I have a moderate fasting practice during Lent. I fast one day a week during daytime hours. It helps center me into the season. However, I also ponder how mixed the messages about fasting are in scripture.
In Israel, the prophets had mixed message about fasting. Traditionally associated with repentance, mourning, and prayer, it became common enough that prophets challenged its practice when unaccompanied by generosity and justice. The prophet in the tradition of Isaiah says: “Is not this the fast that I [the Lord] choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs 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 them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?” (58:6–7). According to the prophet, God is more interested in practices of justice than fasting for its own sake.
Jesus had similarly mixed messages about fasting. Although he and his followers fasted, he expected less of it than contemporary teachers did and suggested it was inappropriate for seasons of joy (Mark 2:18–20). Further, he critiqued fasting for show: “do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward” (Matthew 6:16). For Jesus, fasting had a time and purpose. Outside of those spheres, it was better dispensed with.
These examples make me pause to ponder: what does fasting achieve?
We do well to think about fasting more broadly. Fasting, after all, is just taking a break from a regular pattern. Although traditionally from eating, it may just as easily be a break from something else.
What about a fast from social media? Screen use? Unnecessary spending? Unnecessary driving? Artificial sweeteners? Workaholism? Soda or caffeine? Alcohol? Espresso or energy drinks? Unedifying media? Unhealthy sleeping patterns? An unhealthy relationship? Phone use during certain hours? . . . Going without some of these things would do far more for our connection to God and service to neighbor than going without food. Fasting from some of these things, quite frankly, would be a revolutionary change.
At the end of the day, the goal of fasting is to remind us of our dependence upon God. We do not sustain ourselves. We are sustained by “every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt 4:4).
This Lenten season, I’m still doing some fasting (from food). But I’m also pondering how to fast from war and violence (to honor Ukrainian victims), how to fast from overindulgence (to honor those with food insecurity), and how to fast from unnecessary carbon use (to honor creation). I find myself considering more thoughtfully how our practices of restraint help us stand in greater solidarity with others by challenging injustice in Jesus’ name.
