Exodus 1:6-22
Let’s be honest: Lent isn't THAT demanding. You can handle giving up chocolate for 40 days. You even get Sundays off! Everyone seems to forget that mulligan. Lent is meant to be a dry time of withdrawal to help us contemplate our earthly wants and needs, but it seems that it only ends up being a minor inconvenience that we’re forced to dwell upon once a year. I guess you could give up food for 40 days, but you could also give up Facebook.
The Jews’ enslavement in Egypt was over a millennium before Jesus ever walked the Earth, but there’s a lot to learn about Lent here. Like Lent, the Jews’ trials had a definite beginning and ending: before arriving at Pharaoh’s court Abraham was promised to father a people more numerous than the stars, with the one true God at their side. It’s a narrative arc that bends from promise to despair but finally around to fulfillment. It reminds us of Jesus: there was a great need for our savior, but when he arrived, his life was shockingly-blasphemously-quiet, humble. But his death and all the heartache that entailed finally fulfilled the promise made so long before that.
The Jews didn't know they would eventually be vindicated, of course. But they continued challenging the Egyptians, refusing to kill their own. How could they be as numerous as the stars if they did that? They refused to resign themselves to fate, refused to passively let others take over God’s will for them. Instead they used their heartache like a purifying fire. Through this, the prophecy was rendered true.
This Lent season we probably won’t have to deal with what the Jews did so long ago. But do remember that this relatively mundane time of fasting is book-ended by true joy. We have waved the palm leaves and sang Hosanna, and now we fast. How will Christ’s resurrection be reflected in our lives?
Written by Jay Morgan
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