Sermon on the Mount & the Banquet
"Question on Fasting"
Matthew 6: 16-18; 9:14-15; Mark 2:18; Luke 5:33-35
October 21, 2018
Introduction
How often have you made a resolution, whether New Years or at any other time, to cut back on something? How about during the season of Lent?
Regardless it is tough unless you're the strong assiduous or diligent type. But that concerns the flesh, and when that is the case, then it is us who are doing it through our own effort and that then may lead to pride. Look at what I have done. Then you will challenge others to do as you did. Telling them they can do it put your all into it.
There's truth in that; put your all into it, get motivated, set a goal and reach for it; especially when you have someone alongside motivating, encouraging you.
What About Fasting?
John Piper calls it a “hunger for homesickness for God”. I think many may look on fasting in the same manner as they do New Year Resolutions. And we look to see if there are any Scriptural reasons to not fast.
So I asked if it is a Christian practice required of believers. I grew up having to fast from midnight Saturday until after communion on Sunday. Until the II Ecumenical Council, I also had to fast from meat on Fridays, but you could eat fish. I guess that is how the name Mackerel Snappers was given to Catholics.
That aside, in the Biblical sense, fasting is abstaining from food and drink for a spiritual reason.- It was an Old Testament practice though commanded for one time of the year and that was with the connection with the Day of Atonement, Yum Kippur. (Leviticus 16:24-31).
In part from verse 29 - This shall be a permanent statute for you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble your souls and not do any work, whether the native, or the alien who sojourns among you; 30 for it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you; you will be clean from all your sins before the Lord. 31 It is to be a Sabbath of solemn rest for you, that you may humble*[Some versions say “afflict”] your souls; it is a permanent statute.
The practice of fasting became wide spread; in many situations it was proper as in when the Jews mourned with fasting the decree of Ahasueras (Xerxes) which ordered the genocide of the Jewish people, (Esther 4:1-3).
Joel called for a fast of the people for repentance, (Joel 1: 13-14). Also you can compare that with Isaiah 58: 6-9; as in all things along with the proper uses, there are abuses – Isaiah 58: 3-5; Jeremiah 14:12.
By the time of Jesus' ministry the Pharisees had decreed that godly people fast twice a week, on the second day, (Monday) & the fifth day, (Thursday) of the week. Remember the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican in Luke 18:9-14? We read in verse 11 down to 12, “‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. (12) I fast twice a week;
For them fasting meant mourning; some viewed it is a sacrifice, a mournful offering of one's own flesh to God that would get His attention.
The overall affect was to view true religion as solemn, joyless and gloomy
When fasting, the Pharisees would forlorn – some would even whiten their faces to effect an emaciated look, refuse to wash & they would wear their clothes in disarray.
What they were saying by their actions was that you can't be spiritual unless you're incompatible. Spirituality consisted of doing what you don't want to do & refraining from doing things you want.
Is Fasting for Christians Today?
There is no compulsory fast in the Scripture, New Testament, required of Christians – Now the Didache, the training for new converts in the 1st and 2nd century, does have a section on fasting. Prior to Baptism and also to fast twice a week but not on the days as the “hypocrites” (I assume meaning the Jews) because they fast on the 2nd and 5th day of the week, so Christians were too fast on the 4th and 6th day (Wednesday & Friday)
If then there is no compulsory fasting why were the early Christians taught to fast? It seems that though it wasn’t compulsory, the New Testament took it for granted that the children of God would see a need to fast. Matthew 6: 17, “But you, when you fast,” -
Relation to Presence
At the banquet in Luke 5:34-35 when the disciples of our Lord were criticized for not fasting, Jesus answered them saying “You cannot make the attendants of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you? But the days will come; and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.”
You can’t make the guest fast while the bridegroom is with them --- This answer was packed with meaning for the Jewish listeners.
Wedding feasts lasted for a week, and the married couple stayed home for the week long party that was one continual celebration. The bride & groom were treated like king & queen and sometimes wore crowns.
They would be attended by “guests of the groom”; chosen friends & these guests were exempt from all fasting through rabbinical ruling that said those in “attendances on the bridegroom are relieved of all religious observance which would lessen their joy.”
Jesus made the assertion that His presence justified a feast and that His followers had the privilege & joy of a perpetual feast, wedding party.
In this circumstance it’s wrong, and really impossible to mourn. The disciples experienced temporary sadness, unhappiness when they failed Jesus, or saw their own sin.
But when I the presence of Jesus they had relentless joy.
Jesus radiated joy, “For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross.” (Hebrews 12:2).
Jesus radiated joy, He was love incarnate, and all people around Him felt His love. His presence evoked a sense of security & well-being. It made His followers aware of their sin; He was holy, His perfect purity was transcendent, yet His presence was also a bath to the soul, He forgave sins.
He was truth, no deception, not the slightest amount. Jesus was power; lepers were cleansed pure at His word, & storms were made glad at His word.
Imagine Him standing on the beach in Panama City or Mexico beach’s as the hurricane approached & He says to the storm, “Be still!” And in an instant nano-second the winds and the waves and the entire storm became instantly calm?
Jesus brought true release from real guilt, liberation from bondage. The disciples had to awaken each day with bounding hope. It was a continual feast in the presence of the Lord Jesus.
Yet He said that the day was coming when the bridegroom will be taken away and then they will fast in those days. (v35).
That happened at the cross, but the sorrow gave way to joy at the resurrection, the ascension, and the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Let me ask this; was your life, our lives, truly all joy & a continuous feast before coming to Christ? How about afterwards, after becoming a believer? It’s been one continuous joyous feast right?
Why Would we Fast?
What purpose would there be in fasting now? At the beginning I mentioned what John Piper calls a “Hunger for homesickness for God”. But to be homesick you have to be away from where you were secure, from where you had found your joy.
How many of you ever feel homesick? Be honest with yourself! People call it nostalgia and some criticize it; I call it homesickness. I’m homesick for the days I remember in Panama when I was four maybe five, it was just my mom and me, she was a single mother. I remember the early days in California; I remember when she met Glenn Richard, who would be my step-dad. I remember a lot of things, some good, some bad.
Richard Foster, a theologian and writer, in one of his books on spiritual discipline writes that in Matthew 9: 14-15 (compare it with Luke’s version) is the most important text on Christian fasting -
He says that “Fasting is a physical exclamation point at the end of our pleas to God.” In Jesus’ mind, when He is taken away at the ascension, returns to the Father, there will be fasting –
The contest of fasting (this fasting) is the longing for the, not yet of the kingdom.
We plea, ‘Your kingdom come’, ‘Your will be done,” “Give us our daily sustenance each day” . . . ‘Lord, help my weak faith’ Help my doubt . . . Help my loneliness . . .” Help me in this mess I’m in . . . Lord I need you, I long for You, I long for the day You will return, I long for the time I will be with you. . .
Jesus prayed in the Garden He longed for, He was homesick, for God the Father, John 17:5, Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
My favorite verse, my favorite assurance that what I feel is from Him, I would think others may feel this also; Ecclesiastes 3:11 - He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
There is a default setting we are all programed with, a longing for God. We all have a natural desire for God, whether we know it or not. It’s just unfortunate that there are millions more who reject that desire; they put it aside for whatever reason they have or for no reason at all.
God will make one aware of what that tug in their heart is, what that longing truly is. Romans 1:20 comes to mind, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse”. - Christian believers are not exempt from these longings these tugs. Christians battle against the “rulers, authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Paraphrasing Eph. 6:12). Christians are not super-beings from Krypton. If there is a Super-Christian that’s immune, then why do have to pray to be protected from evil, from the evil one?
Pastor Brunson on Hannity the other night and also on Fox news said he went through doubt wondering if God hear his pleas, yet his faith was maintained.
So we too, the ones who need prayer, I say it that way because I have heard others speak in way that they are strong and never doubt at all –
But the rest of us, flesh, pray Lord deliver us from evil, from the evil one, and we can put the exclamation mark at the end of our prayer which we made in private between us and the Lord alone, in secret.
We fast; we put our stomach where our heart is, just to add intensity & expressiveness to our ache, our longing for Jesus; for all the implications of Jesus’ power that isn’t completely realized in our lives; in the lives of others; the aches & suffering in the world. Most of all, I would think, we want to see people saved; even the most harden criminal.
So there would come a time, as Jesus said, when the disciples would fast, when the bridegroom is taken away – then they would fast.
When they do He says in Matthew 6: 17, 18 - “anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
Let’s pray –
Father, You know what is on our hearts, we thank you for letting us know how You want us to talk to you, that You desire to talk to us individually, that, that is why you have placed in our hearts that desire, that urge, that tug that draws us to call on you. You want to talk to us one on one, in secret, making it personal between Father and child.
We thank you, we praise you, our hearts leep and bounce with joy at the sound of your voice in our ears, in our hearts. Your Father is the honor, the glory, the power forever, in the Holy name of Jesus who reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God from everlasting to everlasting, Amen & Amen.
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