Just yesterday we began the season of Lent. This season begins on Ash Wednesday and counts down to Easter, forty days excluding the Sundays.
As you’ll hear this Sunday, the number forty figures into the first Gospel reading of the season of Lent. In this first Gospel reading from Matthew 4, we hear that Jesus goes on a 40 day fast before He begins His public ministry. There He is tempted by Satan, the accuser, the devious serpent of Genesis 3 who leads mankind into its first sin.
Forty also reminds us of the 40 days and nights that Noah was in the ark, and the 40 years that Israel wandered in the wilderness. Each of these were a cleansing-through-death. Humanity’s evil was scrubbed from the land in Noah’s flood, except for the fact that humanity continued in Noah and his descendants who were also sinners. Israel’s unfaithful were cleansed from its tribes as they died in the wilderness during their 40 years. Except this did not keep them from being unfaithful.
Moses communed with God for 40 days on Mount Sinai. Elijah fasted for 40 days in his journey to be with God on Mount Horeb. Jonah warned the Ninevites of God’s judgment for 40 days.
As we think of this season facing us in the season of 40 days of Lent, we think too about what our 40 days might be about. Is it about a cleansing? Is it about communing with God? Is it about journeying to be closer to Him? Is it about receiving a warning from Him? As we go purple this Lent, consider what God might be doing with this 40 days.
As you do so, remember that the Resurrected Jesus Christ appeared to His disciples for 40 days before ascending to heaven. May this 40 days be an experience of finding Him in your life anew.