Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Lent is the forty day period (excluding Sundays) of sorrow, penance, and fasting that culminates with Holy Week (marking the events before and during Jesus Christ’s crucifixion) and Easter Sunday (the celebration of Christ’s resurrection). This period of forty days is symbolic for a number of reasons: Moses spent forty days on Mount Sinai (on two different occasions!) receiving the ten commandments, the Israelites spent forty years wandering in the wilderness, Elijah, too, wandered in the wilderness for forty days. Perhaps most significant, though, is the period of forty days that Christ spent fasting in the wilderness, as recorded in Luke 4:1-13:

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone.’”

The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”

The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written:

” ‘He will command his angels concerning you

to guard you carefully;

they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus answered, “It says: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. (NIV)

Similar to what Jesus did in the wilderness, Lent is a period marked by fasting. Traditionally this has been from food – a meal or two less per day, cutting meat or chocolate from your diet – but it can also mean things such as TV, Internet, cars, or many other things that might be a significant part of your day. In a way, just like Christ, we are inviting temptation into our lives so that we might, by the power of Christ, conquer it.

Our temptation, though, unlike Christ’s, is rather benign: nothing is really wrong with eating three square meals a day, but by denying this to ourselves we may be better equipped to say no to other less innocent temptations, say our desire to rule the world with a fist of iron. The period of Lent then becomes a spiritual discipline. This aspect of discipline is strengthened when, in addition to fasting, we use that now empty time by spending time with our God through prayer, reading scripture, meditation, or some other form of worship.

Don’t fret – partaking in lent isn’t all sacrifice and grief. Punctuating the periods of sorrow and reflection are Sundays, when the fast is temporarily broken to celebrate the resurrection. However, it’s too late to celebrate Fat Tuesday, also known as Mardi Gras. That was two days ago.