Words of Reflection
On Ash Wednesday we begin a journey to the cross.
Not because we deserve it. Not because we’ve earned it.
Because we’re invited.
God’s astounding grace calls to us in the midst of our brokenness and says, “Come.”
The season of Lent is not a time of self-improvement or habit-crushing. It’s not a time when we try to “do better” and somehow inch a bit more towards perfection. Lent is a season of brutal honesty about the state of our souls. It’s a journey to the cross of Christ, where all pretense and posturing fail. Lent is a time when we acknowledge our deepest, most profound need: forgiveness. We are fallen, broken people who need a Savior, and during Lent we embrace the invitation to repentance.
What a beautiful truth it is that God does not expect us to “clean up our act” before coming to him. He knows what burdens us, what binds us, what imprisons us. The freedom we so desperately seek is available to us if we will simply acknowledge the truths about ourselves he already knows completely.
This year during the Lenten Song Reflections we will be focusing on a different seasonal theme each week. For these few days between Ash Wednesday and the First Sunday of Lent we are going to sit with the biblical story that serves as the foundation of Lent—the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. In this story we are reminded that Jesus identifies with us, that he has faced temptation and knows our struggles. There is no part of our journey where Jesus is not alongside us, aware of what we face and aware of what we need.
May this story shape us as it shapes the season.
Scripture for Meditation:
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tested by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over he was famished. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.’”
Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered him, “It is written,‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”
Then the devil led him to Jerusalem and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”
Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.
—Luke 4:1-13 (NRSV)
Song: Lord Who Throughout These Forty Days
Lord, who throughout these forty days
For us did fast and pray,
Teach us with you to mourn our sins,
And close by You to stay.As You with Satan did contend
And did the vict'ry win,
O give us strength in You to fight,
In You to conquer sin.As You did hunger and did thirst,
So teach us, gracious Lord,
To die to self, and so to live
By Your most holy word.And through these days of penitence,
And through Your Passion-tide,
Forevermore, in life and death,
O Lord, with us abide.Abide with us, that through this life
Of doubts and hope and pain,
An Easter of unending joy
We may at last attain.
Claudia Frances Ibotson Hernaman
Words: Public Domain; Music: Public Domain
Questions for Contemplation:
As you begin your Lenten journey, how are you inviting Jesus, who knows you best and loves you most, to journey with you? What practices and disciplines will help shape your journey?
What does it mean for you to know that Jesus identifies with us in our weakness and our temptations? How does that re-frame your understanding of your own spiritual journey so far? Moving forward?
Spend some time meditating on these words from the hymn. They reflect the invitation of Ash Wednesday to consider ourselves “dead to sin and alive in Christ.” Ask God to root this prayer deeply in your soul during this season of Lent:
As You did hunger and did thirst,
So teach us, gracious Lord,
To die to self, and so to live
By Your most holy word.