Lenten Perspective: A Different Kind of Fasting

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A Different Kind of Fasting

Is this the kind of fast I choose,
a day of self-affliction,
of bending one's head like a reed
and of lying down in mourning clothing and ashes?
Is this what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?

Isaiah 58:5 (CEB)

What if there's a bigger picture
What if I'm missing out
What if there's a greater purpose
I could be living right now
Outside my own little world

From "My Own Little World" by Matthew West

In the Gospels we read that, before Jesus began His public ministry, He spent forty days in the wilderness, fasting and facing temptation.¹  Jesus' time in the wilderness is the basis for Lent, a roughly forty-day season of self-denial, introspection, and penitence observed in the Church.  During this season, Christians all around the world figuratively follow Jesus into the wilderness in order to draw closer to God in preparation for high holy time of Easter.

One practice commonly associated with the Lenten season is fasting.  A vast majority of the people who fast during Lent do not give up food entirely, as Jesus did while He was in the wilderness.  Typically they give up one particular kind of food or drink, like chocolate, meat, or alcohol.  Some might give up something else that keeps them preoccupied, like social media.  By abstaining from such things, people seek to grow closer to God.  By putting aside things that distract them, they are free to turn their focus to God, and, by putting aside the things they use as crutches, they become more reliant on God.

Fasting was practiced long before the time of Jesus.  Evidently, it was never known to be a pleasant experience, for Jesus once found it necessary to say to His followers, "And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces as to show others that they are fasting."²

In the Book of Isaiah, we read that, at one point, people wondered why God didn't seem to notice their fasting.  They were reportedly asking God,

Why do we fast and you don't see;
why afflict ourselves and you don't notice?³

It seems to me that, for some reason, people have always tried to make twisted bargains with God, thinking that they can get God's attention or cooperation by making themselves miserable.  So many times people have promised to stop doing things they enjoy or to do things they really don't want to do if God would do something for them.

In response to the people's question, God asked,

Is this the kind of fast I choose,
a day of self-affliction,
of bending one's head like a reed
and of lying down in mourning clothing and ashes?
Is this what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?⁴

This rhetorical question suggests that God has never been interested in watching people make themselves miserable.

What God did not like about the people's fasting was that it was not resulting in any substantial changes in the people's lives.  People made seemingly humble outward gestures, but they went on living selfishly and contentiously with each other.⁵  God urged the people choose a different kind of fasting.  God said,

Isn't this the fast I choose:
releasing wicked restraints, untying the ropes of a yoke,
setting free the mistreated,
and breaking every yoke?
Isn't it sharing your bread with the hungry
and bringing the homeless poor into your house,
covering the naked when you see them,
and not hiding from your own family?⁶

In other words, God wants to see people fast from things like injustice and indifference.  God does not want to see people inflict suffering upon themselves.  God wants to see people alleviate the suffering of other people.

John Wesley, the founder of my particular branch of Christianity, urged people to live according to three rules: to do no harm, to do good, and to take on spiritual disciplines that help them to draw close to God.⁷  Though we tend to focus on the third of these rules during the season of Lent, maybe Lent is also a good time to consider how we can make life better for other people and how we can lessen the harm that is done in the world around us, which, truth be told, can be a lot more subtle than we realize.

If we want to give something up for Lent, maybe we should focus less on abstaining from things we enjoy and start considering how we can work to eliminate things that are actually harmful to ourselves and to others.  God want to see us make life better for each other and not to see us just make life harder for ourselves.


Notes:

1. Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13
2. Matthew 5:16 (NRSV)
3. Isaiah 58:3a (CEB)
4. Isaiah 58:5 (CEB)
5. Isaiah 58:2-4
6. Isaiah 58:6-7 (CEB)
7. https://www.umc.org/en/content/the-general-rules-of-the-methodist-church

The photograph of the empty plate is used courtesy of freepik.com user jcomp.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.