Giving up?

Guilt. Sin.

That’s what I’m giving up for Lent.

Like many other people, I am giving up something I enjoy for Lent. I am giving up red meat. This is a moderately difficult sacrifice, because of both the convience of grabbing a hamburger, and because of my steak-lust.Last week, OD was asking about our spring rituals … one thing I always look forward to is the first steaks on the grill. Clearly, this is how I will celebrate Easter!

However, at the same time, to give up a type of food is an altogether paltry sacrifice. Lent is a reminder of the suffering and sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for me. He died. He died for me. He died for you, too. In fact, that is why it is something only the Son of God could do. While you and I were yet unborn, He died to pay the price of our sins, our missing the mark of the will of a Holy God. He died for all of humanity.

But, even if he were not God, even if he didn’t create a bridge of forgiveness between myself and the Father, He still died for me. He still died. One man gave his life for another man’s. Another person’s. For me. Even if it were a gesture devoid of eternal purpose, the motive of the action is still pure and as noble a gift as any that could be made. And He didn’t just die. He died hideously. And He died after suffering the fullest of painful humiliation.

But He is God, and he bought my life eternally. He died so that I might live. Live a life eternal in the family of the King. And He did so for all of you. All of us.

Thus, I have come to seek a deeper meaning in the season of Lent than just the abstaining from a type of food.

This year, the answer comes from what He suffered for. What can I give up that makes His sacrifice truely meaningful? The answer? Guilt. The guilt of my sins. He died to purchase my freedom from an old way of life. A way of life which trapped me in an endless cycle of falling short of God’s will for me and my life. Of an endless cycle of falling short of the Law engraved in my heart. Of my doing that which is wrong, even when I know it is wrong. And of the subtle lying to myself that “its okay” or the denial of “it didn’t really happen”… to escape that! That is the importance of Jesus’ suffering for me.

So this year, along with red meat, I am also deliberately giving up my guilt. I am choosing not to drag the baggage of past mistakes with me. Instead, I put them down and pick up the grace that I am given and the power of forgiveness. This is the burden I will bear gladly through the coming weeks.

His death was a singular event, locked into the past. But His ressurection is a living, current event! His gift is a living, vital gift! His presence is a vital, personal relationship. In gratitude, in rememberance, I will grab the results of his sacrifice, and give up that which He died to make possible for me to give up.

My guilt. My sin.