I decided to intentionally read each of these passages
specifically looking for applications to Lent. First, what is Lent? Lent is
about preparation for the Savior, for His death and resurrection. Why did He
die? He died to pay for our sin. And there it is. Lent is about the thing that
separates us from God, our sin. One of the websites I visited made this
distinction, that Lent is about “Facing the reality of the consequences of sin
and the terrible toll it takes on the world.”
Psalm 55 sees David once more crying out to God for aid, but
this time is different. “For it is not an enemy who taunts me” (verse 12). A
close, dear friend betrayed David, someone who walked with David in God’s
house. See the consequences of sin, people faking friendship and betraying
trust. Yet God is the Always Faithful One, the True Friend.
Deuteronomy 11:18-28 is a charge to remember God’s commands,
to keep them in our hearts and constantly before our eyes, to pass them on to
our children and never, ever forget. But we do. We daily, hourly, by the minute
forget God’s commands, what they are and the great love He has shown for us
that should make us eager and impatient to obey Him. We forget. The Fall has
warped our memories so that this all important thing flies from our minds at
the first opportunity. Yet God doesn’t forget. He loves us and rescues us just
the same.
Hebrews 5:1-10 continues in the strain of Christ as High
Priest. Who was the High Priest? He was the one who brought the blood of the
sin offering of the people to God to be forgiven. He didn’t represent God to
the people as much as he represented the people to God. That meant that he was
just like all the people he represented, knew their struggles, knew their sins,
knew their suffering. In all of these things except one Jesus is our High
Priest. He represents us to God, bringing us to God and saying, “Forgive.” He
knows our suffering intimately, He experienced it Himself, yet He was sinless.
The Fall brought suffering to the world and made the blood sacrifice necessary.
And God makes this sacrifice, for not only is He our High Priest, He is also
the Lamb killed and the pardoning King.
John 4:1-26, the story of the Samaritan woman at the well,
was harder to think about in this context. Sin separates us from God, and from
each other. The Samaritans and the Jews worshiped the same God (as far as I
know) and both were looking for the coming Messiah, but hated each other. The
Jews were the chosen people of God and the Samaritans were nothing to them. But
where sin separates, God brings together. Jesus is the Living Water, open to
all who are thirsty for Him.
