Lent, 2013: Fast & Feast

“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate no chocolate or desserts, did not check Facebook, and watched no television at all during those days; and when they were over he was bored, and gladly returned to his normal life for another year.”

The forty weekdays of Lent are based on the forty days of Jesus’ temptation. If what I wrote above is not scripture, why do we persist in practicing Lent as if it were?

Can we move beyond “What are you giving up for Lent?” Is it possible for us to imagine the practice of Lent not as an interruption of our lives but as a means the Spirit can use to transform us? Can our Lenten practice be both a fast and a feast?

I think it can. To that end, I offer this suggestion for your Lenten practice in 2013.

Take up your Bible. Read all four Gospels. Spend ten days on each Gospel. Read them beginning to end in big chunks. As you read, pray that the Spirit will help you understand what Jesus learned in the wilderness. Ask the Spirit to show you how his life exhibited what he learned and to transform your life to be more like him.

Give up whatever you must to do this. The point is not what you are fasting from, but what you are feasting on. Feast on the Word. Fast from anything and everything that keeps you from this feast.

During Lent this year, eat the Word. Drink the Word. Be transformed by the Word. And then, at Easter, when we’ve journeyed all the way from the wilderness through the cross with Jesus, let us all be resurrected to a new life that lives the Word by the power of the same Spirit that led us into the wilderness at the beginning—to a fast and a feast.