Matthew 6; 1-6
Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2010
"Fasting for 40"
Now tradition has it to give up something during Lent. Roman Catholics usually give up eating beef on Fridays during Lent. Fridays have been traditionally “fast” days. They eat fish instead which is why in the supermarket inserts this week there have been so many ads for fish. They even titled the section in some “Lenten Foods”.
Now a story is told about a Protestant living in a totally Roman Catholic suburb. Every Lent he would drive his Roman Catholic neighbors crazy because on Fridays he would go outdoors and BBQ beef steaks. The aroma of the cooking beef permeated the neighborhood and drove his RC friends crazy so they all got together and decided to work to convert him.
Well it worked. He converted and on the day of his conversion the Priest said, “You were born a protestant, you were raised a protestant and now you are a Catholic.” The man’s neighbors were so pleased because they thought they could now observe Lent in peace.
Well the next time Lent rolled around on the first Friday they were greeted again with the enticing aroma of BBQing beef steaks. They couldn’t believe it. Their friend had been instructed in the ways of their faith and Lenten observance, so they ran over to see what was going on.
As a group they got there, and just as they were peering over the fence the convert to RC said as he lifted the steak from the grill, “You were born a cow, you were raised a cow and now you are a fish!!”
Jesus point in this scripture is to do our pietistic works without hypocrisy. There’s just something fishy about hypocrisy.
The Jewish religious life had 3 pillars. The first was “almsgiving”, (helping the poor) the second was “prayer” and the third was “fasting”. Almsgiving was so important to their faith that the word that means “almsgiving” also means “righteousness.” Though these were the pillars of the faith and their focus ultimately was on God and for serving God; lesser motives crept in and religious practice encouraged it for those whose motive was personal aggrandizement.
For all three of these religious practices Jesus made the point that there are rewards. In fact this section ends with Jesus enjoining us to store up treasure in heaven and not on earth. Jesus made the point that if you do these pietistic acts such as almsgiving, prayer and fasting to be seen and “ooed” and “aahed” over by other people that “ooing” and “aahing” will be the extent of our reward. In fact a way of saying “reward” is “paid in full.” Our reward will be paid in full on this earth.
The question we need to ask when we do pietistic acts is “who is our ultimate audience? Is it God or is it other human beings?” If other human beings then their response is all the reward we will get; but if it is God than our reward is stored up in heaven. The reward is eternal.
Now I am the first to admit that there are no pure motives. It feels good to do good, to help the poor, to pray and at times in public, even to be noted for sacrifice. But if it is for these lesser rewards only that actions are taken than those good feelings are all we get in terms of rewards.
Now you can do good works to be noted by others. Earlier in Matthew 5:16 Jesus said “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
The motivation here, though, is not personal aggrandizement, but bringing glory to God. That is why I always encourage people to “do all that they do in the name of the Lord.” To attach words to our deeds so people can give glory to God.
But anyway, for Lent the church has suggested “Fasting” of some sort…taking something away from our lives, or adding something in for the 40 days of Lent. Sunday I suggested meditating daily on the 15 characteristics of love that are laid out in 1 Corinthians 13 as an addition.
Now later, I will read of Lent’s origin and encourage your participation in some way, but let us look briefly at why fasting is good.
John Wesley suggested a fast on Fridays. His teachings on fasting were that on Friday you skipped breakfast and lunch and then ate dinner. You would spend the time that you normally spent eating in prayer and scripture.
Now today, you really don’t have to worry about showing off fasting to others. Our culture has changed to the point that most people do not fast, so that if you told someone that you were giving up something for Lent they would think that is a bit odd, or who would ever trade for belly button lint….. Most of us are not in any danger of pride or mixed motives when it comes to fasting. But fasting would do most of us some spiritual good if not providing us some health benefits if we tried it.
Now my number 1 reason for fasting, or giving up something for Lent, is to keep myself focused on God. For me during most Lenten seasons to give up sweets or deserts was a real stretch. During Lent when I come across temptation to eat such, it reminded me to focus on God. When we give something up or sacrifice something for the season it reminds us of Christ’s sacrifice for us.
Other positive reasons for fasting are these:
It is good for our health as an opportunity to take something out of our diet that is good, but not good for us.
It is good for developing self discipline. A story is told about 2 starlets in Hollywood being approached by a homeless man. The man said, “Please help me I haven’t eaten in 3 days.” The first starlet replied, “My God, such discipline.” And as you know the best discipline is not a forced discipline but one you take on willingly.
Some other classic reasons for the tradition of fasting are “it keeps us from being slave to habits or pleasures.” More than one person I have known in my life has given up drinking alcohol for Lent. One person in particular said he did it to show it to himself he wasn’t an alcoholic. There’s more to it than that, but that is what he did.
One way of saying this is that fasting “Helps us have control over our pleasures and not our pleasures over us.”
Finally, “fasting helps us preserve the ability to do without things.” It “helps us avoid being slaves to things and letting non essentials become essentials.” One camping trip I was on with a group of youth a young woman with flowing long hair came up to me as we were sitting around the campfire. She had a curling iron in her hands.
She said, “I need to curl my hair before I go to bed. Where is the outlet in the bathroom so I can curl my hair?”
The bathroom was an outhouse but I couldn’t resist telling her, “just go in the outhouse and feel around on the wall till you come to the light switch and turn it on and you will find the outlet.” About 20 minutes later she came back and declared,”There is no switch or outlet in the bathroom!”
Fasting can indeed help us preserve the ability to do without things, “being slaves to things and letting non essentials become essentials.”
So this Lenten season I encourage you to add something spiritual to your life or take something away to keep your focus on God.
Your reward will be out of this world.
In Jesus’ name amen.
All quotations come from Dr. Barclay’s commentary on Matthew 6
