2/12 | OSP

Epiphany 6

The season of Lent is quickly approaching once again. March 5th will mark our celebration of Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, stretching until Easter Sunday on April 20th. Many Christians around the world will practice some form of fasting. Your Roman Catholic friends may talk about the Lent fast of refraining from eating meat every Friday in Lent. This is why the custom of Friday fish fries has become commonplace especially at this time of year. That’s right, according to Rome, fish is not meat, it’s fish. What about Lutherans? Do Lutherans have an established fast? No. There’s no required fast because Jesus has not instituted any such outward requirement for us. However, fasting is still a good Christian practice when done correctly and according to the Word.

What even is fasting? The usual meaning of “fasting” in the Bible is simply to not eat any food except water for a period of time. The reasons for fasting in the Bible will be outlined below. In modern Christian usage many people also refrain from consuming other things such as certain foods, alcohol, or even screen time for a certain amount of time. While discussion about the health benefits of fasting are certainly interesting and possibly worth looking at, I want to focus on the spiritual reasons Christians may practice fasting, especially during the season of Lent.

Jesus speaks of fasting in a few places in the Gospel. One example is Matthew 6. In the earlier verses of the chapter, he teaches Christians how to do good works and pray, including the giving of the Lord’s Prayer. In each case he instructs us that we are not to do them for the sake of outward acclaim by men but in humility and in secret, lest we become conceited or hypocritical. The same applies to fasting: 16 “Whenever you fast, do not make yourself look sad like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces to show everyone that they are fasting. Amen I tell you: They have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 so that it is not apparent to people that you are fasting, but only to your Father who sees what is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

One thing to note is that Jesus says when, not if. Jesus assumes that his followers will fast occasionally. Jesus says something similar in Matthew 9: 14 Then John’s disciples came to him and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast at all?” 15 Jesus said to them, “Can the attendants of the bridegroom mourn while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.” Fasting is connected over sorrow, especially sorrow over sin. This is why Christians fast seasonally during Lent. We also have many Old Testament examples of fasting in connection with sorrow over sin. David fasts because of his repentance over his many sins against Uriah and Bathsheba: “15 The Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne for David, and the child became sick. 16 David sought the Lord’s mercy for the child. David fasted and spent the night lying on the ground. 17 The elders of his household stood beside him to pick him up off the ground, but he was not willing, and he would not eat food with them.” (2 Samuel 11)

Jesus makes it clear that the goal of fasting is not to impress others with our great piety. When you fast, don’t make a big show of it, however you decide to do it. Jesus indirectly warns against fasting leading to self-righteousness in the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in Luke 18:10-13, when the Pharisee boasts about his better fasting practices over other men.

Fasting is also connected with prayer in the New Testament: “Acts 13 Now in the church at Antioch there were some prophets and teachers: Barnabas; Simeon, who was called Niger; Lucius of Cyrene; Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch; and Saul. 2 While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then, after they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them off.” The church commissions the Apostle Paul and Barnabas at the direction of the Holy Spirit accompanied by fasting and praying. When Christians fast today it ought to be accompanied by prayer and connected with a spiritual purpose.

Fasting in and of itself is not the main thing. It is an outward practice to discipline the desires of our flesh. It trains us to say “no” to sin and Satan. The important thing as always is faith itself in the promises of God. Part 6 of the Small Catechism on the Sacrament of the Altar mentions fasting in connection with its outward benefits and its deficiencies:

Question: Who, then, receives such Sacrament worthily?

Answer: Fasting and bodily preparation is, indeed, a fine outward training; but he is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words: Given, and shed for you, for the remission of sins.But he that does not believe these words, or doubts, is unworthy and unfit; for the words For you require altogether believing hearts.

The whole Christian church has a strong fasting tradition. It by no means belongs solely to the Roman Catholic Church. A very early Christian document from the 1st or 2nd Century called the Didache gives Christians instructions to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays to distinguish them from the Jews who fasted on Mondays and Thursdays. The early church also had an tradition of fasting on the Saturday of Holy Week, the Easter Fast. This Easter Fast gradually expanded to the 40 days of Lent. During the Medieval period of the church the fasts grew more and more elaborate and became compulsory. The reformers speak against the hypocritical fasting of the Roman church in the Book of Concord at various points.

In Article XXVI of the Augsburg Confession on the Distinction of Meats:

“ It has been the general persuasion, not of the people alone, but also of those teaching in the churches, that making Distinctions of Meats, and like traditions of men, are works profitable to merit grace, and able to make satisfactions for sins. And that the world so thought, appears from this, that new ceremonies, new orders, new holy-days, and new fastings were daily instituted, and the teachers in the churches did exact these works as a service necessary to merit grace, and did greatly terrify men’s consciences, if they should omit any of these things.

3 From this persuasion concerning traditions much detriment has resulted in the Church.

The first Lutherans identified that the piling up of useless traditions caused a lot of problems in the Church. However, fasting itself was not the problem, but the abuse of fasting was the problem. Men’s consciences were being bound to things that God had not commanded

Later in the same Article:

Moreover, they teach that every Christian ought to train and subdue himself with bodily restraints, or bodily exercises and labors that neither satiety nor slothfulness tempt him to sin, but not that we may merit grace or make satisfaction for sins by such exercises.

And such external discipline ought to be urged at all times, not only on a few and set days. So Christ commands, Luke 21:34: Take heed lest your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting; also Matt. 17:21: This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. Paul also says, 1 Cor. 9:27: I keep under my body and bring it into subjection.

Here he clearly shows that he was keeping under his body, not to merit forgiveness of sins by that discipline, but to have his body in subjection and fitted for spiritual things, and for the discharge of duty according to his calling. Therefore, we do not condemn fasting in itself, but the traditions which prescribe certain days and certain meats, with peril of conscience, as though such works were a necessary service.

Article XIIb of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession talks about fasting as well:

And true prayers, true alms, true fastings, have God’s command; and where they have God’s command, they cannot without sin be omitted.

This means that no one can say that fasting when done properly and according to the Word is not allowed.

True fasting as mentioned above is beneficial when we keep the Biblical principles in the forefront of our minds and hearts. These are as follows:

1. Fasting is done in Christian freedom, by one’s own choice, not according to compulsion or man-made rules,

Romans 14:5-6 5 One person values one day above another. Another person values every day the same. Let each person be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The person who honors a certain day does this for the Lord, and the person who eats does this for the Lord, because he gives thanks to God. And the person who does not eat does this for the Lord and gives thanks to God.

2. Fasting is connected with repentance and prayer.

3. Fasting is not done to get recognition from men.

4. Fasting itself does not make you more acceptable to God, only faith does that.

Apology to the Augsburg Confession Article XIIb But these works, in so far as they have not been commanded by God’s Law, but have a fixed form derived from human rule, are works of human traditions of which Christ says, Matt. 15:9: In vain they do worship Me with the commandments of men, such as certain fasts appointed not for restraining the flesh, but that, by this work, honor may be given to God, as Scotus says, and eternal death be made up for; likewise, a fixed number of prayers, a fixed measure of alms when they are rendered in such a way that this measure is a worship ex opere operato, giving honor to God, and making up for eternal death. For they ascribe satisfaction to these ex opere operato, because they teach that they avail even in those who are in mortal sin.

So, should you fast for Lent? Consider this your pastor’s encouragement to practice fasting for Lent. Refraining from eating any food for a day or two per week may be a good way to fast. For example, one might fast all day on Wednesday during Lent to prepare for the evening service. The above-mentioned “Easter Fast” could be a simple fast for those who have never practiced any kind of fasting. What about “giving something up” for Lent? This can be beneficial as well. Some people decide to refrain from using social media or any kind of digital entertainment for a time. There is wisdom in this practice because of the great amount of time that is sucked away by these things. Replace that time with time set aside for Bible reading and prayer. For someone who is newer to the idea of fasting, I think there is wisdom in keeping things simple. Most of us as Americans are indulging our flesh all the time simply by eating more than is strictly necessary. The discipline and training that fasting requires trains us to say “No” in a small way. Then when greater temptations come along in our lives we have the strength to continue to say “No”.

Whatever one decides to do, keep a few things in mind. First, your pastor doesn’t need to know about it. This is strictly personal. Second, throughout history and into the modern day fasting has been subject to abuse. The required fasts of Rome are an example. No one’s conscience can be bound by fasting. Third, fasting doesn’t mean giving up your favorite sin. You shouldn’t be doing that anyway!

Whatever you decide to do during Lent, keep the main thing in focus. Fasting is not the main thing. In fact, this article contains almost every New Testament verse about fasting. The main thing in Lent is what Christ suffered on our behalf. No amount of fasting, praying, or any other spiritual practice could possibly achieve what Christ did in his suffering and death on the cross. That is going to be the focus of our worship for the 40 days of Lent no matter what.