IF LENT DIES, CAN IT BE RESURRECTED?

Strange question.   Right?

I’m hoping so, because that’s what God has mostly called me to do here on earth.   Ask strange questions most people aren’t asking.  As a pastor in Church this has previously cost me some favor by those in power.  And perhaps that’s why I’ve gone back to my prior role as a therapist in the area of behavioral healthcare.   At least there it’s more expected, if not always appreciated.  

I write this here simply to preface what it means to me to assume my primary role on this Ash Wednesday of the western Church calendar, 2026.    My primary role is to follow Jesus.   But my intention today is to reframe the meaning of such a role.  

When I speak of the western Church calendar, whether 2026 or before or beyond, I speak of the Roman Church tradition of asking followers of Jesus what they are willing to give up in their own mortal lives for these next 6 weeks that we label our season of Lent.   I say Roman Church but mean more broadly the mainline Protestant denominations of Christianity after the tradition of Roman Catholicism.    Other Protestant denominations often fall under the tradition of what I call Romans Evangelicalism.  The season of Lent comes from the Roman Church, not the Romans Church.    The New Testament Letter of Romans is for them privileged and the Church of Rome marginalized, Paul being the closest thing to a Pope among Christian evangelicals.   The Letter of Romans being for such folks the equivalent of their Papal Encyclical.

Now to get personal.   For me the western Church tradition of asking the old question of what to give up for Lent, has died.   Maybe it was caused by its own old age, or maybe mine.   It was a slow death.  Because it was only a once per year question, my breathing grew slow and shallow before stopping altogether.  No answer left.   No breath.  Dead.

So then what?  

Well, then what for us Christians is always resurrection.   Which opens up an entirely new set of questions, if we’re willing to be honest with ourselves.   And I believe we are all called to do that.

Here goes.   Questions you may find strange.   Or hard.   Harder than just giving up something I like for 6 weeks.

Are you ready?

The main question I would ask a resurrected body of Christians today is this: if we knew for sure we only had six more weeks to live in this mortal body of ours, what things would we want to still accomplish?   You see, the old question of what to give up may need to, per our baptism, die with Christ in order to have this new question of what to still accomplish when we rise up with Christ.   So put yourself in Christ’s position.   Identify with him.   We're going to die in just six weeks.  Where’s our bucket list?  Do we have one?  Or better yet, what was on Christ’s bucket list and would we be willing to follow him as he went about accomplishing his own?   And in case we’re curious about where to even look for such a “Christ’s bucket list” to follow in this Lenten season, I’m personally looking right now in the Gospel of Mark.  

Mark, as you perhaps know, was most likely the first of the written accounts of the work of Jesus in ministry prior to his death.   Most scholars estimate Mark’s account of that ministry as sometime after the death of Peter, which happened by order of Nero (Roman Emperor) during the bloody decade of 65-75 CE.   (By contrast, Paul’s letter to the Romans was dated in the year 57 CE.)   And while Mark never calls it a bucket list or any other “to do” list, he does note as early as 8:31 that Jesus knew he was living on what we sometimes call “borrowed time.”   By implication, the book of Mark reads from that point on until his death in chapter 15 as a kind of list of final accomplishments he set out to finish in this lifetime.

And I wonder if we might learn from his presumed mental bucket list something of his own priorities if we were intending to follow him (as noted in Mark 8:34) starting today.     You see, Mark makes it clear there’s more to do with following than just dying. More than just letting go or giving up.  There’s still work to get done.   The cross isn’t so much an end point as a lifestyle.   More than a period, the cross is a paragraph to be completed like a bucket list before death.   More a journey than a destination. And Jesus bids us not to die with him so much as to work with him while we do still have life here on earth. The cross is for carrying, not just dying.

So where to begin?   Today I’m going to offer up a short list.   At least for myself.    If you’re willing to join me in reading Mark’s Gospel from 8:34 to the end between now and April 3^rd, feel free to expand the list as the Spirit leads you.  But for me, the bucket list Jesus had begins with what most biblical scholars name as being a trip to the top of Mt. Tabor.  Our general question probably looks more like this:  “Is there some spiritual mountain top experience we’ve not yet had that we’d like to complete before we die?”      Jesus crosses this one off in Mark 9:2-8.    Maybe it’s time we started thinking about such an experience for ourselves.  

What’s next?   Well, how about “Is there some troubled child we need to still pray for before we die?”   Jesus crosses this one off in Mark 9:14-29.  Will we as Christ-followers get that done within the next 6 weeks? 

Then came the question not just about praying for a troubled child but urgently working to protect all children and to bless the children who come after us.   “Who are the children we still need to protect and who are the children we still need to bless?”    These seem to have been on Jesus’s bucket list and were crossed off in Mark 9:42 -10:16 with a rather strong polemic on marital divorce thrown in the middle.  Will we as Christ-followers get that done within the next 6 weeks? 

Next item on that so-called bucket list for Jesus might well have been this one:  “Who in political power today should we still speak truth to in a loving way?”    Jesus crossed that off in Mark 10:17-22.   Will we as Christ-followers get that done within the next 6 weeks?

The next one Mark writes about is another tough one.   If we only had 6 more weeks to live, I wonder “what questions would we pose for our own closest friends with all due humility?”   Jesus crossed that off in Mark 10:35-45.   Will we as Christ-followers get that done within the next 6 weeks?

Notice those last two are especially easy to put off for many of us.   We sometimes act like we have all the time in the world in which to finally bring up a tough conversation that might offend someone else.   But what if we don’t?   What if we only have 6 more weeks in which to get such things done?

Next on Mark’s list of things Jesus gets done before he dies involves the story of blind Bartimaus, or as Jesus seems to prefer, faithful Bartimaus.   “Your faith has made you well,” Jesus tells him.  But perhaps the underlying question for us as Christ-followers before time runs out is this:  “Who do we encounter that needs his/her/their faith affirmed?”  Asked another way, whose faith should we personally recognize as having some healing power in the midst of grief, confusion, illness or distress?   We all have times when we scarcely recognize our own faithfulness until someone else points it out to us.  Such reinforcement can mean a great deal.  Jesus crossed that off in Mark 10:46-52.  Will we as Christ-followers get that done within the next 6 weeks?

And now comes the familiar event we typically call “the triumphal entry,” where Jesus parades himself down the Mount of Olives riding a colt.   Bucket list?   Well, maybe.  There’s always the messianic prophecy of Zechariah to contend with, 9:9 in particular, but also 14:4.  Which may be the whole point.   Maybe Jesus needed to get done something others were predicting he would do.   “Whose expectations do we still need to meet in some way yet?”    Sometimes we need to fulfill the faith someone else affirms in us before we die.  Jesus crossed that off in Mark 11:1-10.  Will we as Christ-followers get that done within the next 6 weeks?

After that comes another of those items we find easier to put off til maybe it’s too late.   Confronting those in authority who are perpetrating some social injustice.   Those like the Temple authorities who were gouging pilgrims coming from other countries and needing currency exchange so they could purchase an “unblemished dove” to replace their own brought there for sacrifice.  This unjust practice by the religious authorities had been going on for many years but now was the time to STOP IT.   “What injustice do we need to try putting a stop to while we are still here on earth?”  Jesus crosses that off in Mark 11:15-17.   Will we as Christ-followers get that done within the next 6 weeks?

The next item on Jesus’s list to get done may well have been what we call his “Last Supper.”   It’s the familiar story of when Jesus invited his closest friends to a banquet room for a special meal.   If we knew we only had 6 weeks left on earth ourselves, I wonder what we might get around to hosting in way of a dinner party.  “Who would we still want to share a meal with, where, and for what occasion?”  This is the kind of bucket list item that carries a responsibility to help others remember our story, celebrate our time on earth, and be ready to go on without us.   Jesus crosses that off in Mark 14:12-25.   Will we as Christ-followers get that done within the next 6 weeks?

And, finally, Jesus wanted to have a final prayer meeting with his closest friends.   This one didn’t go quite as planned, but he tried.  He invited these besties from recent years to join him at Gethsemane to pray.   They came but were too tired to do their part in making that prayer meeting what Jesus needed it to be.   If we had but 6 weeks left on earth, I wonder if we wouldn’t appreciate having some friends meet us for prayer.   “Who would we still want to get together with for a time of prayer before we died, and where might be the best place to do that?”   Jesus crosses that off in Mark 14:32-42.   Will we Christ-followers get that done within the next 6 weeks?

Well, by now you get the picture.   First it’s the picture of Jesus working up to the end at getting his priorities in life all taken care of.   Not putting things off til it’s too late.    He knew his days here on earth were numbered.

But so are ours.

Jesus didn’t give it all up, or any of it really, with 6 weeks still to go in life.   He worked up to the very end to finish the work of love.   No doubt he never called it his bucket list, but he made sure he didn’t just “give it up” and wait to die.   Lent, if you really think about it, was not for Jesus a time of letting go.   It was a time of taking on.  

Maybe that’s where our own Lent needs to follow.   Not in the giving up but more the taking up, or the taking on.    Take on that task we’ve been putting off like we had forever to get it done.   Take on our top priorities in life.  

It may matter less that we match the priorities of Jesus (his proverbial bucket list) for completion before he died, but that we at least work at finishing our own list before we die.    Lent reminds us that we’re all going die.   Death is real and so is resurrection.   But let’s not die today.   Let’s take up (and live out) the next 6 weeks like it’s all we’ve got left and like the main things for us really are the main things. 

Jesus left no stone unturned as he took up his cross.   Per Mark’s Gospel he made sure to still make it to the mountain top, to still pray for a child in trouble.  To still work to protect and bless all the little children.  To still confront a rich young ruler speaking truth to power.  To still question his rather complacent friends where they needed some sincere, though humble, questioning.   To still affirm the faith of Bartimaus.   To still meet the expectations of those who affirmed him as Messiah.   To still confront the Temple authorities and their unjust system.   To still host a dinner for his 12 disciples.  And to still call for prayer with his closest few.  

If Jesus were only born to die for our sins, none of this would have mattered.   If everything was taken care of by his blood on the cross and the rest was unnecessary, then Lent has no need to last 6 weeks.   Ash Wednesday could turn into Good Friday and we could die with Christ and be done with it.  

But that’s not Christ-like.

That kind of instant Lent needs to die.  

Lent can be resurrected and reframed as the chance to finish the work of loving neighbor as self.  

Just like Jesus did.