The season of Lent is the time in the Church Year set aside to prepare for the celebration of Easter. It is a period that focuses on repentance and somber reflection on the fact that when Jesus died, He was doing so to pay for our sins.

For many, Lent is a time to “give something up.” That was the origin of the Mardi Gras celebration that culminates on “Fat Tuesday” or “Shrove Tuesday.” Originally, people would eat one last meal of special, rich foods before beginning the fast, or period of self-denial, that begins on the first day of Lent, also known as Ash Wednesday. As time went on, Shrove Tuesday became the day to get in one last party before giving up things during the season of Lent. In modern thinking, Mardi Gras has become an excuse to engage in every kind of hedonism and debauchery, as though you have some sort of free pass to do those things. Just one more example of how the world corrupts something originally developed by the church to help disciples of Jesus in their spiritual walk of faith.

For many Christians, Lent begins with the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday. As a smudge is made on the forehead, usually in the shape of a cross, you hear: “remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” This is a solemn reminder that sin has death as its consequence (Romans 6:23).

Lent is still a time of giving things up for many Christians, and with good reason. What we give up is to remind us of how much our Lord Jesus gave up in order to accomplish our forgiveness. One explanation I’ve heard for why Christians were told to give up meat on Fridays during Lent was that it was on a Friday – Good Friday—that Jesus gave up His “meat” – His flesh, His very life, for us. The thought process was that every time you had a meatless meal on Friday, you would think of everything Jesus did for you and offer Him your thanks.

None of what we do or don’t do during Lent as believers improves our standing before God. Jesus already took care of that, and we can add nothing to what He has done. Rather, our acts of denial are ways that we show our gratitude to God for what He has given us through the death and resurrection of Jesus: acceptance, forgiveness, and the certainty of everlasting life.

The following Lenten hymn is a worthwhile meditation for the beginning of this Lenten season, especially the words in the third stanza: “It is my sins for which Thou, Lord, must languish.”

O dearest Jesus, what law hast Thou broken
That such sharp sentence should on Thee be spoken?
Of what great crime hast Thou to make confession –
What dark transgression?

They crown Thy head with thorns, they smite, they scourge Thee;
With cruel mockings to the cross they urge Thee;
They give Thee gall to drink, they still decry Thee;
They crucify Thee.

Whence come these sorrows, whence this mortal anguish?
It is my sins for which Thou, Lord, must languish;
Yea, all the wrath, the woe, Thou dost inherit,
This I do merit.

What punishment so strange is suffered yonder!
The shepherd dies for sheep that loved to wander;
The Master pays the debt His servants owe Him,
Who would not know Him.

The sinless Son of God must die in sadness;
The sinful child of man may live in gladness;
Man forfeited his life and is acquitted –
God is committed.

There was no spot in me by sin untainted;
Sick with sin’s poison, all my heart had fainted;
My heavy guilt to hell had well nigh brought me,
Such woe is wrought me.
The Lutheran Hymnal #143