2023.02.26 A Disciple Fasts

A Disciple Fasts

Psalm 69:1-13 • Mark 2:18–20

Mark 2:18–20 NASB 2020

18 John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and they came and said to Him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?” 19 And Jesus said to them, “While the groom is with them, the attendants of the groom cannot fast, can they? As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast. 20 But the days will come when the groom is taken away from them, and then they will fast, on that day.

Since this is the first Sunday of Lent, I’d like to give some background about Lent before I jump into today’s text.

Lent is 40 Days (plus Sundays), in remembrance of Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness at the beginning of his earthly ministry. In Matthew 3, Jesus is baptized. Right after that, in Matthew 4, we see Jesus go out into the wilderness where he spends 40 days fasting and being tempted by the devil. At the end of the 40 days, Satan tempts him with 3 very specific temptations, and Jesus answers him with Scripture quotations. The devil flees, and God’s angels come and minister to Jesus.

We remember and commemorate this 40 days in the desert by spending 40 days (plus Sundays) preparing for Lent. We spend this time lamenting our sins, repenting, and preparing ourselves spiritually for the resurrection!

More on Jesus’ wilderness experience in a minute, but let’s jump into today’s text.

What do we learn about God from this story?

What do you learn about GOD from this story?

God’s expectations of us can be situational!

Look at Jesus’ response in vs. 19:

Mark 2:19–20 NASB 2020

19 And Jesus said to them, “While the groom is with them, the attendants of the groom cannot fast, can they? As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast. 20 But the days will come when the groom is taken away from them, and then they will fast, on that day.

There is a lot of wedding analogy in the New Testament. Jesus, here compares himself to a groom and says, the groomsmen can’t fast while the groom’s here, can they? In Jewish culture, even today, a wedding is a HUGE feast! In Jesus’ day, the party literally lasted for days. As long as the bride and groom were there, and the food and wine held out … the party continued.

Put into today’s context, Jesus is saying - you can’t fast at a giant feast, can you? That doesn’t make any sense!

BUT, he says — the day is coming when the groom will be gone … the feast will end … and then his disciples will fast.

God’s expectations of us can be situational!

And TODAY! … now that Jesus is no longer walking among us … GOD EXPECTS HIS DISCIPLES TO FAST!!!

What do you learn about humans?

What do you learn about HUMANS?

Humans want to compare ourselves to each other.

Look at the context of this event in verse 18. We only have the movement and spoken words, but imagine the tone of John’s disciples’ question in the middle of their own fasting. “The Pharisees are fasting! We’re fasting! Why do YOUR disciples think they’re so great THEY don’t have to fast?”

Let me suggest the primary reason we don’t fast today is because we’re comparing ourselves with each other … and no one else fasts … so we think we’re justified in not fasting. That level of honesty may be a bit brutal, but I think most of us would have to think a bit if we want to construct a defense beyond that.

We compare ourselves to other humans who aren’t doing something, whatever that something is, and we use that to justify us not doing it.

But notice Jesus’ response doesn’t permit never fasting. He expects his disciples to fast when he’s gone. That’s us. And that’s now. Today … Jesus expects us … to fast … in this time.

Humans want to compare ourselves to each other … because it’s easier to measure up. But comparing ourselves to God’s measurement helps us see reality more clearly.

We think fasting weakens us.

Surely going without food for a period of time weakens us, right?

Let’s return to Jesus’ 40 Days in the Wilderness for a second.

Look at Matthew 4

Matthew 4

This is a much more interesting story than we usually think. We often miss a few things about this story, so let me just point out a couple of things about Jesus’ epoch in the wilderness.

We usually focus on the final three temptations, so much so that we miss that Jesus was tempted for the entire 40 days. In fact, Matthew 4:1 says that Jesus went into the wilderness FOR THE PURPOSE OF BEING TEMPTED by the devil. The entire reason Jesus went into the wilderness was to be tempted, and not just by one of Satan’s minions … but by the devil himself.

If you knew temptation was coming, wouldn’t you prepare somehow to hold up under the stress? If I know a stressful time is coming, I’m going to do what I need to do in order to be strong enough to carry through.

Verse 2 tells us how Jesus prepared for being tempted directly by Satan himself:

Matthew 4:2 NASB 2020

2 And after He had fasted for forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.

He fasted! FOR FORTY DAYS!

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What do you learn about HUMANS?

Going without food should make us weaker, right? … MORE susceptible to temptations, right? … MORE likely to trust a liar like the devil, right?

During Lent, Christians traditionally “give up’ things until Easter. That’s a form of fasting. We aren’t giving things up just to go through the motions. We aren’t giving things up because they’re particularly bad for us.

We’re giving things up that mean something to us. We’re giving up things and practices that are important to us. And giving up those things will be a struggle. It will not be easy. But giving things up will not weaken us!

Giving things up for Lent is a practice that strengthens us! A 40 day period of confession and repentance comes with all sorts of temptations:

Well … THAT one isn’t so bad. I’ll leave that one out this time around.

Well … I’ve confessed that one, so I’m forgiven. With my clean slate … just one more time shouldn’t hurt me too bad, right?

Well … I know that guy next to me does a lot worse than I do. I'm okay as long as someone else is worse than me.

“I don’t have to be faster than the bear … I just have to be faster than you are”

You can’t outrun God’s justice. And he will not compare you with other people. He will compare you with his Son.

Excusing your own sin is very tempting.

If only there were something you could do to strengthen yourself to bear up under such heavy temptation. If only Jesus had given us an example of what to do to prepare for such temptations.

Humans think fasting weakens us. But Jesus expects us to fast, and he even demonstrated that fasting strengthens us.

What do you learn about yourself?

What do you learn about YOURSELF?

Are you weak?

Do you regularly lose to temptation?

Perhaps your weakness is caused by a lack of discipline - a lack of training - a lack of submission to God’s expectations.

For centuries, Christians have told each other to do things just because that’s what Christians do:

Christians go to worship every week, so you should go

Christians do daily devotional reading, so you should read

Christians study the Bible, so you should study

Christians help people, so you should help people

Those are great things to do … but they’re pitiful reasons.

Christians do what Christians do because it’s what God expects, and He’s promised to strengthen us through these practices of discipline.

Fasting is one of those practices … and Jesus himself declared his expectation that his followers would practice fasting.

So, knowing that … How do you measure up to God’s expectation? [Me too.]

Are you ready to do something about it?

What needs to change as a result of what you’ve learned?

When is the last time you fasted anything?

Honestly, when I take a blood test and have to fast for 12 hours the night before … I’m like a ravenous wolf that night and into the morning. Just 12 hours, and I’m ready to eat somebody’s arm off.

But I remember a time when I fasted every week. Every Wednesday, I fasted food and most drink. My body adjusted. I got used to it. Those 12 hour labwork fasts were nothing to me back then, because I had trained for longer than that. Today, my training has fallen away. I am undisciplined, and even fasting a half-day feels impossible.

Friends, we need to take control over our own physical impulses, and food is a good one to start with.

You can give up other things, and some of you medically should not give up food. But for most of us, we search for excuses instead of receiving God’s expectations of us.

So, what will you fast — for these 40 days?

Make it something you will miss - physically

Make it something your body will remind you of - physically

Make it something that helps you retake control over your impulses - physically

Sundays don’t count because they’re feast days, not mourning days, and Lent began on Wednesday, so you’ve already missed 4 days.

So with what the remaining 36 Days of Lent ...what will you fast?

A Disciple Fasts