Infinitum Lent JourneySample

Today we consider Jesus & Surrender in the context of Lent.

Let’s pick up where we left off yesterday. Jesus took off His outer clothing. He surrendered His authority and His dignity. Fasting involves denying ourselves something that is normally right for us. Jesus is denying himself the honor he is due and humbling—even humiliating—himself to wash the feet of His apprentices.

He took off His outer clothes and ‘put on an apron’ (John 13:4 MESSAGE). He put on an apron? No big deal, right?

Well, in what is a historic coincidence but possibly also divinely providential, that ‘apron’ in Greek is LENTion!

(To be clear, “the word Lent itself derives from the Anglo-Saxon words lencten, meaning “Spring,” and lenctentid, which means not only “Springtide” but also was the word for “March,” the month in which the majority of Lent falls.”

And what does lention mean? “A linen cloth, a towel; Strong’s—apron, coarse cloth; Thayer–of the towel or apron, which servants put on when about to work (Suetonius, Calig. 26), John 13:4f; with which it was supposed the nakedness of persons undergoing crucifixion was covered, Ev. Nicod. c. 10; cf. Thilo, Cod. Apocrypha, p. 582f.”

In Jesus’ further process of surrender, he not only doffs the symbol of His divine authority but also dons a coarse cloth apron by which “the nakedness of persons undergoing crucifixion was covered.”

Soon after this season, in a simple caste system, Roman culture would distinguish between the ‘honestiores’ (nobler, more honorable) and ‘humiliores’ (‘the more lowly,’ or ‘lower, lowlier, shallower, humbler’) (one of the benefits of belonging to the former caste was protection from the punishment of crucifixion, originally limited to enslaved people but eventually expanded to include all ‘humiliores’). So, in this verse, Jesus steps from ‘nobler’ to ‘lowlier,’ becoming the most (in)famous ‘humilior’ ever, a model for each of us today.

Just as Jesus smashes the proto-caste system of Rome, here, he continues to ravage, as an iconoclast, every ‘thing’ we build up that becomes an obstacle between him and us. Ironically, many of these originate with pure intentions. To refresh your memory, an iconoclast is a person who attacks cherished beliefs or institutions, a destroyer of images used in religious worship.

For some, maybe for you (?), Lent itself is a religious institution, a cherished ritual, the requirements and habits and expectations of which have tangled together original pure motives to conspire to prevent us from encountering Jesus. If this sentence doesn’t immediately conjure up images of traditional ‘giving up’ (‘for Lent’), legalistic maneuvering around food abstinences, or resentment of imposed additions to an already-busy calendar, then you are likely not included in the cautionary warning.