Each year, the question is asked again. It becomes part of the discussion in churches and groups of Christians, both in person and in virtual settings. What are you giving up for Lent? The answers include favorite foods, like desserts or chocolate. Some give up the use of social media. Others give up meat on certain days. A few brave folks give up things like gossip.
Giving up something during the six-week season of Lent has become the way Christians today interpret the spiritual practice of fasting during Lent. Yes, the heart of fasting is refraining from something. We often think of fasting in terms of food.
Many people today fast for health benefits. One of my doctors is an advocate of fasting. She’s told me that after 7:00 PM on Saturday until 3:00 PM on Sunday, she fasts from all food. This is meant to help cleanse the body as well as to engage certain cells in the body to be more active. My doctor is one of the people who fast for their health.
But during Lent, what’s the purpose of fasting? It’s not for our health. It’s not because we may lose a few unwanted pounds. It’s also not that eating certain foods is necessarily bad. (Although, eating less meat is probably good for the planet and our health.) Instead, in the Judeo-Christian tradition, fasting is meant to lead us to do something very different from our usual common practices today.
Dating from the sixth century BCE, the writer of the prophetic book Isaiah, in chapter 58, verses 6 and 7, records God speaking:
This is the fast I desire: To unlock the fetters of wickedness, and untie the cords of the yoke to let the oppressed go free; to break off every yoke. It is to share your bread with the hungry, and to take the poor into your home; when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to ignore the needs of others.
Properly understood, the Lenten fast isn’t the candy and sweets, the meat, or your health. Instead, the fast is to open us to live in a way that’s different from how we’ve been living. The Lenten fast should call us to refrain from certain behaviors so that we can engage in other behaviors that bring good into the world.
The traditional gospel reading for Ash Wednesday is from the sixth chapter of the writings attributed to Matthew. The writer conveys a teaching from Jesus about fasting. Paraphrasing his instructions, he tells his followers not to look dismal when they are fasting or to make a show of it for others. When fasting is noticeable, being noticed by others is its own reward. Instead, fast in secret so that you can store up spiritual treasures. According to Matthew’s gospel, how do we store up spiritual treasures? That’s made clear later in Matthew’s writing in a story of what we commonly call “the final judgment” in chapter 25: The glorified figure referred to as “The Son of Man,” says to those who will inherit the fullness of the realm of God, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” In other words, the fasting described in Isaiah chapter 58 proves to be the measure for life in the realm of God in Matthew’s depiction of the final judgment.
The spiritual practice of fasting in the Christian tradition is not just about giving up something. Instead, it’s about refraining from something in order to do something good in the world. In other words, giving up chocolate or sweets is great. That’s because it should lead you to feed the hungry. Giving up gossip is noteworthy because it can provide you with the opportunity to speak with words of kindness and compassion to people who are in pain. Giving up social media can be admirable as it creates the opportunity to work for justice for people who experience social oppression. In the end, the fast of Lent isn’t so much about the “giving up.” Instead, the Lenten fast is an opportunity to “give up” so that we can “give to” others in ways that help to build the realm of heaven here on Earth.
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