The question I want to begin with is a simple question. What is lent?
And I will give you an answer and then defend that answer.
So this is what I’ve got to: Lent is a biblically appropriate response to life in a broken world.
Now there is no doubt that we live in a broken world. October 7th and the devastation that has followed in Gaza, devastating fires in LA, the war in Ukraine, thousands of people killed or displaced in the Democratic Republic of Congo, plane crash killed 67 in Washington DC. It just never ends.
And I wonder, how do you respond to these things?
When you turn on the TV to watch news and there is breaking news- a terrorist attack with thousands dead, or a natural disaster. What do you think?
Now in Jesus day, there are those who when they watched the news and heard such stories, they thought to themselves—those must be really bad people for them to experience such terrible calamities.
That is, Luke 13 which we will return to in two weeks on our Sunday morning sermons, but let me read it for you
v.1 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. (That’s Hamas or Hitler, a political-religious atrocity.)
v. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.
It’s a simple truth. Victims of a cruel political leader are not worse sinners. They are sinners just like us, experiencing the consequences of living in a fallen/sinful world. And we too will experience the ultimate consequence of a fallen world if we don’t repent.
But then Jesus expands it:
v.4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—(Now this is what we might call, an act of nature, an accident, a natural calamity.)
…do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
Again, Jesus is saying, the appropriate response to a natural calamity is to repent. Natural calamities, and all other suffering, are reminders of the day when this world will be made right, when sin will be punished and justice will be done. And no one will escape that unless we repent.
Now, the message of Jesus in Luke 13, is the message of prophet Joel.
Judah has just experienced a devastating natural calamity. There has been a terrible locust invasion, eaten all the crops and so there is a famine.
And I come from Kenya where we do have locust invasions. The last one was in 2020 when, according to a BBC report, hundred of billions of locusts swarms invaded Kenya from the North. It was not just that it left millions of people starving, it is also the psychological and emotional impact—children who were too traumatized to sleep, women who couldn’t speak because they spent the whole day chasing and screaming after locusts.
Thankfully, we live in the 21st century with all the technological advancement that meant for weeks planes were flying spraying pesticides.
There were no planes in Judah. It was a devastating disaster for them, one never seen before
1:2 Has anything like this ever happened in your days
or in the days of your ancestors?
v.4 What the locust swarm has left
the great locusts have eaten;
what the great locusts have left
the young locusts have eaten;
what the young locusts have left
other locusts have eaten.
v.10 The fields are ruined,
the ground is dried up;
the grain is destroyed,
the new wine is dried up,
the olive oil fails.
And what Joel does, is he says to Judah: Look, I know this is a terrible disaster, but it doesn’t even compare to the destruction that is coming on the world on the last day—the day of the Lord.
In other words, like Jesus, Joel draws a line between this disaster and the disaster on the last day.
So he says, chapter 2,
v.11: The day of the Lord is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it?
In other words, people might survive a natural disaster, or a terrorist attack, or even cancer: but who can survive the day of the Lord?
And so
v.12, Even now, declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.
You see whatever else lent is about, it is about repentance.
And Ash Wednesday is about repentance. That is why we put ashes on our foreheads, ash being an ancient sign of penitence.
So two questions from Joel 2 which we read: why should we repent and how should we repent?
- Why repent
I think there are two answers given,
- Because of God’s revealed character
v.13b Return to the Lord your God,
for (i)he is gracious and compassionate,
(ii)slow to anger
(iii)he is abounding in love,
(iv) he relents from sending calamity.
Now this is the heartbeat of the Old Testament. God reveals himself this way first to Moses in Exodus, and then it keeps coming up: Numbers, Deuteronomy, Severally in the Psalms, Nehemiah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Chronicles, and those are just the ones I can remember.
Again and again, like a refrain in a song, the Old Testament reminds us of God’s character as gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
People freak out that there will be judgment at all. What should surprise is why the judgment has not taken place. And it is that God is slow to anger.
And then, v. 14 Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing—
and the idea here is not to cast doubt as to whether the Lord will forgive or not. Even here in Joel 2, a few verses down the page, there is a promise that the Lord will indeed forgive.
The Bible never lets us doubt whether the Lord will forgive us or not, but this verse warns us on presuming on the kindness of God. (also see Rom. 2:4)
An 18th century poet apparently declared on his death bed, “God will forgive me, that’s his job.”
It is that sort of casual attitude that presumes on the grace of God.
No, it is not an easy thing for the Lord to forgive us. It cost him his son, to be able to forgive us.
You see, God can’t just look the other way on our sin, or sweep them under the carpet. Then he won’t be a just and righteous God.
Which is why lent and Easter go together. That is why we have Holy Communion tonight, because while we repent, we know that Jesus died on the cross to make forgiveness possible.
Moreover, I think the Who knows? Of v.14 also reminds us that repentance is not some magic we do to force God’s hand. It’s not like our repentance puts God in a corner whereby he has no choice but to forgive us.
Martin Luther once advised that we should take Communion without confession. And his point was that, it is just possible that we are tempted to think that we have a right to take communion just because we have repented.
Here we do confess before communion, but there is an important prayer we sometimes make just before: We do not presume to come this your table merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness…
But tonight Grant will pray these words:
Although we are unworthy, through our manifold sins,
to offer you any sacrifice,
yet we pray that you will accept this
the duty and service that we owe.
Do not weigh our merits, but pardon our offences,
and fill us all who share in this holy communion
with your grace and heavenly blessing;
So that’s a, of why
- Because of God’s reputation
v.17 Let the priests, who minister before the Lord,
weep between the portico and the altar.
Let them say, “Spare your people, Lord.
Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn,
a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”
Have you ever reflected about how our sins reflect on God’s reputation among those who don’t know God?
Joel says, let the priests plead with God, not for our sake, but for God’s sake. Not for our reputation, but for God’s reputation.
Does God’s reputation bother you? Come to God in repentance.
So that is why? Now How?
- How to repent
Again 2 things,
- Genuinely
Did you notice that God is not just interested in the show, in the ritual,
v.12 return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
v. 13 Rend your heart
and not your garments.
Tearing your clothes, just like the ashes, was an external ritual of repentance. We’ll do the ashes, but you can be relieved that we won’t be tearing our clothes tonight.
And Joel says, God is not just interested in the show. It needs to be genuine. And Jesus says as much in our gospel reading tonight, don’t do it to be seen by people.
Rend your heart, not garments.
And that has implications for lent, I think.
While there is lots of value, for example, in giving up stuff for lent—alcohol, meat etc, and I’m sure the Lord honors these things, we should not do them as a show off. To post on social media. The posture of the heart matters!
It needs to be genuine, but secondly,
- Urgently
v.16 Gather the people,
consecrate the assembly;
bring together the elders,
gather the children,
those nursing at the breast.
Let the bridegroom leave his room
and the bride her chamber.
It’s an extraordinary verse. Did you notice the breastfeeding mum. Like in most cultures, including mine, the first few weeks after the birth of a child are very special. In some cultures, mums are not even meant to go outside the house. Their whole preoccupation is the baby. Everything else is to wait.
But Joel says, you can’t postpone repentance even if you are that breastfeeding mom.
Or if you’re newly wed, and you are on your honeymoon (wittebroodsweken), there is something more important than whatever is going on in your bedroom.
I wonder if you have a socks basket, or socks drawer. I have a socks basket and it is always in a mess. And I keep intending to sort it; match the socks, throw away the old torn ones etc, and I have never done it.
Every time I am, with frustration, looking for a matching pair, I tell myself , I need to do this. But I just never get it done.
And I think we are sometimes like that with spiritual things. There are things we need to sort. Maybe a moral issue. Maybe a relationship we need to sort. Maybe a practical thing we need to do to fight a temptation, maybe our giving.
But we just keep postponing. And lent, provides us with an opportunity to sort those things. Deal with that reliance on alcohol to sleep;
And one of the symptoms of our brokenness is how unbalanced we are with even things like this. So I think, most of us are, rightly and wonderfully, so familiar with the gospel of grace and the kindness of God, that we are not able to repent in the way Joel is calling for here.
And there are Christians that are so preoccupied with repentance and penitence that they have lost sight of grace.
Both of those fall short. Joel is at the same time, able to cherish the gospel of grace in God’s revealed character- and yet to use that to urge a deep and wholehearted repentance.
And that’s our calling this lent. Deep, humble and wholehearted repentance, fueled by a wonder and joy in the God who freely forgives our sins, by his grace.