Mardi Gras A Religious Holiday?

Tonight I sit contemplating my thoughts on Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday if your French is rusty. I grew up in Southeast Louisiana from the age of 9 when my family moved from the windy city of Chicago to Grand Isle, Louisiana.  I know that makes me a Yankee by birth, but I am indeed an Island boy reared in the Cajun Bahamas of Grand Isle, Louisiana.  Grand Isle is home for the Boss Family where we are missionaries on mission to connect the Island and Bayou communities to the Cross of Jesus. Sharing the Gospel of Jesus is what we do and we work hard doing it all for God's glory. Mardi Gras has been in my life since I was a boy, but I have been thinking.... this is to be a religious holiday... so much so that the schools let out for days and offices and businesses shut down to observe the celebration of this last big bash before Ash Wednesday where humility and repentance with fasting is expected. Tomorrow many people will walk around unashamed of the ashes on their foreheads and wear them as a badge of humility and submission. But to whom are they submissive to? Jesus? or Religious Observance?

Jesus says in Luke 9:23, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." You see, Jesus gave an invitation that demands total surrender on a daily basis. The idea behind Mardi Gras is to get all your wild living out right before the 40 day observance of Lent, a time of fasting and sacrifice before holy week and Resurrection Sunday. The police will clear the streets at midnight. The music and dancing will cease, the beads and trinkets will be laid down, and the people are expected to become serious about Jesus and self sacrifice.  So why not live surrendered lives everyday for Jesus? Well that would not be religious, that would be radical! Yes! That is why Jesus demands our all everyday, not just when the calendar of religious traditions tell us. It seems to me that the traditional celebration of Mardi Gras is not about repentance to Jesus but rather an exalting of ones self and sin with the bonus of "feeling cleansed" with the religious observance of Lent.

What if we treated everyday with total surrender to Jesus rather than total surrender to self? This is the real struggle of everyone who claims to be a follower of Jesus. Now I do realize that the large portion of party animals are not true followers of Jesus and may not care about the religious side of Mardi Gras. But why do so many professing Christians sink so low to participate in the self worship and sinful activities of Mardi Gras? I am not going so far to say that just going to a parade is sinful. My family has been to parades and we observe, pray, witness, and have good fellowship with others. It really reveals much about the mission field we serve. We have seen much drunkenness, materialism, selfishness, sexually immoral behavior, and silliness and all this is promoted by a music and message that says, "Eat, drink, and be merry!". And boy, do they ever! So does it really all go away with the waving of a hand in the sign of the cross and some ashes on the head? I think not! The sinful ways of man always fall short of God's glory. (Romans 3:23)

We must live everyday in keeping with repentance (Luke 3:8). What if.... we loved Jesus more than self and sin?  What if we had all the creativity, diversity, enthusiasm, and pageantry for Jesus as we do for the parades of the Mardi Gras season? Think about it.... money would be no object to fund the mission of the Gospel. If the service does not start on time or end on time the people would not complain but anticipate what is coming.  What if we had people come to church rain or shine, hot or cold, and multiple times a week and even multiple times each day?  I saw people brave temps in the 30's with pouring rain to celebrate self and sin today. They went to multiple parades in one day and have adjusted their life schedules to make as many as possible during the multiple weeks of celebration. Could you imagine God's people willing to do the same for His glory?  What could we do with dedication and surrender like that? I long for the day when the leaders of God's church hear from the masses, "Throw me something Mister!" Then the church leaders would keep on teaching and preaching the Word of God to them throwing it as seed broadcast on good soil!  I pray to the Lord of the harvest to send forth these kind of workers.

Today's date commands us to March 4th! Do not give up! Press onward and upward in Christ Jesus! (Philippians 3:14)    - Pastor John Boss