Why We Don’t Observe Lent
[Ed. Note: Currently, according to liturgical calendars, we are in the season of Lent. We sent out a request for comment to our writer’s pool on this subject. Two of them responded. This is the second of two. You may find our first, “What About Ash Wednesday?” here.]
While Lent is a ritual observed by various branches of the Christian faith, it has been popularized most notably by the Roman Catholic Church. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and extends for forty days. During this time, Roman Catholics practice voluntary “self-denial, fasting, almsgiving, fraternal sharing.” According to Roman Catholic teachings, these things along with other acts of penance “contributes to the forgiveness of sins.” (Catechism, p.361) Furthermore, these works “honor the mysteries of the Lord, the Virgin Mary, and the saints” (Catechism, p. 494).
The Catholic Catechism states that a Biblical reason for keeping Lent is because it unites the church “to the mystery of Jesus in the desert” who fasted for 40 days during his time he was tempted of the devil. (Catechism, p.138).
There are a number of reasons, however, that Christians should not observe Lent.
First, Roman Catholics keep Lent to gain the forgiveness of sins. Their church teaches they must continually work for their salvation. Scripture, however, teaches that righteousness is not gained by doing rituals. Rather, salvation is by God’s grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work of dying for our sins and bodily rising again on the third day. Peter declared that the lame man was made whole entirely through “faith in His name” (Acts 3:16). Jesus alone was sufficient to save that man. He did not do any work or receive any “sacrament” to be saved, nor did Mary play an intercessory role in his salvation. Paul preached that “by Him (Jesus) all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:39). The Person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ is completely sufficient to save us from all our sins apart from a single work we do.
Secondly, the New Testament never tells us to observe Lent. There is no command or example of having ashes rubbed on one’s forehead or of observing forty days of fasting or almsgiving. Neither Jesus nor the apostles teach us to do that to abide with Him. The teachings of Christ, the example of the early in church in Acts, and the epistles are utterly silent on this. We abide in Jesus by obedience and love, and having His words abide in us (John 15:7-12). This life of abiding in Jesus is not done for forty days to work for our salvation, but it should be our daily walk in the Spirit because we have been saved by His grace.
Finally, various aspects of Lent have connections to ancient pagan mystery religions which filtered into the established church. For instance, Lent is preceded by a festival Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday in which one can engage in decadence before abstaining from those sins for forty days. This is a pagan festival full of wicked sin. It’s believed that Mardi Gras originated from the ancient Roman feasts of Saturnalia and Lupercalia.1 Lent originated in the established church during the fourth century when Constantine made Christianity the official religion of Rome. As unconverted pagans flooded into the church, various concessions and compromises were made to make Christianity more acceptable to their works-based mindset. It is my understanding that Lent was one such pagan practice the church integrated, along with the worship of Mary, saints, and idols. Alexander Hislop writes, “The forty days abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess” (Two Babylons, p. 104). Just as Babylonian paganism infiltrated the worship of God in Solomon’s temple where “there sat women weeping for Tammuz,” so pagan worship has invaded the so-called church (Ezek.8:3-16; Jer.7:18). The “image of jealousy” on the “door of the gate of the LORD’s house” was very probably a woman with a child, part of the ancient Babylonian mystery religions (Ezek.8:3.14).
If a true believer practices Lent, they give credence to a works-based ritual that has its roots in ancient pagan practices. We must rest on the finished work of Christ’s once and for all sacrifice for our sins to forgive and save us to eternal life. Let us follow the apostle’s doctrine which simply states, “even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law,” for it is “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us” (Gal.2:16; Titus 3:5).
Matt Recker is the pastor of Heritage Baptist Church in New York City.
Photo by Marc Vandecasteele on Unsplash
It’s good to mourn, it’s healthy to be sad, and it’s appropriate to groan. Something is wrong with us, something is missing in our hearts and our understanding of life, if we are able to look around and look inside and not grieve. You don’t have to look very far to see that we live, work, and relate in a world that has been twisted and bent by sin, so much so that it doesn’t function at all in the way God intended. The sin-scarred condition of the world is obvious in your home, your neighborhood, and your church. We see it in government, politics, business, education, entertainment, and the internet.
In Romans 8, Paul captures the sad condition of the world in three provocative phrases that should break our hearts: “subjected to futility” (v. 20) “its bondage to corruption” (v. 21) “in the pains of childbirth” (v. 22)
We should be rejoicing people, because we have, in the redemption that is ours in Christ Jesus, eternal reason to rejoice. But this side of our final home, our rejoicing should be mixed with weeping as we witness, experience, and, sadly, give way to the presence and power of evil. Christ taught in his most lengthy recorded sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, that those who mourn are blessed, so it’s important to understand why. Mourning means you recognize the most important reality in the human existence, sin. Mourning means you have been hit by the weight of what it has done to you and to everyone you know. Mourning says you have considered the devastating fact that life right here, right now, is one big spiritual war. Mourning means that you have come to realize, as you get up in the morning, that once again you will be greeted with a catalog of temptations. Mourning means you know that there really are spiritual enemies out there meaning to do you harm. Mourning results when you confess that there are places where your heart still wanders.
But mourning does something wonderful to you. The sad realities that cause you to mourn also cause you to cry out for the help, rescue, forgiveness, and deliverance of a Redeemer. Jesus said that if you mourn, you will be comforted. He’s not talking about the comfort of elevated feelings. He’s talking about the comfort of the presence and grace of a Redeemer, who meets you in your mourning, hears your cries for help, comes to you in saving mercy, and wraps arms of eternal love around you. It’s the comfort of knowing that you’re forgiven, being restored, now living in a reconciled relationship with the one who made you, and now living with your destiny secure.
Mourning sin—past, present, and future—is the first step in seeking and celebrating the divine grace that is the hope of every- one whose heart has been made able to see by that very same grace.
So it is right and beneficial to take a season of the year to reevaluate, recalibrate, and have the values of our hearts clarified once again. Lent is such a season. As we approach Holy Week, where we remember the sacrifice, suffering, and resurrection of our Savior, it’s good to give ourselves to humble and thankful mourning. Lent is about remembering the suffering and sacrifice of the Savior. Lent is about confessing our ongoing battle with sin. Lent is about fasting, and not just from food; we willingly and joyfully let go of things in this world that have too much of a hold on us. And Lent is about giving ourselves in a more focused way to prayer, crying out for the help that we desperately need from the only one who is able to give it.
For forty days you can use this devotional as your stimulus and guide as you stop, consider, mourn, confess, pray, and give your heart to thanksgiving. May you step away from the tyranny of a busy life, with its seemingly endless demands, and consider the most important thing that’s happened to you, your most important struggle, and the most wonderful gift that you have ever been given. And as you do this, may you open your heart and your hands and let go of things that you not only hold, but that have taken ahold of you. May this free you to seek your Savior more fully, to celebrate him more deeply, and to follow him more faithfully.
Together we will follow Jesus on his journey to the cross. The horrible, public sacrifice of Jesus should ignite not only our celebration, but also our mourning. The cross confronts us with who we really are (sinners) and what we need (rescuing and forgiving grace). How can you consider what Christ willingly suffered because of our sin and not mourn the sin that remains?
May you groan more so that you would pray more. May your sadness ignite your celebration. And may all of this result in blessings that are too big and too obvious to miss.
Paul, thank you for your comment. Granted there is nothing wrong in taking a season of reflection and mourning in preparation for worship. We attempt to inculcate that in our church in our monthly communion service. We are broken people in a broken world, dependent on a perfect Saviour.
But we are also committed to worshipping God in ways the Bible directs. Where in the Bible is any justification for the ritual of Lent? There is far more justification for adopting foot-washing (which most Baptists do NOT advocate), than for the artificial holdover from Romanism which is Lent.
Furthermore, Jesus clearly regulated any personal mourning, fasting, and such rituals as to be private and kept to one’s self alone.
What is Ash Wednesday, for example, except “putting on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do”?
While I appreciate your comment, I can’t agree with its implications.
Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3