What does Lent mean?

What does "lent" mean? This is the church season when we review how Jesus suffered to pay for our sins. Lent is the season of preparation for Easter. The color purple during Lent color speaks of repentance as we prepare to focus on sharing in Christ's death and resurrection.

"Lent" is neither a Bible word nor a Bible prescribed season. It is a word and concept developed by Christians in the centuries after the Apostles' times. Lent began as a period of final preparation and examination for those who were to be baptized on Easter. They had already undergone a long period of instruction and preparation and were now ready for the final examination, or "scrutinies," as they were called.

A noted church history recorded that A.D. 325 at the Council of Nicaea is the first recorded reference to "the 40 days" which after the fifth century was universally fixed through the influence of Rome. The forty days of penitence and fasting came to be seen as comparable to Jesus' fasting forty days in the wilderness (Mt 4:2), the Old Testament types of that event (Moses in Ex. 34:28; Elijah in 1 Kg 19:8), and Israel wandering in the wilderness 40 years. Rome's pope Gregory I set Ash Wednesday (the Wednesday of the sixth week before Easter) as the official beginning of the forty days in the late 6th Century. The forty days came to be known as "Lent".

"Ash Wednesday" drew its name from the custom on that day of priests and people sprinkling themselves with dust and ashes as a reminder that we are perishable and as an expression of repentance: "Remember, O man, that dust you are, and unto dust you must return; repent, that you may inherit eternal life." From Ash Wednesday to Easter criminal trials and criminal punishments, weddings, and sensual amusements were forbidden; solemn, earnest silence was imposed upon public and private life; and works of devotion, penance, and charity were multiplied. In time, however, during the days preceding the beginning of Lent, the populace gave themselves up to unrestrained merriment, and this abuse afterward became legitimized in all Catholic countries, especially Italy, in the Carnival.

But to someone who doesn't know about Jesus and to many Christians who have little knowledge of church history "lent" is only the past participle of "lend". This is an excellent bridge for us to use to tell a person what Lent means to "me": God lent to me and to every one his Son, Jesus.

The words that come from my mouth, the attitudes in my heart, the thoughts that pop into my brain, the actions I take (whether I realize it or not), are not always what God's law demands that they be (see Gal 5:22ff). This going against God is sin, my sin, for which God rightfully should punish me eternally in hell. But instead, he lent me his Son. He let me heap all my sins on Jesus, "made him who had no sin to be sin for us," and then punished Jesus with his full holy anger. God also lent to me Jesus' sin-free obedience to every one of God's demands, "so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." God lent me Jesus' blood and righteousness.

The Church’s Lenten worship is muted and quiet. For centuries, the Church has omitted her most jubilant songs of praise and alleluias during this season of repentance. That is why the Song of Praise in our Lenten liturgies is replaced with a Lenten hymn to reflect the somber nature of the season.