SOAKED IN DISCIPLINES #5

FASTING
July 27, 2008
with Matt Johnson

Spiritual Disciplines:
Ashley and I often have the discussion that sometimes we think it’d be easier to have lived in the Old Testament under the law than now in the new covenant under grace. Things were much more “cut and dry” then. Much less room for interpretation and for human error, although I guess humans found a way to mess up the law as well. The problem with the whole thing is that the freedom that we so badly want gets quickly corrupted and abused. That’s been the human condition since the first generation when Adam and Eve ate the apple because in their freedom they thought they could. Fast forward to a new covenant through Christ, and freedom from the Jewish laws that governed the Old Covenant. Ever since then, we’ve been battling the balance of freedom and indulgence, law and grace, trying to figure out what this relationship with God looks like without becoming ritualistic and once again bound by legalism. It’s in this struggle that we have to deal with spiritual disciplines. And here’s the difficulty – it’s awful hard to be disciplined without being ritualistic and bound by legalism. We look to things like prayer, worship, giving, fasting, meditation, journaling, study, retreat, solitude, and service as ways that we can tangibly connect with God on a regular basis. These “holy habits” that we form are the means to the end – a closer relationship with Christ, but can often become the end in and of themselves. That’s exactly where the Pharisees found themselves isn’t it? Their spiritual acts had turned into rituals and public displays of spirituality aimed at self glorification rather than true worship. As we study spiritual disciplines, we need to be sure that our hearts are pure in a desire to grow closer to God, and not just to look spiritual.

Fasting is one of those disciplines that our modern world has struggled to understand and therefore much of the modern church has abandoned the practice. Growing up in a Christian Church/Church of Christ congregation, I don’t ever remember hearing about fasting as an appropriate way to seek God and strengthen your relationship with him. It was never talked about, and consequently, it was never practiced. However, scripture talks about fasting quite a bit, and it is something that Jesus reaffirms in the gospels and the early church practiced in Acts. If that’s the case, its worth our time to figure out what fasting is all about and what it means for us today as Christians to fast.

Fasting in Scripture:
 Moses Fasted for 40 days when he went up the mountain to receive the 10 commandments. (Exodus 34:28)
 God called all of Israel to fast for the Day of Atonement each year. (Leviticus 23:27-32)
 David fasted during the sickness of his first child born to Bathsheba.
 Jehoshaphat called for a national fast for Judah when an enemy attack was looming.
 Ester asks for all of the Jews to fast before she went into the presence of the king – an act that could have killed her. (Ester 4:15-17)
 Nineveh repented and fasted when Jonah preached a message of doom in their city. (Jonah 3:6-10)
 Jesus fasted for 40 days in the beginning of his ministry. (Matthew 4:1-11)
 Paul fasted for three days after coming face to face with Jesus. (Acts 9:1-9)
 The Jerusalem church fasted and prayed before sending Paul and Barnabas on their missionary journey. (Acts 13:1-3)
 Paul and Barnabas prayed and fasted for the leaders of each church before appointing them and moving on to a new town. (Acts 14:23)


Jesus’ Teaching on Fasting:
There are two main passages from the Gospels when Jesus talks about fasting. One is in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:16-18. These three chapters of Matthew represent a huge chunk of teaching from Jesus as he interprets the law and shows that it’s the true heart of the worshiper that is important, not the act itself. If you are angry it’s like murdering in your heart, if you lust it’s like adultery in your heart. If you pray publically but don’t mean it then it’s useless. He then gets to fasting, saying this:
16“And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get. 17But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face. 18Then no one will notice that you are fasting, except your Father, who knows what you do in private. And your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.
While he never comes out and says, “You must fast”, Jesus does assume that his disciples will be fasting. It’s clear by the way he approaches the issue that he expects fasting to continue, and puts an accurate spin on the way it is to be done. He calls out the Pharisees yet again, speaking about how they fast for show so that everyone else can admire them for their spirituality. It was a common misuse of the practice of the time by the religious leaders of the day. Fasting was just like prayer – an opportunity to display just how righteous and pious they were so that everyone could see. They had also greatly distorted the law and it’s call for fasting. In the Old Testament, God called for fasting on the Day of Atonement each year. From there, fasting was added to the celebration of a few feasts each year. However, the Pharisees of Jesus’ day had become so strict about the practice of fasting that they called for people to fast two times a week – every Wednesday and Friday.

Jesus’ teaching is much more about how to fast than it is on why we should fast. His teaching is that when we fast, to make sure that we do it in such a way that we do not draw attention to ourselves as that is not what fasting is about. Generations ago took this teaching of Jesus to such extremes that it was thought that you had to restrain from interaction with the rest of the world when you fasted so that no one knew what you were doing. As the pendulum swung from one extreme to the other, fasting went from show and publicity to being about being secrecy and hiding your actions. Consequently, people didn’t fast nearly as much because they didn’t feel like they could meet the strict requirements of secrecy that Jesus demands. In reality, Jesus is a lot more concerned about the heart than anything else. He teaches us that fasting shouldn’t change the way we live our day to day lives. We are to act normally so that we don’t draw attention to ourselves to gain recognition for our spiritual act. Fasting is about us foregoing food in order to focus our attention on God. If we’re busy worrying about if other people notice, then we’ve missed the point.

The other is found in Matthew 9:14-17 when Jesus is approached by the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist and asked about fasting. The question is simple – “Why don’t your disciples fast like the rest of us?” Jesus answers their question with a few simple parables.
14One day the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus and asked him, “Why don’t your disciples fast like we do and the Pharisees do?” 15Jesus replied, “Do wedding guests mourn while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16“Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before. 17“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.”
Again, Jesus assumes that there will be a time for his followers to fast. He answers with the idea that there are some things that just don’t make sense to put together. For instance, mourning at a wedding, patching an old garment with a new patch, or putting new wine in a stretched out wineskin. Some things simply aren’t compatible. The implications are great, as Jesus makes the point that his new covenant of grace does not fit with the teachings of the Pharisees and their legalism. His disciples are not fasting because they’re not under the ritualistic laws of the Religious teachers of the time. Sure, he acknowledges that there is a time to fast, but not because of the stringent laws set forth from the Pharisees.

Church Tradition on Fasting:
As the Church developed we see fasting in the early church in Acts as a way to discern God’s leading and seek his help. The Jerusalem church prays and fasts before appointing Paul and Barnabas to go on their missionary journey. When Paul and Barnabas are out on their journey, they spend a time of prayer and fasting to appoint leadership in each new church before moving on to a new city.
As the church moved forward, fasting remained a regular part of the practices of the church through the early centuries. However, in the middle ages, it became a form of self abuse in Christian Asceticism with the idea that Christians had to inflict our bodies into spiritual submission in order to prove their faith. Later in the life of the Church, John Wesley worked to bring back the practice, so much so that he wouldn’t ordain a pastor to the Methodist church who did not fast twice a week.
We come to the modern era of the church, in a time in which fasting seems to have been a forgotten practice for most church movements. So much so, in fact, that from 1861 to 1954 there was not a single book written from a Christian on the topic. Fasting in today’s church tends to have a negative connotation with it as we’re taught that food is our right and is a gift from God. Fasting usually takes on one of two roles if it’s practiced today, neither of which are what it was intended to be. It is practiced as a physical discipline for health practices of detoxing your body and losing weight, or two, as an attempt to gain power over God or others by refusing to eat. Neither were intended by God when he instituted the practice so long ago.
Putting it all together:
So with all this great information, you’re asking, “What do we do now?” “What does fasting look like in the life of a Christian today?” Good question – thanks for asking!

1. Fasting takes place all through scripture, and is included in Jesus’ teaching around things like prayer and giving – two things that we don’t question at all in today’s world. Fasting is no doubt something that we should do.
2. Fasting is about you putting aside food to focus on God. It means we give up what we consider to be life sustaining to feast on what really life is sustaining. When Jesus has his discussion with the woman at the well, he tells his disciples that his nourishment comes not from earthly food, but from doing the will of God. David says that “I humbled my soul with fasting…” It was his way of bringing himself back to a place where his relationship with God could come into focus more clearly.
3. Fasting is about your heart, not your body. If you’re not fasting for the right reasons, it does nothing. Furthermore, the act of fasting alone isn’t going to make you less sinful. As Paul puts it in Colossians 2, “These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.”
4. You have the freedom to fast at any time. It’s no longer about routine fasts or mandatory fasts twice a week. Part of your freedom in Christ is that you can fast as you see fit. It should be one of many disciplines that you practice in your pursuit of a growing relationship with Jesus. While there are no specifics as far as time or frequency, it should be a regular part of your life of faith. Don’t let this holy habit become ritualistic!

My first time fasting:
My first experience with fasting came my freshman year of Bible College. I had just gotten to campus and I was put into a small group with five other freshman and two leaders that were Juniors. A few weeks into our group meeting, we decided that a group fast would be a great way to start our semester out right and ask God to bless our group and our school year. We ate breakfast together on a Tuesday morning and fasted until dinner on Thursday evening. The fast itself was a great experience. The pains of hunger were a powerful reminder of just how much I needed to seek out God. I realized that my spirit should hunger for him in the same way that my body hungered for food. We had a great time of prayer as a group a few times during the fast and through it we really bonded together as brothers in Christ. Three of us from that group stayed together in a small group through all four years of school.

Our error, however, was the breaking of the fast. Being seven young strapping guys with big appetites, we made the intelligent decision to break our fast by going to one of the only two restaurants open past 10 p.m. in our college town – Hardees. Each of us bought two value meals and scarfed them all down before taking communion together as a group in the parking lot. Man, was that a mistake! The greasy burgers sank like a lead balloon in our empty stomachs and three of the seven got so sick that they vomited back in the dorms. The spiritual benefits of the fast were quickly overshadowed by the physical illness that ensued afterwards.

So, when you fast, be wise about your fast. Here are some practical tips to fasting:
 Ease into your fast. If you’ve never fasted before, start small and get your body acclimated to it before trying to fast for an extended period of time. When you begin your fast, eat small, natural meals for the final two meals before you begin. Also make sure you break your fast with natural fruits and veggies and not a Hardees Monster Burger. It will not end pretty.
 Drink lots of natural fluids – water, juices, etc… during the fast to make sure your body is well hydrated and gets some sugar from the juices.
 Don’t do anything that will jeopardize your health – if you’re diabetic, have heart problems, are pregnant, etc… don’t fast at the risk of your physical wellbeing. That’s not what God intended in the first place.
 Make sure you pay attention to your body and your spirit. Don’t overdo the fast as a sign of personal willpower. If your body and spirit is telling you to stop, then by all means stop!
 Feast on God. Pray, journal, read lots of scripture. Fill your down time that you’d normally have while eating to spend time with God and feast on the bread of life.

Last year we celebrated a week long fast as a church when we first moved into our new building. It was a great time of seeking God’s wisdom, guidance, and growth in our community.

As we celebrate all that God has done in the past year, and seek His guidance and provision for the coming year, we want to again ask that you participate in a week long fast with us. We’ll break the fast next week with communion as a body of believers and celebrate what God has done during the fast. So, if you’re willing, we encourage you to go home and eat a healthy lunch today and then begin your fast. If you have never fasted before and you’d like to participate, we encourage you to speak to Adam or myself and begin the fast later in the week so that you can still break it with us next Sunday. We’ll also provide a blog once again online so that those participating in the fast can encourage and share with one another.

Let’s take the next week to put aside what we think we need in order to focus on what we really need!