Every year about this time I get asked about fasting. Usually the question comes from either a young person with many Catholic friends or a person who was raised Catholic but who has not been an active Catholic in years. The most common form of the question goes something like this, “Why don’t we give up stuff for Lent?” The real answer to the question would take much longer than most people want to listen, so I usually say we can give stuff up, we just don’t require it and we don’t make a big deal out of it. It’s a personal decision and the point is to focus more on God and less on self. That answer seems to satisfy most people, but there is really much more to the story of how we got from fasting as a command of God to fasting as a personal choice, a spiritual discipline, rather than a requirement.
In Old Testament times, God commanded His people to fast. It was an expected ritual that bonded the community and marked people as God’s. It was a way to show penitence for sins, a way to show grief. The whole community would together mourn their collective sins and show penitence to God. When the religious community and the political community are one and the same, this can be a powerful form of church discipline – the knowledge that the whole community mourns over your sins is a powerful motivator to try to cease sinning. But, as with so many other rituals and traditions in the church, true, heartfelt penitence gave way over time to rote observance and obligation. When fasting was simply a command and was done from a sense of obligation, it ceased to be meaningful. In the diaspora, the scattering of God’s people, they no longer lived as one cohesive community, so community fasting was not only not really possible, it wasn’t an effective bond or an effective means of discipline. Many people lost sight of the purpose of fasting. Individual fasting was still a sincere form of penitence for one’s own sins and even for the sins of the larger community, as well as being a sign of mourning for suffering, as evidenced in our Nehemiah passage this morning.
Nehemiah fasted and prayed when he learned of the plight of the Jewish remnant and the place of holy worship to God. He was heartbroken. Scripture says he, “sat down and wept. For some days [he] mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.” Fasting and praying for Nehemiah, a person of great faith, was not just a ritual, not just an expression of sorrow for sin, not just an obligation. For Nehemiah, fasting and praying was a natural outpouring of his very deeply felt grief. While it may seem foreign to us, there is a natural connection between grief and fasting. According to Barnes’ Notes on the New Testament,
Fasting, then, is the natural expression of grief. It is not arbitrary; it is what every person in sorrow naturally does. This is the foundation of its being applied to religion as a sacred rite. It is because the soul, when oppressed and burdened by a sense of sin, is so filled with grief, that the body refuses food. It is, therefore, appropriated always to scenes of penitence, of godly sorrow, of suffering, and to those facts connected with religion that are fitted to produce grief, as the prevalence of iniquity or some dark impending calamity, or storm, or tempest, pestilence, plague, or famine.
Fasting is a natural reaction to a trauma beyond our ability to cope and that reaction is put into practice as a sign of mourning in regard to other situations over which we mourn.
Fasting is also a way to show we are sorry for having sinned – literally a mourning over the sins we have committed. But the effect of fasting goes beyond expressing sorrow for sin. Fasting “is also used to humble us, to bring us to reflection, to direct the thoughts away from the comforts of this world to the bliss of a better.”1 In other words, it is not merely the act of abstaining from food or something else of this world, not merely recognizing and admitting and mourning for our sins that brings us closer to God. Instead, fasting includes refocusing our thoughts and lives on the things of heaven instead of the things of the world. When we fast, each time we are met with a desire for that which we have given up, we are supposed to pray. The purpose is not mere distraction from cravings, but is, instead, the use of cravings as a reminder to pray. And the prayer is not supposed to be just that God will get us through the time of fasting. It is meant to be an opportunity to apologize for wrongs committed and to seek God’s help and guidance in doing better, as well as to thank God for the abundant manner in which He has provided for us. Fasting requires honesty about what we feel. “It is not acceptable except it be the real expression of sorrow, the natural effect of feeling that we are burdened with crime.”2 When it is a true expression of penitence, then fasting is a good way to strengthen our relationship with God and a good step on our faith journey.
But during the days Jesus walked the earth in human form, fasting had largely become an empty ritual that focused more on the image of the fasting person than on that person’s honest feelings and relationship with God. Fasting became less about mourning one’s loss and more about showing off. The religious leaders insisted on fasting not just during the annual fasts commanded as remembrance of certain events in the history of God’s people, but also twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays. That would have been fine had they done so humbly and without making a show, but that’s not what happened. Instead, the Pharisees, especially, were known for making it obvious that they were fasting. According to the Bible Exposition Commentary, “The Pharisees fasted… in such a way that people knew they were fasting. Their purpose, of course, was to win the praise of men.” One commentary said they even put ashes on their heads, a sign of mourning and that they didn’t wash their faces or comb their hair, that they looked disheveled and miserable. That’s why Jesus said, “for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting.” He was not complimenting the Pharisees and hypocrites for their showy displays. Instead, He was saying that they had already received all the reward they were going to get for their efforts and that reward was the admiration of men – they should expect no heavenly reward.
That does not mean Jesus was against fasting in general when done for the right reasons. In fact, He and the disciples often fasted as well as observing all the traditional Jewish fasts. But Jesus did not make a big show of His fasting and did not encourage that practice. Instead, Jesus said, “when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Putting oil on one’s face was the equivalent in those days of using lotion. It was a normal part of daily life. To skip this part of getting ready for one’s day would be obvious. So by saying to put oil on their faces Jesus was exhorting His followers to not show outward signs of fasting – to look like they did any other day, to appear normal. They were to make their fasting between themselves and God, a true spiritual practice that did not involve the admiration of men, but gained the positive attention of God. There is a good description of the appropriate approach to fasting in the Bible Exposition Commentary:
And so is true with fasting today. If you feel called to fast, then do, whether it is during Lent or any other time of year. But do so from the right motives, not out of obligation or to gain the admiration of humans. Use the fasting as a way to increase your devotion, not a test of your own ability to withstand something or as a way to show your strength to others. Certainly don’t use it as a reason for bragging – that is what the Pharisees did.
I would add another thing to the concept of fasting, as well. Fasting is not only about food. Certainly, that is the traditional fast and the most common understanding, but it is not the only way to fast. Fasting can be from a variety of things that distract us from God. It is truly better to fast from something that distracts us from God than to fast from food, if food is not a distraction.
I have friends who very quietly give up something for Lent most years. It is their own practice and not something they tell most people. I found out only because we are very close and it came up in a conversation about spiritual disciplines. One year they, as a couple, gave up television for Lent. Well, I shouldn’t say they gave it up completely, but they very seriously curtailed their weekly television watching. I don’t recall all the details but it was something like allowing themselves two hours a week plus the Sabbath. In addition to fasting from television, they added something to their Lenten journey. They added devotions beyond their normal practice. Again, I don’t recall the details, but the idea was to replace some television time with devotion time each day. They shared with me that it was more difficult than they’d anticipated, but they learned a lot and were glad they did it. It was a true fasting experience – one done in secret and for the right reasons. As the Life Application Bible Commentary notes, “The purpose of fasting is to provide time for prayer, to teach self-discipline, to remind God’s people that they can live with a lot less, and to help them appreciate what God has given.”
I’m not going to tell you whether or not you should “give something up for Lent.” For me to tell you to do so would be to rob you of the sincerity of your fast. If you do give up something for Lent, I would encourage you not to tell others, except perhaps an accountability partner. To go around telling people what you gave up takes away from the experience and purpose of the exercise. You, as a believer, must make any choices about fasting and focus on having them be between you and God. I would further encourage you to think about it before Lent begins on Wednesday – make it a prayerful and intentional decision. This will honor God more than a hasty and poorly considered semi-random choice.
I also encourage is a greater devotion to God during Lent, whether or not you choose to fast. After all, that is a large part of the purpose of Lent – to prepare us for remembering the Passion of our Lord and to prepare us for celebrating once again His glorious resurrection. Lent is an amazing time to refocus our lives on what is real and important and true. However that works in your life, whether it is taking something away or adding something, I encourage you to do it. Maybe you want to add regular devotions if you’ve slipped in your prayer life. Maybe you want to add journaling or read through the whole passion narrative in each of the Gospels. Maybe you want to give up something that distracts you from time with God – like video games or soap operas or twitter or following the latest celebrity news. Maybe you want to give up something that you spend extra money on for a time and put that money toward some greater purpose for the Kingdom of God, whether it be One Great Hour of Sharing or donations to the food pantry, or even extra mile giving to the church. Whatever you do as part of your Lenten journey, do it thoughtfully and prayerfully to the glory of God. Do it humbly and secretly, that your reward might be a heavenly one rather than an earthly one. You may just find that when Lent ends you have grown in your faith, deepened your relationship with God, and strengthened your spiritual life and spiritual disciplines.
- Barnes’ Notes on the New Testament.
- Barnes’ Notes on the New Testament