Ash Wednesday
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today begins the great and holy fast of Lent. In the German that our forefathers spoke, the time from Ash Wednesday to Easter was called Fastenzeit, or “the time of fasting.” And going back further in time, the ancient Latin Church of the West called these days Quadragesima Ieiunia, or “the forty days of fasting.” These ancient names for this holy season remind us of the historical nature of the great forty days of Lent—namely, that they were a time of fasting in humble repentance for our sins, which drove Christ to the cross on our behalf. Thus, the altar is donned with black, and we have placed ashes upon our foreheads to remind us of the seriousness of sin and the necessity to fight against it through fasting and other disciplines. Christians do not fast in order to earn God’s favor. We fast in repentance, seeking to fight against the sin within us.
In today’s Gospel text, our Lord speaks of the necessity of Christian fasting with these words from the Sermon on the Mount: “When you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly” (Matthew 6:16-18). The warning of our Lord is clear: Fasting can be abused. If you use fasting as a means for earthly gain, your heavenly Father will not reward you. But the abuse of a thing does not negate its right and proper use. Our Lord says twice in today’s reading: “When you fast…” There is no “if” here. He says: “When you fast…”
Our Lord Himself modeled this when He fasted forty days and forty nights in the wilderness while being tempted by Satan, as we will hear in Sunday’s Gospel (Matthew 4:1-11). Likewise, the saints of old have found immense value in the spiritual discipline of fasting. Moses fasted forty days and forty nights on Mount Sinai (Exodus 34:28). Elijah, too, had a forty day fast as he made his own journey to Mount Sinai (1 Kings 19:8). The Three Young Men were prepared for their trial in the fiery furnace by a time of fasting from the king’s food (Daniel 1:1-21). Daniel was fasting when he received a great vision, which is recorded in the final chapters of his book (Daniel 10:3ff). And in the New Testament, Paul and Barnabas were set apart for mission work to the Gentiles during a time of fasting. They then continued this behavior of fasting when they appointed church leaders prior to leaving every city (Acts 14:23).
But you may say: “Pastor, we’re Lutherans! We don’t fast. That’s Catholic!” Indeed, the Catholics do (in some measure) practice fasting. But the Catholics also use pews, altars, and pulpits. They recite the Creeds, read the Gospel, and confess the Real Presence in the Lord’s Supper. Ought we dispense with those things simply because they are “Catholic”? May it not be so. For the abuse of a thing does not negate its right and proper use. Our Lord clearly commands fasting by saying: “When you fast…” Precisely how our fasting ought to be done is not spelled out by our Lord. And so, to legislate that one must fast in this particular manner and on this particular day is to go beyond the words of Scripture. The error of our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters in regard to fasting is not that they do it, it’s that they are legalistic about it.
Thomas Winger, a longtime pastor and seminary president in our sister church, the Lutheran Church Canada, writes concerning fasting: “The average Lutheran’s opinion of fasting may be that it’s merely an inadequate alternative to faith. This cynical perspective often arises from a garbled recollection of what Luther says about preparing for the Lord’s Supper.” Here are the familiar words of Luther to which Winger refers: Who receives this sacrament worthily? Fasting and bodily preparation are certainly fine outward training. But that person is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words: “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins” (Small Catechism).
Neither here nor anywhere else does Luther disparage fasting. To be sure, he and the other Lutheran Reformers had much to say about the papistic abuses of fasting. But fasting itself is commended by Luther: “Fasting and bodily preparation are certainly fine outward training.” But Luther’s warning in the Small Catechism echoes our Lord’s warning from today’s Gospel text: Fasting that is done apart from faith is useless. So, don’t use fasting to make yourself look more spiritual or so that you can brag about it on social media with the hopes that others will look at you more highly. At the same time, Christian fasting ought not be undertaken primarily for bodily gain or health reasons. Fasting certainly can be done for health reasons, but it is not Christian fasting if health is the primary goal. To be sure, health benefits will certainly come from Christian fasting. But the one who fasts with the primary goal of earthly gain will receive earthly benefit and nothing more. However, the one who fasts in faith will be rewarded eternally. Again, our Lord says: But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly” (Matthew 6:17-18).
The natural question which follows our Lord’s words, then, is this: What reward does a Christian receive for fasting in faith? In other words, why fast? We have clearly established our Lord’s command and the examples of the saints, which should be reason enough to fast. But still, we would do well to know what the reward is of which Christ speaks. What’s in it for me to fast?
It is at this point that I would like to offer a brief aside, which will set the stage for an answer to this question. I would like to briefly discuss virtue and discipline, beginning with the Four Cardinal Virtues of temperance, justice, fortitude, and prudence. These virtues were first spoken of by the ancient Greek philosophers but have been used in the history of the Church to talk about Christian sanctification, or the Christian life of new obedience to Christ. A Christian who is walking in the ways of Christ ought to be temperate, that is able to rightly control his desire for pleasure. He ought to be just, that is rendering that which is due to another. He ought to be characterized by fortitude, that is doing the right thing in the face of fear. And he ought to be prudent, that is possessing a godly wisdom in word and deed. These four Cardinal Virtues ultimately serve the Three Theological Virtues of faith, hope, and love, about which we have spoken much in the season of Septuagesima. I will say more about the relationship between the Cardinal and Theological Virtues in four weeks. Finally, there are the Three Lenten Disciplines of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving which are commanded by our Lord in Matthew 5 & 6. We will consider these disciplines in conjunction with the Cardinal Virtues in the coming weeks. But for now, we will conclude our discussion of fasting by connecting it to the virtue of temperance.
So, why fast? As we said before, our Lord commands fasting throughout Scripture. Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm. (Joel 2:12-13). Fasting is a sign of repentance, as we flee from the temptations and sins which seek to destroy us. But let me be clear at this point so there is no room for misunderstanding: Christian fasting is not done for the purpose of justifying us before God or somehow earning merit or grace. Rather, Christian fasting is done to teach us the virtue of temperance—that we may learn to control the body so that its sinful urges do not overwhelm and destroy us, and that the reward promised to the penitent may be ours. It’s not that fasting earns us the reward of eternal life. Fasting teaches us to cling to the reward we have been freely given and not to lose it. Illustrating this same point, we heard these words from the Apostle Paul in the Epistle for Septuagesima: Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as on who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).
Like an athlete who is training to receive a prize, the Christian ought to train himself spiritually to receive the reward of eternal life. But notice what the Apostle says. His goal is to receive the spiritual reward of eternal life, and so he disciplines his body and brings it into subjection. Why? Because the sinful urges of the body can destroy us if left unchecked, as they did with ancient Israel in the wilderness. Therefore, we must learn temperance—not as a means to justification. We must learn temperance so that we can continue to hold on to and grow in the faith, hope, and love which our Lord desires to work within us so that the devil, the world, and the sinful flesh do not destroy our faith and rob us of the reward which our Lord desires to give. And so, Christ says “When you fast” because He desires that you would hold onto your faith and that it would not be taken from you by the prowling devil.
Temperance teaches us how to resist temptation by saying “no” to the urges of the flesh. The foundational way to practice temperance is fasting—whether fasting for a meal or a whole day or by abstaining from certain kinds of food or drink for a time. And this is done not for bodily gain, but that through bodily discipline we might grow spiritually and thus increase our resistance to the allures of sin. In short, Christians fast from things that are not sinful to help us learn how to fast from things that are sinful. For when we forego something as fundamental as food, we remind ourselves that we are not enslaved to it. For “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).
And so, if you want to try fasting this Lent, but you’re not sure where to start, allow me to offer two concrete suggestions. Time fails us to speak on this in more depth, so if you would like to discuss fasting further, I would be happy to speak with you. Probably the easiest place to start fasting is through abstention—that is, with the old practice of giving something up for Lent. Another good place to start is the so called “Eucharistic Fast”, which, to be clear, is not fasting from Holy Communion, but is fasting on Sunday morning in preparation for Holy Communion so that the Body and Blood of Christ are the first thing you eat on Sunday. The benefit of the Eucharistic Fast, is that it invites us not to fast for fasting’s sake, but to look forward to the day when there will be no more fasting. When Christ returns, there will be endless feasting at the banquet for which the Eucharist is but a foretaste. But until then, we fast and take pains to be set free from the filth of our sin and so to be rich in the fruits of faith, hope, and love. God grant it.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
