The Final Week!
I’m not a big fan of Lent. I guess partly because it seems to be more of a tradition than a life changing experience for some people. I can be skeptical that way. For those who find Lent to be a life-changing, bring you closer to Christ holiday, I fully support you.
For me though, I like to focus on this final week. The last week of Jesus’ earthly ministry. This is the week leading up to Easter, the holiday when Christians celebrate the resurrection of Christ. So this week is an important week. With this final week in mind I want to ask, are you doing anything special? By that I mean; are you fasting from anything? Are you giving up any “extras” like chocolate, soda, meat or cigarettes, in preparation for this most sacred of Christian holidays?
I only ask because I’m curious about how you celebrate the Holy Week!
Maybe you never thought about giving something up this week. That’s cool. Maybe you could do that this year. Start now and give something up that you love between now and Sunday. You can give up anything you want, the only requirement (in my opinion) is that it be something you love. For me, it might be Dr. Pepper. I say might because I’m not super convinced of my willpower over the ever tasty, DP. But maybe you want to consider giving something up this week and replacing it with time to focus on Christ’s final week.
For instance, let’s use TV as an example. Instead of watching TV at your normal times, you might choose to spend that time in prayer and meditation, focusing on Christ’s final week. Maybe you are giving up a specific meal or type of food that you eat regularly. Instead of indulging in that meal or type of food, you indulge yourself on the Word of God. These are just some ideas. Either way, maybe you want to give something up this week to focus more on Christ.
If you decide to do this, or if you already do, let me know about it in the comment section below. I would love to hear all about it.
In the meantime, here is a great Scripture from the final week of Jesus’ ministry.
Luke 21:1-4 (NLT)- “While Jesus was in the Temple, he watched the rich people dropping their gifts in the collection box. Then a poor widow came by and dropped in two small coins. “I tell you the truth,” Jesus said, “this poor widow has given more than all the rest of them. For they have given a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she has.”
Posted on 03/29/2010, in church, the basics, the culture, world faiths. Bookmark the permalink. 3 Comments.
Stan Rodda 
For several years I gave up something for Lent (although like you I never observed it before). Lent is not part of the church tradition I grew up in. one year I gave up chocolate. Oh wow! Then one year I gave up caffeine which meant no Diet Dr. Pepper. (No coffee since I don’t touch that nasty stuff). This year I chose to not observe Lent. Not really sure why though. I gave it some thought but then dismissed it. One year I read Pastor John Piper’s book The Passion of the Christ, a book on the 50 reasons Jesus Christ died. At this point don’t know whether to be disappointed in myself or not. Anything special this week? Not really.
Although I haven’t thought about doing anything this year, (I was brought up Lutheran, so I have observed Lent in the past), I can say fasting is such an amazing way to experience God. When we were going through a huge life decision last year, I researched fasts and did a Daniel Fast. Wow!!! God spoke more to me in those 14 days through prayer and scripture than ever before…but I think I had to be “ready” to hear it. When I had fasted before I had done it because it was a church thing or a peer thing, not an individual decision…When you decide to make a personal connection to God, He reveals Himself in such amazing ways.
I’ve been thinking about this alot lately. It seems that people have sort of bent the perspective of Lent, Good Friday, and Easter to a sense of celebratory “I have conquered” time…but I have been re-evaluating it lately.
I remember watching the Passion and being so upset and feelings hurt by seeing the depiction of Jesus tortured and abused and killed. Imagine the emotions of His disciples, His mother. . . His Father…
His sacrifice was and is a BIG DEAL. …fluffing it over with “eastery” stuff waters down the impact it should have I think.
We should be thankful for His resurrection, but I think to be truly thankful for that, we have to really understand what that means.