To Begin Anew

One of the most challenging assignments I’ve ever had involved a paper to be written for an OT survey class. The paper itself was easy enough, I suppose, but there was one cardinal rule that was absolute: there could be NO NT reference whatsoever. The instructor promised us that she would read each paper very carefully and if she THOUGHT that there was even an oblique NT reference, we would lose points.

The purpose of the exercise was to teach us to engage the Scripture as if we were reading it for the very first time, much like those of the day who did not have the benefit of NT perspective. It was probably at this time when I stopped referring to OT as OT, preferring instead “Hebrew Scripture” or “Hebrew Text” because as far as I could tell there was – is – nothing “old” about it especially if we faithfully consider that the Lord’s Word is eternal, with no beginning and certainly no ending.

Lent should be approached with the same perspective. Before we can fully appreciate the intrinsic value of Easter, we must first experience the nature of the journey as if for the very first time. We cannot simply move from the manger of Christmas to the empty tomb of Easter because the journey of the Christ did not start and finish so simply.

It is especially fitting that we begin this journey with Ash Wednesday. We are to be reminded of the limited extent of our physical existence just as when Adam was formed from the dust of the earth until Divine Life was breathed into him: “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the Breath of Life, and the man became a living being.” Genesis 2:7 NIV

In our contemporary society we lament the sins of others whom we believe to be violating all that we know to be good and right; we blame them for the failures of our culture. During the season of Lent, however, our focus must be on our own carnal nature and the constant struggle which I believe exists within each of us to live spiritually and seek to overcome our carnal nature. We know the difference between right and wrong, but sometimes we justify our failures of faithfulness according to what we believe to be most expedient and that perhaps does no “real” harm without understanding that our failure to our faith is a failure in the eyes of our Creator. Making such carnal choices, choices most pleasing to our flesh, to our physical existence, to our worldly nature, render us “dust” and therefore lacking in the substance of Life.

Whether we have experienced Lent every year since childhood or are experiencing it now for the first time, let us be mindful of our need to have Life “breathed into our nostrils” so that we may become beings living faithfully in the knowledge that we, in the absence of Divine Life, “are dust, and to dust we shall return”. Genesis 3:19 NIV