Week 3 What did Jesus do in the Wilderness?  (Part 2)

Matthew 4:1,2  —  Luke 4:1-2

Last time, we introduced the idea of fasting and how it demonstrates our desperate need for God and how we desire God more than even the basic human needs.   Don’t forget that in the Hebrew culture, all verbs are action verbs; for example, love is an action, not a feeling.  James said show me your faith by your deeds.  Fasting is an action we can do to learn our desperation for God and to show our desperation for God. 

Other than this 40-day fast associated with the beginning of Jesus’ mission¹, we don’t see Jesus fasting.  In fact, John the Baptist’s disciples ask Jesus why his disciples don’t fast.  Jesus tells them this is the time for a feast because the bridegroom (Jesus) is here.  There will come a time when the bridegroom is gone, and fasting will be appropriate.²  Apparently, Jesus had quite the reputation for feasts and not fasts, and he later tells a group of Pharisees:

“For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’”  Luke 7:33-35

After Jesus has ascended to heaven, we see the church resume fasting (Acts 13:1-3, Acts 14:21-23, and 1 Cor. 7:5).  The Didache (the 1st Century ‘church handbook’) says Christians are to fast twice weekly, specifically Wednesdays and Fridays.³  Jesus gave instructions for our fasting:

“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.  Mathew. 6:16-18

Jesus’ emphasis is not so much that you fast in secret but that you do not do it for the reward of others.

Should we fast?  There is plenty of evidence for fasting throughout the Bible. The only time it was put on hold was the year that Jesus spent with his disciples. Notice that in the passage above from Matthew 6, Jesus says, “when you fast,” not “if you fast.”  In Acts and Paul’s letters, the early church seems to have practiced fasting.  Let me ask you some personal questions.  Do you crave time with God?  Do you hunger for time in prayer when you miss a day of prayer?  Do you look forward with anticipation to your time alone with Jesus, studying the Word? Do you do these things with such fervor that you let nothing stand in your way?  For me, the distractions of this world tend to fill me at times to the point my desire for Godly things is numbed.  That is why I need to fast.  I must remind myself that my Creator is everything, and this world and its pleasures are just part of the creation, like me.  I need to, as Paul said, “discipline my body and keep it under control (1 Cor. 9:27), and fasting is a way to remind myself physically.  Finally, the Spirit drove Jesus to fast.  If Jesus needed to fast, how much more do I?

Last time, I mentioned the more than 20,000 people who have completed a 40-day fast in South Korea.  In Piper’s book on fasting, he attributes the fantastic growth of the churches there to their strong emphasis on prayer and fasting.  

“The first Protestant church was planted in Korea in 1884. One hundred years later, there were 30,000 churches. That’s an average of 300 new churches a year for 100 years. At the end of the twentieth century, evangelicals comprise about 30% of the population.”⁴

That kind of growth while our U.S. churches are stagnant or decreasing in numbers.  It is time for us to learn a new desperation for God, and fasting is a means to do it.

So then, how should we fast?  This is between you and God.  Seek His input, for, after all, submission to his will makes it a fast.  By the original definition, a fast was abstaining from food, but it has become very popular for Lenten fasts to be from certain other pleasures like the internet, social media, television, or a particular food like chocolate, meat, etc.  That may be an excellent place to start, but I only learned that desperation for God by fasting from some of the more basic physiological needs like food, sleep, or shelter. How do you fast from shelter?  I am glad you asked.  Contact your local homeless ministry and find out if you can volunteer to stay overnight with some people who have no homes in their shelter.  I have spent a few nights sleeping on a 4-inch mat on the floor with some of our “neighbors without homes” in our local Room in the Inn program.  You are putting your service to God ahead of and in place of your love for a comfortable bed and home for a night.   It is a fast if done with the proper attitude and as a way of seeking God.  If you aren’t seeking God, then you missed the point. 

You must also be in obedience to God in other areas, or your fast will not be beneficial.  

Look at Isaiah 58.  God instructs Isaiah to scream at the top of his lungs:

“Declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God;”  Isaiah 58:1-2.

Many are living in disobedience, yet they pray daily for God’s help and go to worship “as if they were a nation that did righteousness.”  Ouch!   They were going through the motions of ‘church’ but were living lives of sinfulness.  They were even fasting for God to answer them, but God did not answer despite their fasting.  So they ask God,

“‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not?  Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’”  Isaiah 58:3a.

So God answers and tells them fasting is useless if they are living lives of disobedience. 

“Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist.  Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high.” Isaiah 58:3b,4.

God says, “You call that a fast?  You think that is acceptable to me?” (Is 58:5 my paraphrase). So then God tells them what kind of fast he wants from them:

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?  Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh [people]?”  (Is. 58:6-7)

God wants them to fast from wickedness.  Let me paraphrase it: ’Take a break from sinning, stop oppressing and exploiting people; it is worthless for you to deny yourselves food and not even share the food you have not eaten while fasting with the hungry around you. You have an extra bedroom and a closet full of clothes, and yet your neighbor is homeless and poorly clothed while you hide out from your suffering neighbor in your fancy house.’

God makes it clear that he could care less for our fasting if we aren’t living according to his precepts.  But then Isaiah has good news for them if they will repent and do what he asks (and I’ll let Eugene Peterson paraphrase this time):

“Then when you pray, GOD will answer.  You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’  “If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people’s sins,  If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.  I will always show you where to go. I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—firm muscles, strong bones. You’ll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry.  You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past.  You’ll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.”  Isaiah 58:9-12 The Message.

Have you ever felt like your prayers were bouncing off the ceiling?  Have you ever fasted and wondered why God wouldn’t respond?  Have you ever felt like your ‘worship’ was empty?  Then Isaiah says that it is time to check your obedience meter.  As Malachi noted, you can’t buy off God with money or impress him with your fasting or singing if you ignore everything he asked you to do.  Take a fast from disobedience first.  The waters of repentance are still flowing, and Jesus and John the Baptist are still calling.

Jesus is fasting in the wilderness. Have you taken the time to journey outside by yourself this week?  Let’s skip a meal, take a hike, and commune with our Creator.  Food is good!  But God is better!!!

Please see my Bibliography for recommended books and links to obtain them.

1. In Acts 13:1–2, we see another example where fasting is associated with discernment for mission.
2. Matthew 9:14-16.  This also suggests that when we are present with Jesus after that day, there will be no more fasting.
3. Didache, 8:1, in Apostolic Fathers English
4. Piper, John, “A Hunger for God: Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer” (2013) Location 1088, Kindle Version.