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Q
& A Forum
by Francis MacNutt
taken from the Spring 1998 issue
Q: What are Lent and Easter really about? How can we
understand, on a personal basis, what our Lord did for us? What
does He call us to do to remember His sacrifice?
A: From my human standpoint, I have never liked the
season of Lent, the 40 days of penance leading up to Easter.
When I was young, my church took Lent seriously, and I did, too.
We gave up something of meaning to us, we fasted in some way, to
impress upon ourselves the sacrifice Jesus made for us.
By taking Lent seriously, we take Jesus’ life and
teaching seriously. He told us we had to die to ourselves in
order to rise up with Him in a new life. Lent reminds us to die
with Him on the cross, so that we can rise up with Him on
Easter. But beyond giving up candy for Lent and going to an
Easter sunrise service, what do we do to remember His sacrifice?
We need to truly die to ourselves, not simply look on and
admire.
We Christian celebrate being “born again” and
baptism, but that is only the beginning. Jesus told us that,
unless we lose our lives, we will never find our lives. We are
meant to be a new creation, but to fully become new our
old selfish humanity must die.
Our dear friend, George Larson, a founder of Fishnet
who has been a committed Christian for years and is now in his
seventies, has only recently felt that he has come to the point
of dying fully that Christ might live in him. I am humbled by
what George wrote recently in the Fishnet newsletter:
“Supernatural
intervention comes through suffering. The stubbornness of the
old self will resist to the end…If there is any possible way
out and we can do it on our own and escape, this will be our
first choice. It is only when the way becomes narrow and finally
there is but one choice that then our will is ready to submit
and turn to God. It is pride of huge proportions which prevents
this from happening. We instinctively know there is a price we
will pay – the death of our old self. This grief is beyond any
we have experienced before…It is only after the fact that we
then realize that other losses in life are minuscule in
comparison to the old Adam loss, but it rewards us beyond all
comprehension.
“It happened to me this way: it was eight years after
having my prostate removed; I had a year of remission, but then
I had a recurrence, treated by radiation, followed by six years
of remission. But the cancer again returned, and my urologist
told me, ‘George, there is nothing more we can do for you.’
It was then, when my alternatives ceased to exist and my will
submitted to a power beyond myself, that my tenacious pride
evaporated. I was now a prime target for the incarnate Christ,
moving in me through the power of His Holy Spirit. At last I was
free to move into a reality which up to now I had explored with
reservation. Finally, I was ready to go through the death of the
old Adam within me and endure the grief that accompanies death.
“ ‘Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence
of death so that we would rely not on ourselves but on God who
raises the dead’ (II Corinthians 1:9).
“One night, in the midst of my post-operative cancerous
pain, I cried out to Jesus to rescue me. He visited me from the
cross, in naked form, totally unexpectedly. He embraced me in
love and took my pain and much more, which I had been unable to
do on my own. This symbol of the naked Jesus, dying for me, will
burn in my heart forever. This instantaneous moment is now being
followed by a process which seems to have no end.
“Shortly after, I was given the vision of the prodigal
son – me – a sinner, running to the Father and being
received and forgiven. This insight of being a sinner is crucial
to becoming a new creation. The ‘law’ allows us to remain
self-righteous forever. C.S. Lewis speaks to this situation so
well:
“ ‘The Supernatural, entering a human soul, opens to
it new possibilities of both good and evil. From that point the
road branches: one way to sanctity, humility, the other to
spiritual ride, self-righteousness, persecuting zeal…If the
divine call does not make us better, it will make us very much
worse. Of all bad men, religious bad men are the worst.’
“Now, the kind man, pleasing ‘old George’
(for which characteristic I had received many accolades) was
finally ready to die to all this. During Jesus’ night visit, I
realized He took my sins and continues to do so. Dying to my
sins is not as simple as doing right – avoiding wrong actions.
Evil is more subtle when we submit to other gods – idols in
our lives. Many of these idols seem so good and flow so well in
the natural order…If we are confronted with the reality of
these gods in our lives we usually become very defensive. Our
minds so easily justify all of this and it seems so right…
“Other religions do an excellent job of enabling us to
center on ourselves and attain some manner of peace and
self-attainment, but they never move beyond the self-realization
stage. Only Christianity allows us to become a new creation by
the power of the Holy Spirit: ‘Therefore, if anyone is in
Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away,
everything has become new!’ (II Corinthians 5:17).
“I am literally being buried, as in baptism, to the old
self. I am being raised to the new George, the one whom God
intended me to be. He is taking away my sins, of which there are
many I didn’t even realize I had…
“Maybe one day an old acquaintance might meet me and
say, ‘You remind me of a George Larson I once knew. Some of
your mannerisms suggest this. On the other hand, I’m not sure;
many of your ways are different.’
“May our risen Jesus Christ continue to change our
lives, dear friends, until we become new creations.”
Thus
ends George Larson’s sharing. What insight! Are we anywhere
near this point?
The
deepest healing of all is that we become an Easter people, a new
creation. But we cannot really celebrate Easter until we die to
the old self. The Easter Bells ring out only after the funeral
bells ring in the church tower.
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