Then the Lord said, ”For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
“Lent is a time of repentance, and a season in which we seek the Lord’s mercy – specifically His forgiveness for the sins which we confess. Jesus tells us that the place to begin seeking God the Father’s forgiveness is not in God but in our neighbor. If I want God to forgive me my sins, trespasses, debts, then I need to turn to those around me and forgive them first. According to our Lord, there is little sense in asking God for mercy and forgiveness if you are not going to show the same to those around you. The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant (Matthew 18:23-35) teaches the same lesson. And so also we were taught by our Lord Jesus to ask our Heavenly Father: “and forgive us our trespasses/debts as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
”And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Great Lent as a Fast calls us to think again about original human life in the Paradise of God described in Genesis 2. It is pretty hard for us to imitate life in Paradise – except there is one way we can experience life in the Garden of Delight – we can eat like Adam and Eve ate. That is to some great extent what the Lenten Fast guides us to eat. Great Lent is a return to the foods of Paradise. But it is also during Great Lent that we come to realize how much we really do love the fallen world and all of the foods of the fallen world – oil, wine, meat (none of which were used as food in Paradise). As the Apostle James wrote, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). But Lent reveals to us that we really do love the world and want to be friends of the world, more than we love the Paradise of God. The food and good things of this fallen world attract us and tempt us more than Paradise does. That is pretty revealing about ourselves. We say we want the Kingdom but not if we have to give up this world. Fasting on the other hand attempts to free us from our addiction to the fallen world. Fasting is not all about the rules, it is about deciding where on real treasure is – in God’s kingdom or in this fallen world. Where is our treasure?
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
