When your year is shaped by the liturgical calendar, you have the opportunity to experience your everyday life through the lens of the Christian story. During Lent, we are called into a season of fasting and deeper devotion to Jesus as we prepare for His passion in Holy Week and the joy of Easter.

Often, the Lenten season arrives at an inconvenient time — you’re attending baby showers, bridal showers, early spring cookouts, and other fun events.

Therefore, the challenge of this season is to live out of step with most everyone around you. You’ll still attend the parties and celebrate with your community, but you may not eat that dessert you really want. Or, you opt out of the office lunch meeting because at the beginning of Lent you decided to pray during your 30-minute lunch break.

The purpose of these practices is not to stand out from your peers, friends, family, or co-workers. The purpose of giving up things during Lent is to train your heart, mind, body, and soul to trust the Lord. Through our lives we proclaim that He lived, died, rose from death, and ascended into heaven, inaugurating His Kingdom on earth. For all the times we fail, we know He will come again and make all things new. 

Often, this hope puts us at odds with the people around us.

This year, we observe Good Friday in the midst of a pandemic. We aren’t as much challenged to fast from the usual delights of early spring. Instead, many of us face the reality of a “fast” from many basic needs and conveniences. Still, we do not allow the panic of the virus to overshadow the power of the cross. As Christians, let’s intentionally engage with the pandemic from a greater story, the story of Good Friday.

On Good Friday, we mourn the crucifixion of our King Jesus. We also lament our own sin and the evil which finds a foothold in our hearts and lives. This sin leads us to hoard toilet paper and food, grow irritable with our spouse and kids, be suspicious of others, and deny that there is anything good to be found. By our sin we too have shouted, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him” (Mark 15:6-15)!

However, when we look at Jesus we do not see a man of fear, panic, or suspicion. Instead, Jesus unshakably trusts His Father. Though He is betrayed by friends, accused falsely, and though he endures horrific lashings, brutal humiliation, and an unimaginable death on a cross, “he did not open his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). Throughout the Gospels, it seems as if Jesus does not stop talking. We are made better by all that He has said. But on this day, His kindness to us is in His quietness and His trust in the Father.

He does not struggle against the evil which so cunningly pushes Him to the cross nor does he call on angels to free Him from the cross.  Our kind king, the king of the whole cosmos, “for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame” because He trusted that God would do something good (Hebrews 12:2). 

Read the passage in Mark 14:43-15:32 again and take note of the places you observe Jesus’ quiet kindness despite His dark circumstances. Then, take out your journal and answer these questions: 

1. What feelings have emerged within me in this season?

2. What sins have emerged out of me in this season?

3. What can I learn from Jesus’ example on Good Friday?

4. What fruit does Jesus want to grow in me during this season?

5. How can I let Jesus lead me in my response to this pandemic?