The seasons are changing again, and the beauty of nature expresses its creative splendor through the emergence of colors that splash onto the grey pallete of winter. The cold, lifeless months of the previous season have ended. And winter’s melancholy tones make way for the vibrant hues of springtime as nature displays a resurrection of life. Almost overnight, buttercups and hyacinths make their appearance onto the stage, and soon after, the plump buds of peach trees burst open into a flowering freedom after months of being held in the darkness of winter. At this time of year all nature seems to return to life.
This season ensures an ever-changing theater of interest for the senses. The sights and sounds of the outdoors awaken us to beauty that is all around. As we touch the tender new growth and smell the fragrance of blossoming flowers, we experience the power of new life, and we are drawn into an excitement that only this season can bring alive in us. Other seasons have their own unique appeal, but spring alone possesses the beauty of nature being made new.
Just as certain seasons seem to carry a greater meaning than others, there are two seasons of the church calendar which hold special interest and excitement to Christians all over the world. The first is the season of Advent, which has its climax in Christmas. This season gives us the opportunity to celebrate the birth of the Savior, when God brought His own divine life into this world. During the four weeks of Advent we find ourselves on a journey to the manger, not unlike the wise men who journeyed to see the newborn King. This journey helps prepare our hearts for His arrival in a fresh and new way each year. But Advent does more than just commemorate Jesus coming as an infant. It turns our eyes to look forward to Christ coming again at the end of this current age, when He will bring the fullness of His salvation to completion. When Jesus came two thousand years ago, He secured the gift of life by conquering death through the cross. Now this Author of life has as His mission to share that life with the world. And when He returns, He will bring the springtime of a new creation into this world. We and this old creation, which currently suffer under pain and sickness and death, will be ushered into the fullness of the new life He brings. As the Apostle Paul says in his letter to the church at Rome:
“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:19–23).
The second significant season of the Christians faith is the season of Lent which has its consummation in the crucifixion of Jesus on Good Friday and His resurrection on Easter morning. Like Advent, Lent is a journey, not to the manger but to the cross. It commemorates the suffering the Savior endured on our behalf. This journey helps prepare our hearts to appreciate the gravity of Christ’s sacrifice. But Lent does more than just honor that suffering. It beckons us to walk along with our Savior in His suffering. It is a season of repentance for us and a call to participate in giving up our lives to God, as He gave up His life for us.
Christ brought His new life into this world that we might take that new life up by laying our old life down. And what an exchange this is! The old life we lay down is the life of our selfish desires: our aspiration to be our own God, to be “the master of our fate and captain of our soul.” But the new life Christ gives us is the life of humility and love and servanthood toward others. In this exchange, we no longer hold the position of the most important person in our world. Christ has taken that position in our lives, and His self-sacrificing way of life is to now live itself out in us. As Jesus told his disciples in the upper room on the night before He died:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34–35).
But, oh, how dimly is the light of this new life seen in us! We invariably worm our way back to the foot of that throne of our life, seeking to ascend it once again. We cannot help ourselves, for such is our fallen nature. It is only His grace that keeps at bay the evil deep within us. This means we are in need of always living a life characterized by repentance, and the Lenten season helps remind us of this necessary disposition. For we are always inclined to place idols above God. And we are always in need of being directed to the foot of the cross instead of our own throne.
Lent leads us to the cross, because it is there we find this new life. For by the cross, Jesus destroyed the power death had over us, and as Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week, He ushered the life of His spiritual kingdom into this realm. It is this resurrected life He shares, to be lived out in us.
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved . . . 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:4–5 and 10).
And so, we have a beautiful connection between these two seasons of Advent and Lent. At first glance they appear to be two separate stories, or journeys. But they meet each other in perfect harmony, where we find they are part and parcel of the same story. For this resurrected life is the very same life the infant child came to share with the world, and this spiritual kingdom is the very same kingdom the infant child was born to rule over. Like a beautiful sequel in a saga, the divine Author of the nativity writes the fulfillment of that story in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. But this Author is not done writing His story of redemption, for He is writing that story in each of our lives as He brings the power of that resurrection into our hearts.
We must remember that resurrection only comes through death. We will all die one day, and out of that death God will bring new life again. But God is working resurrection in us even now. Just as Jesus offered Himself up to death and then rose out of that death, God is also putting our old self to death in order to bring His new life into us. He is putting our old passions and desires into the empty tomb of Christ in order to bring His passions and desires into a new life in us. And so, Paul says in Galatians:
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
Our lives are not unlike the changing seasons. As things in our lives pass away, new things come to life. All of this is in God’s providence, for He brings us into our winters so that He might usher us into the beauty of His springs. And on the final day, when seasons and time itself will end, we will enter the beauty of His eternal springtime.
