THIS IS HOW TO OBSERVE LENT – JESUS

By Jill Roberts and Michael Canalé

 

 

In discussing the subject of this week’s blog, Michael said that we should write about this season that we are in – Lent. How do we best observe this important period that stretches from Ash Wednesday to Easter? As Michael always says, “By following both the teachings and practices of Jesus.” The ultimate question then becomes, “How did Jesus spend the weeks leading up to his crucifixion and resurrection? What was Jesus’ state of mind during this time that we call Lent? 

 

Certainly, we know that Jesus was mentally and spiritually preparing himself for the cross. Scripture makes this abundantly clear:

 

“Jesus took The Twelve aside and told them, ‘We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him; they will flog him and kill him. On the third day, he will rise again.”

(Luke 18:31-33) NIV 

 

This ordeal, this horror, was what he was facing and he knew it all too well. If we think that we are in need of preparation to be ready for the observance of Good Friday, it is nothing compared to what Jesus must have needed. Surely, as Jesus readied himself for everything during his years on Earth, this was his most profound preparation. Again, surely, his activities on the way to Jerusalem are our greatest example to follow in our journey of Lent. What then, was Jesus doing?

 

 “At that time, some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, ‘Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.’

He replied, ‘Go tell that fox, (Don’t you love this Savior!) ‘I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day, I will reach my goal.” In any case, I will press on today and tomorrow and the next day…”

(Luke 13:31-33) NIV

 

As the cross drew nearer and nearer, Jesus was about his ministry – he was among people, helping them, healing them. This is our example; this is how we use Lent to prepare ourselves. 

 

What else was he doing on the road to the cross in Jerusalem? 

 

“Then, Jesus went through the towns and villages, TEACHING as he made his way to Jerusalem.) (emphasis added)

(Luke 13:22) NIV

 

THIS is what we must imitate during Lent! Pray? Yes! Fast? Yes! Give alms? Definitely! But, for the sake of God, let our activities be those of Jesus, ACTION on behalf of a world so in need of learning about God! 

Sacrifice on our parts is important; Jesus preached this. But, here’s something else he preached:

 

“But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire MERCY, NOT SACRIFICE.” (emphasis added)

(Matthew 9:13) NIV

 

“At that time, Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, ‘Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.’

He answered, ‘Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread – which was not lawful for them to do…If you had known what these words mean, ‘I DESIRE MERCY, NOT SACRIFICE.” (emphasis added)

(Matthew 12:1-6) NIV

 

Fast? Yes, but only in the manner Jesus has set before us. The story that best exemplifies this, is one of the centerpieces of Jesus’ teaching on his journey to Jerusalem:

 

“On one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

‘What is written in the Law?’ he replied. ‘How do you read it?’

He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind,’ and ‘’Love your neighbor as yourself.’

‘You have answered correctly,’ Jesus replied. ‘Do this and you will live.”

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’

In reply, Jesus said: ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away,, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the same place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

‘Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?’

The expert in the law replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’

Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise.”

(Luke 10:25-37) NIV

 

There is no more compelling lesson in Scripture than this to illustrate that Jesus “desires mercy and not sacrifice.” The priest who remained ritually clean by not touching this bloody, naked man, was without excuse as he was going “down from Jerusalem to Jericho, his temple duties complete and behind him. The Levite, his profession the study and interpretation of the Law of Moses, or The Torah, followed the letter of that Law re ritual cleanliness. He ignored the Law’s entirety and spirit, also passing by on the other side of the road. He remained ritually clean but spiritually cold and unmerciful. Oh, how cautious we must be to never let ritual override mercy! 

 

What then of the Samaritan who is very much the unexpected hero of this story? First, why unexpected? From the time postdating the death of Solomon, when the country of Israel and the twelve tribes of Israel, fractured into two Kingdoms, there was ever-increasing acrimony between the Jews of the north and those of the south. Although the capitals of each, Samaria and Jerusalem, were only 35 miles apart, the breach between their practice of religion , was a million miles wide. While both claimed Abraham and Moses, one worshipped on one mountain and the other on another. The time constraints of a blog limit a full description of their animosity toward each other. As Alice Camille writes in “Why Didn’t the Jews and Samaritans Get Along?” “There is always a backstory to this kind of hatred.” And this background is voluminous. Suffice it to say that, even extending up to the public ministry of Jesus, the vitriol was visceral. 

 

At this point, it should be remembered, that the expert in the law, whose attempt to test Jesus, precipitated Jesus’ telling this story, was someone who despised the Samaritans. When, at the denouement of the parable, Jesus asks him, 

 

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

(Luke 10:36) NIV

 

The lawyer cannot even  bring himself to say the word, “Samaritan.” Instead, he answers Jesus in this manner:

 

“The expert in the law replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.”

(Luke 10:36) NIV

 

Jesus’ advice to the expert in the law?

 

“Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise.”

(Luke 10:37) NIV

 

In so many words, Jesus told him, “I don’t care about your legal expertise or perfection. I want to see you show a little mercy in your dealings with your fellow man. I’m unimpressed by your credentials until they’re applied with a little compassion. And, by the way, a good start would be actually articulating the word, “Samaritan,” when you speak of a hero!”

 

What is Jesus saying to us today in his Lenten journey to the cross and in his telling of the story of the Good Samaritan? Michael says it so well:

 

“Strive for a kind heart, a loving soul. When the heart of a person is speaking of who they are, it will reach out to others to help them.”

 

It is impossible not to recall Paul’s view on this in the Love Chapter of 1 Corinthians 13:

 

“…and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, I am nothing.”

(1 Corinthians 13:3) KJV

 

“If I speak in the tongues of men OR OF ANGELS, but do not have love I am only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol.” (emphasis added)

(1 Corinthians 13:1)NIV 

 

What should our practice of Lent be?  I like what Michael says;

 

“Be in a community of helpfulness, a community of goodness. Reach out to the homeless, (not individually, as though unaware of the inherent danger in this), but as a community. Giving a twenty dollar bill to someone on the street is a bandaid; instead work in the company of others. This is no temporary fix; this is a problem solver.”

 

Fast? Yes. Pray? Of course. But if we want to observe the Lent of our lives, we will do what Jesus did. First, 

 

“And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.”

(Luke 9:51) KJV

 

So, number one, Jesus is telling us today, to look toward Jerusalem, the place of the cross AND the place of the empty tomb. We must not just meet what I’ve often thought of as Lent – giving up sugar or the like. That is not what Jesus did. As cited in this blog, he spent his time teaching and in service to mankind in practical ways. As Michael says, we must TRULY SEE the physically AND the spiritually homeless among us.”

 

Number two, be involved in an enterprise of MERCY. Jesus is not the least bit impressed if we give up all food and then fail to show mercy to our neighbors. Truly, such exercises profit us nothing! We must get to the root of social ills. Martin Luther King said in a sermon called, “A Time to Break the Silence,”

 

“True compassion is more than just flinging a coin to a begger,  it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring:”

 

Believe me, I indict myself first and foremost in not observing a Lent that accomplishes such a lofty goal. But we must start somewhere. An African proverb says, 

 

“The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago; the second best time is today,”

 

Michael and I are saying, TODAY, let’s follow Jesus to Jerusalem this Lenten Season. As the prophet, Joel, said, 

 

“Rend your heart and not your garments.”

(Joel 2:13) KJV

 

Jerusalem looms ahead. Jesus is leading us toward “mercy and not sacrifice.” On my own motion, I want to say, “Couldn’t we all use a heart transplant?” However, we prefer to quote as godly and charitable a man as I have been blessed to meet – Monsignor Torgerson from Saint Monica’s Catholic Church in Santa Monica, CA. He says, 

 

“We are good. We all just need a little tune-up.”

 

The habits formed during this Season of Lent are that tune-up, one that we can spill over into the rest of the year until they become part of the fabric of our lives and souls. 

 

Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem…If we do the same and, then, on the road there, stop and help others as he did and as he shared with the story of the Good Samaritan, what a glorious Easter Morning it will be!  

 

Postscript: Once again, Michael and I are grateful to the already cited article by Alice Camille for the historical data used in this blog.