Lea awakens just before sunrise. Her almost blank mind turns to an egg and bacon breakfast; then she remembers that she is on the church’s Daniel fast. Fasting during Lent was not new to Lea; as a teenager she had given up chocolate, pizza, sodas (but never her favorite—ice cream). After Easter, she again ate her chocolate, pizza and drank her sodas. Until the last Bible Study, she fasted to ask God to intervene in weighty matters like an employment opportunity, success in her profession, a husband, healing—weighty matters. God would see her food-sacrifice and answer her request. However, the last Bible Study in February had altered her perspective of fasting.
Daniel and his people of Judea were in exile in Babylon. They had been removed from Judea and transported to this great nation eight hundred miles east of their homeland. Only the poorest of the Israelites remained sparsely scattered in Judea. Daniel, though a high ranked official in this foreign country, still remembered and longed for his homeland. He went on a three week fast of mourning and prayer for Jerusalem. For three weeks, he ate simple foods with no seasonings, no meat, and no wine. He did drink water (Daniel 10:3). Daniel was not praying for personal gain, but for the welfare of his homeland.
During the Bible study class, scriptures used for Lent in the New Testament, Matthew 4:1-10 and Luke 4:1-12, were studied, also. Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, declared to be the Son of God, and then was compelled by the Spirit to go into the desert. For forty days and nights of fasting, the devil hounded Jesus. At the end of the time, the devil made three final attempts to divert Jesus from his life’s work. The final appeals were to human need (hunger), misuse of God’s word (for personal gratification), and misdirected worship (instead of worship of God alone). Jesus responded with scriptures that refuted the demonic enticements. The devil then left him until another opportunity would present itself. Fasting and prayer strengthened Jesus so that he could overcome temptation. Jesus was ready to do his life’s work on behalf of humankind.
Somewhere from a neighboring apartment, the aroma of fresh coffee, eggs, and bacon floats into Lea’s bedroom.
The pastor had shared that each year Christians (and any who wish) are invited to fast the forty days before Easter (no Sundays) to seek deeper intimacy with God. This sensitivity to the Spirit of God transforms us. On Easter morning the power of the resurrection takes on new meaning, because new life is in us.
Lea walks to the kitchen with the thought of hot oatmeal with flame-red raisins.
Reflection
Throughout Scripture fasting refers to abstaining from food for spiritual purposes. [1]
In the Mark 4:1 and Luke 4:2, the scriptures state that Jesus fasted for forty days and was hungry.
In scripture, fasting usually involves no intake of food, but water is consumed.
In the first of the last three temptations, the devil, starts his connivance with the phrase, “If you are…” in Mark, but biblical scholarship notes that the meaning of that phrase is more accurately, “Since you are…” The devil does not dispute the fact of who Jesus is but wishes to make him fail and thereby renounce his worth as the Son of God. See Mark 4:1, Luke 4:1.
The partial fast restricts certain foods for a time, e.g., meat, chicken, seafood. Note the Daniel fast in the book of Daniel (Daniel 10:3).
Dorothy Watson Tatem, D.Min., ACC
Senior Associate
Next Step Associates, LLC
Cassandra W. Jones, Ed.D.
CEO & President
[1] Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1988) p. 48.
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