When You Fast

Lent is the forty day season that leads us from dust and ashes (Ash Wednesday) to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Good Friday). Christians have traditionally observed this season with a renewed focus on charitable deeds, prayer, and fasting. Charitable deeds are part of our calling, an outgrowth of our faith in Christ. They are done through charitable organizations, here in our congregation, and in our daily dealings with our neighbor in need. Prayer, too, is part of our calling. Our prayers arise to the one true God in worship on the Lord’s Day, in our Lenten midweek services, and in our daily devotions. But what about fasting? Why has this spiritual discipline fallen into disuse among most Lutherans?

In the Old Testament, fasting was an outward discipline tied to the inward repentance of one’s heart. “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments” (Joel 2:19). Jesus Himself fasted for forty days and forty nights in the wilderness following His baptism (Matthew 4:1-2). The first Christians fasted (Acts 13:2-3; 14:23). Do you suppose fasting might serve a purpose for modern day Christians as well?

Jesus once said:

“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” [Matthew 6:16-18]

Notice that Jesus does not say “if you fast…” He says “when you fast…” Twice! Is Jesus a legalist? Is He trying to take our eyes off of Him and place them on our own works? Is He teaching us to earn our way to heaven by the things we do? No! He is simply teaching us how rightly to put into practice this well established and God-given discipline. Fasting is never meant to draw attention to oneself. Nor it is meant to merit anything from God. If either of these is our aim, then fasting will do us no good.

So why would a Christian fast? As a private act of humility and devotion to God (see Matthew 6:16-18 above), and to discipline the body. Disciplining the body reminds us what Christ gave up—His very throne, His very blood, His very life—to win our salvation. It also teaches us—by denying ourselves a basic item like food or drink—not to gratify our every desire. That can be beneficial in our walk of faith. Paul writes: “I discipline my body and keep it under control” (1 Corinthians 9:27). He later reminds Timothy that one of the purposes of God’s grace is “training us to renounce … worldly passions” (Titus 2:11-12). Fasting is one of the ways we can discipline our bodies and train ourselves to renounce worldly passions.

Did you know that the German name for Lent used historically in Lutheranism is Fastenzeit, meaning “fast time”? The spiritual discipline of fasting was always part of historic Lutheranism. In the Small Catechism, Luther teaches us about the necessity of being truly worthy and well prepared for the Lord’s Supper through faith in Christ’s words of institution: “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” But he prefaces those remarks with these words:

“Fasting and bodily preparation are certainly fine outward training.”

Sadly, the desire by many of our forefathers to fit in with the rest of American Protestantism has led to the disuse of fasting among modern day Lutherans. I think it’s time we rediscover this Scriptural and Lutheran discipline. God’s Old Testament people fasted. Jesus fasted. The first Christians fasted. Certainly there’s a benefit in fasting for us as well!

For more background information and some suggestions on how you might fast, see The Lutheran Study Bible, page 189.