Lent (Day Three): Fasting - Matthew 6:16-18

During Lent there are three primary ways that we redirect our lives toward God.  Jesus describes them in Matthew’s Gospel: Almsgiving (what we would call charitable giving), prayer, and fasting.

Yesterday we looked at prayer and charitable giving. What about fasting? 

I don’t know about you, but honestly, it’s not a practice I’ve done throughout my faith journey.  I’ve made plenty of excuses for not doing it and I’ve reasoned my way toward thinking that it’s an optional thing.

Except now there’s one word in Matthew 6 that stops me in my tracks.  Jesus says, “When you fast. . . .”  He doesn’t say, “If you fast. . . .”  Now I’ve read this passage in Matthew’s Gospel countless times.  And every time, I’ve allowed myself to glide over this word “when” without letting it judge me.  This year, however, was different.  Jesus’ words, “When you fast. . . .” reached me like a ringing alarm clock.  I realized it was time for me to wake up to the practice of fasting.  It was time to get up and fast.  God impressed upon me that I needed to do this.  I sensed it was hugely important.

I prepared to fast in Lent by learning about it.  And I realized that I had several misconceptions about the purpose of it.

Fasting isn’t about “giving up” things.  It isn’t about doing something “sacrificial.”  And it’s not about self-punishment.  We don’t fast in order to suffer or somehow escape our bodies. 

The purpose of fasting is to practice self-discipline. It’s about practicing self-control, which is evident in our lives when the Holy Spirit is directing our desires.  We fast in order to get a grip on our lives and to regain control over those things that have gotten out of control.

  

Our bodies and our natural desires are not evil.  Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.  But the problem is that our bodies, hearts, and minds are wounded by sin.  The power of sin distorts our desires and causes disorder.  Sin causes us to lose control and direction over our desires, and then we ceaseless try to fulfill them in selfish ways.  We witness this reality in Genesis.  “Adam and Eve disobeyed God; they refused to fast from the forbidden fruit.  They became slaves of their own desires.” 

We lose self-control through excessive consuming of all kinds—eating, drinking, buying, seducing, acquiring, viewing, and buying more.  And more.  Enough is never enough.  

This over-consuming is a vicious cycle.  We over-consume.  We aren’t satisfied.  We feel lousy.  We try to make ourselves feel better by more consuming.  We live under the oppression of compulsion.  We’re not free.  What controls us in fact dominates us and directs us.  I saw a billboard advertisement on Highway 200 that perfectly sums up our human situation.  There are two huge hamburgers hovering on a field of heavenly blue that command all who pass by: FEED THE CRAVE.

The hard truth is that what controls us is our god.  We serve what controls us.  We can either serve out-of-control desires or we can serve the true and living God. 

Fasting properly orders our life again.  It redirects our desires toward God and their right fulfillment.  Then our embodiment as human beings is holy. 

Fasting liberates us.  It’s what frees us to love God more through prayer.  It’s what frees us to love our neighbor more through acts of charity. 

This is why we need to fast.  It’s critical for our returning to God, our healing, and for our salvation.  The contemporary trend to “add something” to our lives, like good deeds or good habits, doesn’t get to the stubborn roots of our sin-sickness.

What controls you?  What do you need to fast from in order to return to God?

For those of us who live in relative affluence and in the midst of ongoing First World feasting, fasting in relation to food and drink is a good place to start.  Perhaps, too, fasting from unnecessary spending.  And fasting from our electronic devices.

We are holistic beings.  The self-discipline and redirection we gain in one area of our lives will certainly have a ripple effect in other areas.  As we fast from certain forms of food and drink, it’s likely we’ll find ourselves abstaining from other forms of excess, even emotional excesses in areas of judging others, anger, envy, lust, and fear, to name a few. 

Fasting is uncomfortable. But Jesus tells us not to make a sad production of it.  Not only is fasting not about getting attention from others, it’s ultimately a joyful thing.  For fasting helps us return to God.  It works to unite us with the Risen Christ and the life of his resurrection.  Why would we want to refuse this means of grace?