Fasting during Lent is one of the longest enduring traditions of the church. It began as a way to prepare the hearts of those who were going to be baptized into the Christian faith on Easter. Protestants have an interesting relationship with Lent. Some see fasting during Lent as a call back into legalism that should be cast off, a lingering phantom from our break with the Roman Catholic church. For others, the modern revival of Lent and its call to give something up is a needed check on a consumeristic culture’s idea of just living to have every need instantly met. No matter how you feel about or practice this season of Lent, as we saw last week, Jesus had a chance to get rid of fasting in Mark 2 when he was asked about it but He didn’t. In fact, He strengthened the idea by assuming that His people will fast. It’s easy to read the Bible’s passages on fasting and think “why would I do that?” And because fasting isn’t something that most of us understand God’s heart in, it would be easy to just move on. But we don’t want to move on too fast. Jesus says, “When I am gone…then you WILL fast” and “WHEN you fast…you should do it like this.” So it seems like Jesus intends fasting to be some part of our Christian life between the cross and His return. So let’s read our passages from God’s Word this morning together and see what it has to say to us as followers of Jesus and to us together as the body of Christ.
