Fasting

Scripture Reading

Matthew 4:1–4 NRSV

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. 3 The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

Matthew 9:14–17 NRSV

14 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” 15 And Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. 17 Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

Sermon Notes

In ancient Jewish tradition, fasting had two primary purposes. The first was to express personal or national repentance for sin; fasting was a form of humble supplication before God in the face of imminent destruction or calamity (see Joel 2, Jonah 3, and Esther 4). The second purpose of a fast was to prepare oneself inwardly for receiving the necessary strength and grace to complete a mission of faithful service in God's name. Primary examples are the forty-day wilderness fasts of Moses, Elijah, and Jesus (Exodus 24 and 34, 1 Kings 19, and Matthew 4). The fast prepares each one to become a personal bearer of God's saving acts to the people. (SF, pgs. 69-70)

Jesus combined prayer and fasting to overcome his temptations in the desert. The early church followed this practice at critical points in its life to discern how God was leading them and to empower their ministry (Acts 13, 14). Some ancient manuscripts indicate that Jesus' cure of the epileptic boy (Mark 9:14-29) was possible only "by prayer and fasting." These examples suggest that the combination of prayer and fasting invites a greater measure of God's power to be released through us than might be possible through prayer alone. (SF, pg. 70)

Although many passages of Scripture deal with this subject [fasting], two stand out in importance. The first is Jesus' startling teaching about fasting in the Sermon on the Mount. Two factors bear directly on the issue at hand. His teaching on fasting is directly in the context of his teaching on prayer and almsgiving. It is as if there is an almost unconscious assumption that giving, praying, and fasting are all part of Christian devotion. We have no more reason to exclude fasting from the teaching as we giving or praying. Second, Jesus states, "When you fast. . ." (Matthew 6:16). He seems to make the assumption that people will fast, and is giving instruction on how to do it properly. Martin Luther said, "It was not Christ's intention to reject or despise fasting . . . It was His intention to restore proper fasting." (CD, pg. 52)

The second crucial statement of Jesus on fasting comes in response to a question by the disciples of John the Baptist. Perplexed over the fact that both they and the Pharisees fasted but Jesus' disciples did not, they asked "Why?" Jesus replied, "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast" (Matthew 9:15). That is perhaps the most important statement in the NT on whether or not Christians should fast today. (CD, pg. 53)

1. Fasting is an opportunity for us to lay aside our appetites to focus on God. (Matthew 4:1-2)

Matthew 4:1–2 NRSV

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.

“And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you." (Matthew 6:16-18)

v1. Matthew links Jesus' testing with his baptism. Jesus moves from the water (as Israel moved from the Reed Sea) and enters the wilderness. The agent of testing is the "devil" who rises up to defend his domain (the kingdoms of this age, Babel, the secular city, the world) against the attack of the messianic king.

v2. Jesus' fast for forty days most likely images Israel's forty years journey. At the end of the fast, Jesus is weak and hungry.

v16-18. Fasting. Again, the four points are repeated. Fasting provides an excellent opportunity to gain a reputation for piety. The best way to eliminate this hypocrisy is to fast in secret.

In Jewish piety fasting was used in association with confession, or some special prayer need, and was taken into the Christian faith by Jewish believers as an expression of self-discipline, 1Cor.9:24-27, Phil.3:19, 1Pet.4:3. Jesus obviously assumes his disciples will fast after his departure, Matt.9:14-17. Making a show of their piety, that's the problem. So, freshen up; use some oil to brighten the face.

Fasting helps us keep our balance in life. How easily we begin to allow nonessentials to take precedence in our lives. How quickly we crave things we do not need until we are enslaved by them. Paul writes, "'All things are lawful for me,' but I will not be enslaved by anything" (1 Corinthians 6:12). Our human cravings and desires are like rivers that tend to overflow their banks; fasting helps keep them in their proper channels. "I pommel my body and subdue it," says Paul (1 Corinthians 9:27). Likewise, David writes, "I afflicted myself with fasting" (Psalm 35:13). This is not excessive asceticism; it is discipline and discipline brings freedom. In the fourth century, Asterius said that fasting ensured that the stomach would not make the body boil like a kettle to the hindering of the soul. ( CD, pg. 56)

Some of our suspicions about fasting may simply be a rationale to cover deeper anxieties. In a land where food is abundant that we can both glorify and trivialize it, we have developed a horror of being without it. ( Soul Feast, pg. 71)

This is precisely why fasting remains so relevant for people of faith today. In a more tangible, visceral way than any other spiritual discipline, fasting reveals our excessive attachments and the assumptions that lie behind them. Food is necessary to life, but we have made it more necessary than God. How often have we neglected to remember God's presence when we would never consider neglecting to eat! Fasting brings us face to face with how we put the material world ahead of its spiritual Source. ( Soul Feast, pg. 71)

2. Fasting must have a specific purpose. (Matthew 4:3-4)

Matthew 4:3–4 NRSV

3 The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

"Say to all the people of the land and the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted?" (Zechariah 7:5)

v3-4. Jesus certainly had the power to miraculously provide food for himself and it would not be unreasonable for him to do just that. Yet, in the context of wilderness typology, the question is, will God supply the needs of his son during his journey to glory (to Zion)? Life, in its fullest sense, comes by relying on "every word that comes from the mouth of God". God has said it, and he will do it. Unlike the nation of Israel, which constantly failed the test of faith (eg. Massah when they "put the Lord to the test by saying, Is the Lord among us or not?" Ex.17:2-7, Deut.6:16), Jesus does not doubt God's promise to sustain his Son through his wilderness journey.

Fasting reminds us that we are sustained "by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). Food does not sustain us; God sustains us. In Christ, "All things hold together" (Colossians 1:17). Therefore, in experiences of fasting we are not so much abstaining from food as we are feasting on the word of God. Fasting is feasting! When the disciples brought lunch to Jesus, assuming that he would be starving, he declared, "I have food to eat of which you do not know . . . .My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work" (John 4:32, 34). This was not a clever metaphor, but a genuine reality. Jesus was, in fact, being nourished and sustained by the power of God. That is the reason for his counsel on fasting in Matthew 6. We are told not to act miserable when fasting because in point of fact, we are not miserable. We are feeding on God and, just like the Israelites who were sustained in the wilderness by the miraculous manna from heaven, so we are sustained by the word of God. (CD, pgs. 55-56)

Jesus tells us that his "bread" is to do the will of the One who sent him (John 4:31-34). He calls himself the "bread of life (John 6:35). Are we aware of how much sustains our life apart from physical food? We will comprehend little of how we are nourished by Christ until we have emptied ourselves of the kinds of sustenance that keep us content to live at life's surface. (SF, pg. 71)

For the early church, Lent was just the opposite of a dreary season of restriction and self-torture. It was understood as an opportunity to return to normal human life - the life of natural communion with God that was lost to us in the Fall. This perspective is clearly expressed in Eastern Orthodox liturgy and theology:

In the Orthodox teaching, the world was given to [Adam and Eve] by God as "food" - as a means of life. In food itself God was the principle of life. Thus to eat, to be alive, to know God and be in communion with Him were one and the same thing. The unfathomable tragedy of Adam is that he ate "apart" from God in order to be independent of Him because he believed that food had life in itself and that he, by partaking of that food, could be like God, i.e., have life in himself. (SF, pg. 72)

In Eden, God gave Adam and Eve every fruit of the garden but one. That one fruit, out of a world of variety, indicated a limit to human freedom. Accepting that limit was the single abstinence required by God. It was a way of recognizing that human beings are dependent on God for life. But Adam and Eve allowed themselves to be seduced by the serpent (a figure of God's enemy, Satan). The serpent's question inverts the reality of the situation: "Did God say, 'You shall not eat of any tree of the garden'?" (Genesis 3:1). Instead of a prohibition against one fruit, God's warning is presented as a prohibition against all fruit. The temptation, it seems, is to see a single boundary as so restrictive that it negates the good of all other freedoms. Adam and Eve took the bait. Metaphorically, they "broke the fast," transgressing the one limit required of them. In refusing to accept the natural bounds of their creaturehood, they reached for the very place of God. They wanted it all. (SF, pg. 72-73)

3. Fasting is the norm for Christians. (Matthew 9:15)

Matthew 9:14–17 NRSV

14 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” 15 And Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. 17 Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

"While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.'" (Acts 13:2)

The goal of human life is to acquire more, to experience more, to stimulate every sense to capacity and beyond. (SF, pg. 73)

A life that recognizes no limits cannot recognize the sovereignty of God. When created things have become an end in themselves instead of a means of divine grace, they can no longer offer real life. Death and suffering entered into creation because our human forebears could not "keep the fast." (SF, pg. 73)

The early church found the reversal of Adam's sin in Christ. After his baptism, Jesus began the work of redemption by keeping a forty-day fast in the wilderness. When he became hungry, he refused the lie that life depends on bread alone and reaffirmed that human beings depend in all things on God for life. He said no to the limitless, self-referential power Satan tempted him with. Every temptation - to self-sufficiency, to self-display, to power at the price of integrity - would have placed Jesus at center stage instead of God. (SF, pg. 73)

Russian Orthodox theologian Alexander Schmemann reminds us that first we must prepare spiritually before fasting. Depending on the shifting sands of will power only results in frustration and harm. A fast for spiritual purposes must be centered on god and can be so only if we ask God's help. We must recover both a reverence for our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit and a genuine respect for food as God's gift. Such inner preparation will give us a vision of the spiritual dimension of fasting, and arm us with the weapons we will need when temptations and difficulties arise. (SF, pg. 74)

As with all the Disciplines, a progression should be observed; it is wise to learn to walk well before we try to run. Begin with a partial fast of twenty-four hours' duration; many have found lunch to lunch to be the best time. ( CD, pg. 57)

Fasting for Wesley:

Wesley declares, ". . . It was not merely by the light of reason . . . That the people of God have been, in all ages, directed to use fasting as a means: . . . But they have been taught it of God Himself, by clear and open revelations of His Will . . . Now, whatever reasons there were to quicken those of old, in the zealous and constant discharge of this duty, they are of equal force still to quicken us." (CD, pg. 61)

Be flexible and listen to the Holy Spirit. Don't get so caught up with the act of fasting itself that you forget why you're doing it in the first place.

Decide whether you're going to do a complete fast (water only), a no-solid-food fast that allows milk, juice, coffee and tea, a no-meat fast, or some other kind of fast. There are no fixed rules here but it's always good to try to keep the fast you set out to do. Some fasts are more difficult than others, and there will be times you may feel led to switch things up.

Plan on Friday as your regular fasting day, but use Wednesday and other days for additional fasting when you feel called to a time of deeper and more intense prayer. Remember, there's nothing "magic" about Friday. It's simply a historical day for fasting in many Christian traditions, largely because Jesus was crucified on a Friday. If for some reason another day of the week makes more sense for you, then fast on that day.

Only fast for more than one consecutive day after you've consulted with your doctor and only if you're sure you're physically able to handle it.

Make sure you drink plenty of water while fasting, no matter what kind of fast you choose.

The default Wesley Fast is observed from sundown Thursday till 3:00 Friday afternoon. Some Christians go till sundown on Friday. Do whichever you feel led to do in any given week.

Remember, there will be times when it makes sense to skip your Friday fast or move it to another day of the week. For example, if you have an opportunity to have lunch on a Friday with someone you've been wanting to connect with for a while, don't feel compelled to create an awkward situation by sticking to your fast. Just change your fast day that week. Guideline #1 applies here.