Written by Julian Linnell, a contemporary pastor.
Throughout history, the traditions of Lent have been based in community. For the first Christians, Lent was an occasion to ready themselves for Holy Week and Easter through repentance and fasting. New believers were prepared and instructed for baptism. Believers who had been separated from their community due to notorious sins were offered the opportunity to be reconciled. The entire fellowship of the church was impacted as the gospel was preached and lived out through repentance, forgiveness, faith and pardon. It would have been unthinkable to do this alone. Likewise, there are contemporary reasons for why our journey through Lent is most impactful when undertaken as a community. It can be easy for many Christians today to focus exclusively on celebration and success. While Jesus’ victory over sin, death and Satan should always be central to believers, lament, suffering and injustice also mark our spiritual journey. Through the Holy Spirit, believers in one place can learn, identify and empathize with believers in many other parts of the world, sharing in their suffering. Observed in local and global community, Lent can provide a corrective to a thin Christianity that isolates believers from complexities that are inherent to life on earth, as well as from the meaning of the cross.
Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ… If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. [1 Corinthians 12:12, 26]
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