is such a foreign concept to us.
A crucifixion was almost always preceded by scourging. The victim was then made to carry the horizontal beam of their cross upon their shoulders to the location of their crucifixion. This heavy rough wooden beam would dig into the open wounds from the scouring, the victim already weak, forced to carry the instrument of their death. It was hard, challenging, downright difficult. Recall that in the case of Jesus, he needed assistance to carry his cross. Carrying a cross was difficult and excruciating yet this is the metaphor Jesus selected to describe the life of discipleship.
Lent provides us with a perfect opportunity to grow in the practice of self-denial. The three common practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving all require denial of one’s self. In order to be succesfully in pursuing these, there are two keys to consider.
First, growing in spiritual disciplines is very similar to growing in physical disciplines. If I have never run before, I am not going to attempt to run a marathon my first time out. I will most certainly fail. Rather, I am going to start small. Perhaps I will run just a mile. The spiritual disciplines are the same. If you do not have a custom of praying, start small: five or ten minutes a day. Then build up to a larger amount. If you have never fasted, again, start small. Pick one day of the week, perhaps Friday, and give up all snacks. Later on, cut back on the size of the meals. Finally, cut out a meal altogether. People often fail at self-denial because they try to go from doing nothing to doing everything: from one extreme to the other. It is a rare soul that can be successful under that model.
Second, we must always remember why we engage in these acts of self-denial. We do not deny ourselves simply to suffer: to prove that we are capable of enduring it. Rather, we practice these acts of self-denial because they are designed to help orient our minds to Christ. When I am fasting, and my tummy rumbles, my mind recalls why I am doing that. It is not out of a desire to suffer but rather a desire to detach myself from everything and anything that prevents me from entering more deeply into a relationship with Christ.
Today is the second day of Lent. If you have not yet determined what you are going to “give up” for lent yet, I would encourage you to look at the time-tested disciplines of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. Pick one and dedicate yourself to it. If you are new, start small and ramp up. If you do it for the right reasons it won’t be drudgery for you. Rather you will find yourself growing closer to the one who gave all so that you might live forever. You will find that on Easter Sunday, these acts of self-denial that were at first so hard, are something you are not ready to give up.
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