Fasting and Maturation

Last updated on: February 9, 2016 at 10:23 am by Guest Contributor

Fasting and Maturation 2016-02-09T10:23:46-04:00 Guest Contributor

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by Peter Leithart

The Mosaic liturgical calendar prescribes only one fast, the day of atonement, when Israel was commanded to “humble your souls” (Leviticus 16:29; 23:27, 29, 32; the verb is sometimes translated as “afflict”). By way of contrast, Israel celebrated two week-long festivals, a handful one-day festivals, and a weekly Sabbath, when they were to eat, drink, and rejoice in Yahweh’s good gifts.

This seems to imply that fasting plays little or no role in Israel’s religious life, but that conclusion is premature. As Israel’s history goes on, fasting becomes more prominent, not less. Israel first proclaims a fast during the civil war with the tribe of Benjamin (Judges 20:26). Naboth is falsely accused of conspiring against Ahab at a fast (1 Kings 21:9, 12), and when Jehoshaphat seeks the Lord, he marks it with a fast throughout Judah (2 Chronicles 20:3). In response to a locust invasion, Joel says, “Consecrate a fast! Proclaim a solemn assembly!” (Joel 1:14); “blow a trumpet in Zion! Consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly!” (2:15).

As Ezra returns from Babylon, he calls on the people to humble themselves to seek the Lord (Ezra 8:21-23). In preparation for her dangerous passage to the king, her “day of atonement” entry to the king’s inner chamber, Esther asks Mordecai to assemble the Jews for a three-day fast (Esther 4:13-17). Fasting isn’t limited to Israel. When Jonah warns Nineveh of impending destruction, the people show their penitence by calling a universal fast (Jonah 3:5-9), in the hope that God will turn and relent.

Fast days become fixed on the calendar. In Zechariah 8:19, the Lord promises to turn “the fast of the fourth, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth months” into joyful feasts. At least for the duration of the exile, Israel commemorated the moments of Babylon’s invasion and conquest of Judah with fasts.

By the time we reach the New Testament, fasting is one of the main acts of Jewish piety. John’s disciples fast, and the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable boasts of fasting twice a week (Luke 18:12). Jesus’ disciples, controversially, do not fast during His earthly ministry (Matthew 9:14-15), but Jesus predicts that they will when the Bridegroom departs (Matthew 9:15). In Acts, the disciples fast in connection with ordination to mission (Acts 13:2-3; 14:23), prayer (Acts 14:23), and as a part of “ministering to the Lord” (Acts 13:2).

Is the increasing incidence of fasting a mark of Israel’s failure, a sign of her history of rebellion and unfaithfulness? Not exactly. Israel’s history of rebellion is also a history of maturation. The increase of fasting shows maturation in patience, penitence, and humility, a deepening of Israel’s increasing awareness of her dependence on the mercy of the Lord. Fasting is part of Yahweh’s pedagogy, designed to transform Adamic Israel into a new-Adamic humanity, to mold Israel into a nation that does not seize forbidden fruit but waits in faith for the Lord to keep His promises.

Jesus’ instructions about fasting are the climax of this progress. He tells His disciples to fast with anointed heads and clean faces (Matthew 6:16-18). Washing and anointing are normally preparation for feasting (Ruth 3:3); they mark the end, not the beginning, of a fast (2 Samuel 12:20). Jesus turns fasting inside out. He wants us to dress for a feast when we’re fasting, dress for a feast when we are feasting, dress for a feast for every occasion in between.

We can allegorize: Jesus Himself is our festal clothing, His Spirit the oil that anoints our head, baptism the water that cleans our faces. Whether fasting or feasting, we have this anointing and this washing. Fasting or feasting, we wear Jesus and His Spirit, our festal robe and light-giving oil.

But there’s something else going on. Jesus came to inaugurate the feast of the kingdom. That feast is still ahead of us, but He began the feast of the kingdom already here and now. The feast is future, and the feast is present. We have to wait for a joy already granted.

Our practice fasting should reflect the reality of the new covenant, the maturity we have reached in the risen Son. When we’re children, there’s a chasm between hunger and satisfaction, between suffering and glory, between losing and winning. As – if – we mature we learn to see a glimmer of success embedded in our failures, the glory of our sufferings, the joy in sorrow. Jesus tells us to discover the feast in the midst of the fast, the fullness at the center of our hunger.

As you enter Lent, act the part of grownups: Wash your face; put on that pomade; let the joy of the Spirit fill your heart. The feast that is ahead has already begun, and it has invaded our fasting.

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Photo by Mark LaMoreaux, courtesy of New Saint Andrews College

Peter Leithart is President of the Theopolis Institute in Birmingham, Alabama. To learn more about Theopolis, sign up for the e-newsletter In Medias Res.

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