Pastor's Blog

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent on the traditional church calendar. That word, “traditional”, has a tendency to cause many evangelicals to break out in hives. Traditions (or more accurately, traditions older than a generation or two) tend to be greeted with suspicion at best and contempt at worst. Just as Lent has fallen out of favor, fasting in general has fallen out of favor. That is unfortunate, because there are great benefits to be found in these great traditions of the church if we consider them seriously.

During Jesus’ lifetime, fasting was a common practice. Devout Jews would fast from sunrise to sunset on Mondays and Thursdays of every week, as well as other fasts throughout the year such as the Day of Atonement. The early church, according to the Didache, fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays to distinguish themselves from their Jewish counterparts. They also fasted for special events such as baptisms. In fact, Lent most likely originated as a fast for people preparing to be baptized on Easter.

The importance of fasting has diminished in modern times for many reasons. Fasting has become tied to body discipline. If the body is unruly, fasting is used to “punish” it. This way of thinking misses the primary function of fasting: Fasting is body prayer. It is a way of integrating of physicality into our spirituality. Pentecostals and charismatics are good at integrating physicality into worship through clapping, raising hands, and perhaps even a little dancing, but fasting is an area where we have room to improve.

At the root of all fasting is a hunger for God. A hunger for God’s forgiveness, for his deliverance, for his presence. By fasting something we need (food) we proclaim that there is a deeper need in our lives: A need for God. In this way, we echo the words of Christ when he was fasting: “People do not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” If we are truly hungry for God’s involvement in our lives, we will express that desire not just with our minds and our hearts and our mouths, but also with our bodies through fasting.