On Misunderstanding Fasting

18 June 2012

“He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8.3, NIV).

After our worship gathering yesterday, I enjoyed a fantastic conversation about fasting. This got me to thinking about one of the many books on the “need to read” pile, Fasting, by Scot McKnight. While sitting in my new Adirondack Chair (a Father’s Day gift) I began reading this morning. Before I could even make it through the Introduction, I exclaimed (inwardly of course – it was before 6am), I have to share stuff with my Church family!!

Scot begins with a brief definition, upon which he promises to expand. “Fasting is a person’s whole-body, natural response to life’s sacred moments.” Right away we should notice that fasting is responsive. It seems to me that when most of think about fasting we first consider, “How will God respond to my fasting?” In other words, fasting can become a tool to get God to respond to us instead of whole body response of ours to a sacred moment. More later on how fasting can digress into divine manipulation.

It is at this point we must ask Christ to take our thoughts about fasting captive to the witness of Scripture. For example how many of us would consider fasting on behalf of a sick enemy? King David did that exactly! 

Ruthless witnesses come forward;

            they question me on things I know nothing about.

They repay me evil for good

and leave me like one bereaved.

Yet when they were ill, I put on

            sackcloth

and humbled myself with

            fasting.

When my prayers returned to me

            unanswered,

I went about mourning

            as though for my friend or brother.

I bowed my head in grief

            as though weeping for my mother (Psalm 35.11-14, NIV).

We are now faced with an example of where modern conceptions of fasting have gone awry. Before this morning, I had no category in my brain for fasting on behalf of my enemy who was sick. Did you? I could imagine fasting so that my enemy would become sick, but not because of grief over his sickness. But when we think the way the Bible speaks about fasting, we understand that fasting is not about getting something we desire. Rather, fasting is about responding to life’s sacred moments. 

At his point I have more questions than answers when it comes to fasting. But I look forward to chewing on this wisdom from Scot (pun intended!). I also look forward to any interaction we might have over the often-misunderstood topic of fasting.