Lent begins with ashes and ends at the cross.
The forty days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday mirror the forty days Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness before his public ministry began.
The number is significant: Israel wandered forty years in the desert. Moses fasted forty days on Mount Sinai. Elijah traveled forty days to Horeb.
The pattern in Scripture is consistent: the period of deprivation precedes the period of purpose, and the wilderness is where the preparation happens.
Joel 2:13 captures the heart of the season: rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the Lord your God.
The tearing of garments was the visible, external act of repentance in the ancient world.
But this time, God said he wanted something deeper. He wanted the heart torn open, not the clothing. The outward observance without the inward reality is the thing Lent is designed to prevent.
The person entering Lent without engaging the Scripture that drives it is observing a calendar event.
The person who reads these verses slowly across the forty days is doing something different.
Repentance: The Heart of Lent
1. Rend Your Hearts and Not Your Garments, Return to the Lord Your God
“Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.” Joel 2:13, New International Version (NIV)
2. Create in Me a Clean Heart O God and Renew a Right Spirit Within Me
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10, English Standard Version (ESV)
3. If We Confess Our Sins He Is Faithful and Just to Forgive Us
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9, English Standard Version (ESV)
4. Repent and Turn to God So That Your Sins May Be Wiped Out
“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” Acts 3:19, New International Version (NIV)
5. Search Me O God and Know My Heart, Test Me and Know My Anxious Thoughts
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.” Psalm 139:23, New International Version (NIV)
Fasting and Self-Denial
6. Jesus Fasted Forty Days and Forty Nights, and Afterward He Was Hungry
“And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.” Matthew 4:2, English Standard Version (ESV)
7. Is Not This the Fast That I Choose: to Loose the Bonds of Wickedness?
“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?” Isaiah 58:6, English Standard Version (ESV)
8. When You Fast Do Not Look Somber as the Hypocrites Do
“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting.” Matthew 6:16, New International Version (NIV)
9. When You Fast Put Oil on Your Head and Wash Your Face
“But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen.” Matthew 6:17–18, New International Version (NIV)
10. Man Does Not Live on Bread Alone but on Every Word That Comes From the Mouth of God
“But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4, King James Version (KJV)
The Suffering Christ Walked Toward
11. He Was Despised and Rejected by Mankind, a Man of Suffering Familiar With Pain
“He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.” Isaiah 53:3, New International Version (NIV)
12. He Was Pierced for Our Transgressions, Crushed for Our Iniquities
“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5, New International Version (NIV)
13. He Himself Bore Our Sins in His Body on the Tree
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” 1 Peter 2:24, English Standard Version (ESV)
14. God Demonstrates His Own Love for Us in This: While We Were Still Sinners Christ Died for Us
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8, New International Version (NIV)
15. Greater Love Has No One Than This, to Lay Down One’s Life for One’s Friends
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13, New International Version (NIV)
16. For God So Loved the World That He Gave His Only Son
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16, English Standard Version (ESV)
Humility and Self-Examination
17. If My People Who Are Called by My Name Humble Themselves and Pray
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14, New International Version (NIV)
18. He Must Increase, but I Must Decrease
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30, English Standard Version (ESV)
19. Whoever Wants to Be My Disciple Must Deny Themselves and Take Up Their Cross
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.'” Matthew 16:24, New International Version (NIV)
20. Do Nothing From Selfish Ambition but in Humility Count Others More Significant
“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” Philippians 2:3, English Standard Version (ESV)
21. He Humbled Himself by Becoming Obedient to the Point of Death, Even Death on a Cross
“And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Philippians 2:8, English Standard Version (ESV)
22. Examine Yourselves to See Whether You Are in the Faith
“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.” 2 Corinthians 13:5, English Standard Version (ESV)
The Resurrection That Lent Points Toward
23. I Am the Resurrection and the Life
“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.'” John 11:25, New International Version (NIV)
24. He Is Not Here, He Has Risen Just as He Said
“He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.” Matthew 28:6, New International Version (NIV)
25. If Christ Has Not Been Raised Your Faith Is Futile
“And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” 1 Corinthians 15:17, New International Version (NIV)
26. Death Has Been Swallowed Up in Victory
“When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.'” 1 Corinthians 15:54, New International Version (NIV)
27. Because I Live You Also Will Live
“Because I live, you also will live.” John 14:19, English Standard Version (ESV)
Lent Without the Cross Is Just a Diet. Lent Without the Resurrection Is Just Grief.
The forty days of Lent hold the tension between the two realities the Christian faith requires you to carry simultaneously.
The first reality is the cost. Isaiah 53:5 describes what was paid: pierced, crushed, punished, wounded. The suffering was not symbolic. The cross was not a metaphor.
Philippians 2:8 says Jesus humbled himself to the point of death, and the death was a Roman execution reserved for the worst criminals and the lowest social classes.
God became a human being and then submitted to the most degrading death the empire could administer.
The second reality is the outcome. First Corinthians 15:54 says death has been swallowed up in victory. The death that seemed final on Friday was reversed on Sunday.
The crucifixion without the resurrection is a tragedy. The resurrection without the crucifixion has no cost attached.
Lent holds both together and asks you to walk through the cost slowly enough to understand what the victory actually required.
Matthew 16:24 says whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross.
The instruction was given before the crucifixion. The disciples did not yet know what take up your cross would mean in literal terms. They found out. And the call to self-denial during Lent mirrors the forty-day journey toward a cross that the original followers eventually walked themselves.
Joel 2:13 says Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate. The person who enters Lent with genuine repentance does not find an angry God waiting at the end of the forty days. They find a gracious one who was waiting for them to come back.
What People Ask About Lent and the Bible
What is Lent and where does it come from?
Lent is a forty-day season of prayer, fasting, and repentance observed by many Christian traditions before Easter. The practice dates to the early church, with formalized references appearing by the fourth century at the Council of Nicaea (AD 325). The forty days parallel Jesus’s forty-day fast in Matthew 4:1–2. Lent is not explicitly prescribed in Scripture, but its practices of fasting, prayer, and repentance are thoroughly biblical.
What Bible verses are good for Lent?
Joel 2:13 calls for heartfelt repentance. Psalm 51:10 asks God for a clean heart. Isaiah 53:5 describes the suffering of Christ. Matthew 4:1–2 records Jesus’s forty-day fast. Matthew 16:24 calls for self-denial. Philippians 2:8 describes Christ’s humility unto death. John 11:25 declares the resurrection. Each verse addresses a core Lenten theme: repentance, sacrifice, humility, or resurrection hope.
Do all Christians observe Lent?
Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, and Methodist traditions formally observe Lent. Many evangelical and nondenominational churches do not observe it as a liturgical season, though individual believers from these traditions may choose to practice Lenten disciplines privately. The Bible does not command the observance, but the spiritual practices Lent emphasizes, including fasting, prayer, and repentance, are commanded throughout Scripture.
What is the purpose of fasting during Lent?
Matthew 6:16–18 instructs on how to fast privately rather than for public display. Isaiah 58:6 defines the fast God chooses as one that loosens bonds and frees the oppressed. Matthew 4:4 says man does not live by bread alone. Fasting during Lent is designed to create space for spiritual focus by temporarily removing physical comforts, redirecting attention from the body’s appetites toward God’s purposes.
Does Lent end on Easter Sunday?
Lent traditionally ends on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday. The forty days count from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday, typically excluding Sundays, which are considered mini-celebrations of the resurrection even during the penitential season. Easter Sunday is the celebration of the resurrection that the entire Lenten journey points toward, marking the transition from mourning and repentance to joy and victory.
Father, Use These Forty Days to Do the Interior Work the Season Was Designed For
Father, I want to enter this Lenten season the way Joel 2:13 instructs: with a torn heart rather than torn garments, returning to you because you are gracious and compassionate, not because the calendar says it is time.
Let Psalm 51:10 be the genuine request I bring to you daily across these forty days: create what is clean in the place where something compromised has been living, because the renewal has to come from you since I cannot produce it by giving up coffee for six weeks.
And let the cross I walk toward during this season be understood through the lens of John 14:19: because he lives, I also will live, and the Lent that ends in grief has missed the entire point.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
