3 || Numbers of Lent || Week 2

Last week, we talked about the meaning of the number 40 for the Lenten season. This week, we are talking about the number 3. 

Luke 23:39-43 talks about the conversation Jesus had with the two criminals while they were hanging on the cross. This story shows that three people talked with each other, while one of those three is part of the Trinity, representing God as three persons in one God. It makes sense to me that we focused on the number 3 today. Let’s talk about that.

The number 3 appears in the Bible 467 times. The Hebrew meaning of the number 3, shelosh or sheloshah, means harmony, new life, and complete; it also describes the intensity of something. Haven’t you ever wondered why we sing: “Holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty.” Here are some ways that the number 3 is significant in the Bible.

God will often say something three times or repeat a phrase three times. One of the stories we typically focus on in the Lenten season is Jesus praying at the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus goes back to pray there three times. In a conversation between Jesus and Peter, Jesus asked Peter three different things. Jesus asked Peter to feed my lambs, tend my sheep, and feed my sheep. Peter would be known as the “rock” of the church in Acts. Later on in the story, after Jesus gets arrested, Peter denies knowing Jesus three times, leading to three different instances of forgiveness, representing Peter thinking deeper into his life as an evangelist when Jesus returns to heaven. During the Lenten season, one of the more apparent instances is Jesus rising from the dead three days after He got crucified.

As we mentioned, the number three represents completeness and intensity. You can say that today’s story is full of intense moments. Jesus has gone through a pretty intense journey to get to this point, between torture, beatings, whippings, verbal assaults, and more. It’s SO unbelievable for one person to go through, even if this person was the Son of God, but this was a plan of completeness. Jesus going through all this was a way to complete the act of saving us from our sin. It was a way to complete our journey to gain eternal life with God. I pray that we go through our Lenten season apart, but together, we will see the completeness that Jesus portrays. I challenge you to do a kind act or give a kind word three times this week. Whether you’re doing three things for one person or one thing for three people, you send that text to someone three times. You get the point. 

The number 3 represents completeness and harmony. May your Lenten journey be harmonious with your relationship with Jesus. We’ll see you next week for a new focus number.