Q & A Forum

by Francis MacNutt
Spring 1998

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 Christians 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 ... lf 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 ... lt 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 pride, self–righteousness, persecuting zeal ... lf 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.

Francis MacNutt is a Founding Director and Executive Committee member of CHM.