Why We Fast (27 Days In)

Last updated on: March 20, 2015 at 5:40 pm by Kenneth Tanner

Why We Fast (27 Days In) 2015-03-20T17:40:46-04:00 Kenneth Tanner

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Perhaps you’ve tried to keep a fast this Lent? Perhaps you read somewhere that Lent is about “getting in touch with your guilt” but then you found–with good reason–that self-flagellation is not the healthiest or most effective motivation for spiritual practices.

My waitress at the local diner asked me this morning if I really wanted bacon with my eggs as it’s Friday (she knows I’m a pastor in the community). I told her, “I like to keep God guessing about my devotion.”

She knew that I was joking, and she also knew that I was grateful for her reminder, but I also was with a bunch of Christian brothers eating breakfast and it’s good for them, and for me, to remember that I am human and that Christ is the only one who is good, who is my righteousness.

If you are faltering in the Great Fast you are not alone but there is also really good news.

Fasting is not about changing God, whose love and regard for us are constant. We cannot do anything that changes God’s disposition toward us; we cannot leave anything undone that changes his heart, a sacred heart that is always ready to welcome us home.

Much less is fasting about adding anything to the life and activity of Christ in the flesh, a life that saves us and swallows up death. In his life for us, he took upon himself our fallen nature and the sin of the entire world—all of it.

And, while, I’m at it…Lent is not about “embracing our guilt.” It’s about recognizing that Christ alone can bear it.

We can, however, draw closer to God’s embrace, have greater intimacy with him, gain greater likeness to him, understand that the reality of our sin is eclipsed by the wideness of God’s mercy, and seek a more complete repentance and amendment of life by spiritual disciplines like fasting, solitude, and contemplation.

These practices include chosen fasts and fasts that are chosen for us. The Lenten fast is a corporate fast. It reminds me that I am not saved alone but with a great company, a chosen nation.

As I taught on Ash Wednesday and on each of the subsequent Sundays of Lent, we abstain from foods *together–whatever else we may give up in Lent that’s not food—*because man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, and we want the life of Christ, the bread of life, in us.

We fast because in a world where violence rules we are more hungry for justice than for sumptuous food. We are thirsty for a world governed by forgiveness and grace.

We fast together to bring the kingdom of heaven, the reign of God announced when Jesus ended his 40-day fast in the wilderness, a fast he endured as a mere human in order to heal our humanity; that he might draw our flesh close to his Father, our Father.

We fast because we are now the body of Christ in the world. We fast for others, not ourselves. We fast to free prisoners. We fast to see eyes opened. We fast so that the dead might be raised.

We fast so that wounds of the soul and body might be healed. We fast to end the oppression of workers. We fast so that the poor might have bread. We fast so that the glory of the Lord might cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 58)

For the remaining 13 days of the fast (Sundays are always feasts) see if these goals are not a better catalyst for your observance of the Great Fast.

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March 17, 2015

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