Lent: A Guide for the Perplexed

Lent is observed annually by Christians across the globe and in multiple denominational traditions. It spans the forty-day period before Easter, excluding Sundays. The season begins on Ash Wednesday, a day Christians are reminded they are mortal and instructed to confess sin, repent, take up their cross, and follow Christ. The season concludes on Holy Saturday, the day we remember Jesus’ burial, a day of rest before the day of Resurrection.

Lent may be unfamiliar to some in the Baylor family, particularly those of Baptist heritage. But the themes sounded during this season are ecumenical, grounded in shared Christian tradition and teaching. Therein, Christians are called to confession, repentance, discipleship, and reflection upon the significance of Christ’s suffering and sacrifice. 

There are also shared practical emphases. All Christians are commanded to observe prayer and fasting (Matthew 6:5-18, 9:14-17). During Lent, this general instruction is made specific, actionable, and communal. The Church engages these disciplines together. 

The number forty is deeply significant in Scripture. Rain fell for forty days and nights in the great flood. Moses communed with God for forty days and nights on Mount Horeb. Israel’s wilderness wanderings lasted forty years. Elijah took a forty-day journey to Mount Horeb following God’s duel with the prophets of Baal. And, most significantly for Christians, Jesus was tempted in the wilderness over a period of forty days, during which he fasted from both food and drink.

During the forty days of Lent, the Church recommits itself to the life and teachings of Jesus, reflecting on his journey from the heavenly realm to a manger in Bethlehem and from the launch of his public ministry to a lonely hill outside Jerusalem called Calvary, a place where all hope appeared lost—until Sunday. 

I believe there is a never a bad time to turn one’s attention to the life, death, resurrection, and reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. But knowing my propensity to forget, it is helpful to be part of a Church that invites me to seasons of focused remembrance, instructs me concerning the scope and meaning of God’s salvation, and recites the whole narrative of Scripture, including Jesus’ fulfillment thereof.

I am a Baptist. In the congregation of my upbringing, the liturgical calendar was sparse. We celebrated Christmas, Palm Sunday, and Easter. And, on the Sunday after Christmas and prior to New Year’s, we observed an associate pastor or guest preacher filling the pulpit. You could count on it. On all other Sundays, and Wednesdays, too, we examined the Scriptures, either book by book or topically, as determined by the preacher or our minister of education. Our year had a rhythm. God used that rhythm to form us in Christlikeness, together.

Lent is not observed in every Christian fellowship, nor does it need to be. But for those who do observe the season, and for those who do not, my prayer is the same: that we would grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, that God might sanctify us in truth, and that we might be one, toward that end for which Jesus prayed: that the world might know Christ and the great love of the Father, both now, and forever.

If you would like to observe the Lenten season through scripture reading and reflection each day, a guide has been written by the faculty and students of Truett Seminary and is available here.

Written by Rev. Ben Simpson

Assoc. Director of Spiritual Formation

George W. Truett Theological Seminary