Reformed men are known for being very particular about their ash. They are fond of it on the end of a Patriarch Maduro Toro; but spotting it on someone’s forehead will leave them smoking in a different kind of way. What these two scenarios have in common is that they are both instant conversation starters for the topic of Christian liberty. And an important conversation that is; because, while Scripture may not be quite so particular about ash, it is very particular about fasting.
In my observation, however, very little progress has come from the Protestant habit of lining up Lenten traditions downrange to shoot them with Matthew 6:16. Colossians 2 contains a similarly quoted passage—contextually written about Judaism, but left open to other application—yet it could just as easily be used to argue against condemning Lent. So I plan to back up, examine the big picture of fasting guidelines in Scripture, and bring Lent under its scrutiny.
THE MASK OF MELPOMENE
Last week, Jenna Ortega wasn’t the only one making a solemn face on Wednesday. Despite being only one out of forty days, Ash Wednesday could be considered the face of Lent. But when it comes to the question of whether it can be considered the Achilles’s heel of Lent, folks on both sides of the debate often seem to forget that Jesus’s words on fasting have more “do’s” than “don’t’s.” Those opposing it focus on what is forbidden, while those observing it focus on what isn’t.
Matthew 6:16
“Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
Okay, this surely raises a caveat for Ash Wednesday. Putting ashes on one’s forehead is hardly a cheery practice, let alone an aesthetic one. But when the Pharisees got their pity party on, they did it to puff themselves up, not bring themselves low. The case for Ash Wednesday lies in the intention the ashes, combined with the incense, will remind the wearer throughout the day to meditate the way David meditated in Psalm 39.
Psalm 39:4-5
“Lord, make me to know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my age is as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor.
So if it happens to be common knowledge that the ashes come in package with fasting or other forms of abstinence, and if other people happen to notice it, does this really disobey the words of Christ? Verse 16 may not directly forbid this; but Jesus didn’t stop at telling us how not to fast. Verses 17 and 18 begin with the word “but.”
Matthew 6:17-18
But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
You had one job: fast with a clean face. Why? Because God wants your fasting to be between you and Him. This is not to say that you’re not allowed to tell anyone about about it; but if you do, it should be confiding, not broadcasting. Ash Wednesday, especially in this selfie generation, fits firmly in the latter category. Whatever practices accompany your fasting, you are responsible to make sure they do not conflict with Christ’s positive commands. If you don’t want to fast His way, don’t fast at all.
Some have contended that if Jesus meant we must not embellish our fasting, then we also must not pray in public. Indeed, the few verses prior tell us to to pray in our chamber. However, 1 Timothy 2:8 gives instructions on how public prayer should be conducted. Secrecy is not the end goal, but modesty demands we not go out of our way to draw unnecessary attention to our prayer and fasting. Doing them in public is fine; wearing them in public is not. Since one happens to be quieter than the other, let the reader understand how this will play out.
THE FRIENDS OF THE BRIDEGROOM
Matthew 9:14-15
Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
Jesus’s statement in this passage would soon be verified, as the apostles would fast when new elders were appointed (Acts 10:30, Acts 14:23). This is an example of corporate fasting, which I will touch on shortly. Before I get into the examples of fasting in Scripture, I want to be clear that I do not discourage fasting in any other manners or for any other reasons. What I do discourage is anything that would make someone feel pressure to do so.
Weighty developments in church leadership are the only precedent for habitual fasting that Scripture records post-ascension. In the Old Testament, spiritual authorities frequently initiated the expectation for corporate fasting. The New Testament records noticeably less of this. That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen; but for some reason, God didn’t include it on the inspired landscaape of church life. Jesus’s ascension address may give us some insight into this.
Matthew 28:20b
“and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Jesus’s earlier words in chapter 9 foretold the direct significance of His physical presence on His disciples. With application to all His people, the testimony of His Word reveals Him in a way not seen before His advent. His Spirit also indwells us; and by these, we know Him. Our bridegroom is with us.
But alas, we do not always feel His presence as we await consummation and glorification. It is during such times that we have a reason to fast. Thirst for a greater measure of God’s presence could come from a want of assurance, consolation, wisdom, forgiveness, or a particular request. In both the Old and New Testaments, believers fasted because of circumstances, not just because it was the thing to do.
Hannah fasted because she was barren (1 Samuel 1:7), David fasted for his son’s life (2 Samuel 12:16), Ahab fasted after Elijah pronounced judgment upon him (1 Kings 21:27), Ezra fasted because of the exiles’ sin (Ezra 10:6), Nehemiah fasted because Jerusalem was destroyed (Nehemiah 1:4), Daniel fasted for Israel after reading a prophecy of judgment (Daniel 9:3), Saul fasted after God confronted him on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:9), and these are just the highlights. The only instance with some ambiguity is the consistent fasting of Anna, who had devoted her widowhood to temple service (Luke 2:37).
THE BRIDE
The same pattern is found in corporate fasting. Judah fasted for fear of Ammon and Moab (2 Chronicles 20:3), the Babylon exiles fasted for guards and a safe journey (Ezra 8:21), Esther and her allies fasted before she approached her husband (Esther 4:16), Israel fasted to pray against a famine (Joel 1-2), and once again, these are just highlights. But perhaps the most poignant example of corporate fasting is Nineveh’s response to the preaching of Jonah.
Jonah 3:5-8
So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.
Like other repentance fasts, such as those in 1 Samuel 7:6, Nehemiah 9, and Jeremiah 34-36, this was not a fast that went through the motions. It attended to specific sins, specific consequences, and/or specific amends. It was not some generic overview of sin, it was not scheduled, and it was not repeated after forgiveness.
But someone may ask: how can a fast be both corporate and private? The answer is not complicated. There are many Biblical laws that can apply both individually and corporately. When brethren come together to fast, they are uniting as the body of Christ, not competing with each other and not flexing to outsiders. So they are in full obedience to the words of Jesus in that they do not appear to be fasting.
THE BRIDEGROOM
Matthew 4:1-4
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”
If we wish to fast as Jesus fasted, we must look beyond the numeric details and study the spiritual ones. Jesus took the most drastic of measures to obey the commands that He would give two chapters later. He isolated Himself. No one knew He was fasting because no one could see Him; and probably few people, if any, even knew where He was.
This fast also had its own purposes, one of which was to prepare Him for public ministry. This is significant, because it means that the fast was not a part of His public ministry. After He was baptized, He fasted; and after He fasted, He started calling disciples and teaching the masses. While there is undoubtedly much to be learned from this fast, Jesus did it to draw closer to His Father, not to start a new custom for us. He had three years to repeat it, but never did.
But the more beautiful purpose was to fulfill a type and shadow of the law of Moses. In Exodus 34, Moses too was divinely sustained without food or drink for 40 days and 40 nights, before becoming the first earthly enforcer of the law that condemns us. This figure popped up a number of times throughout Biblical history, until Jesus did what He did with all the types and shadows: He fulfilled it. It was not meant to be perpetuated by us.
In addition to these purposes for the fast, the first mentioned purpose of the journey into the wilderness cannot be ignored: to be tempted by the Devil. Jesus purposefully put Himself in temptation’s way. We are never to do this; but for Him, it was a necessary part of His assignment on earth. This further contributes to the nature of Jesus’s fast in the wilderness being unique to Him. To be sure, He set many examples along the way that were recorded for our benefit; but it was never meant to be reenacted line by line.
Hebrews 4:15
For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
WHOSE IDEA WAS IT?
Now to get specific about Lent. It is by no means inherently wrong to set aside forty days to exercise self-denial and meditate upon the reason we need a Savior. But in God’s sovereignty, every person has different spiritual needs in different seasons of life. So if you believe that some Lenten practices would edify you and draw you closer to God, then do them with all your might and to His glory. And don’t lock yourself in those little boxes on your calendar. Start it now, and let it run as short or long a course as needed. Conversely, if you’re in a season of life that calls for thankfully receiving good gifts from above to the fullest liberty, don’t let a pageant of asceticism drag you onto its parade float.
Even choosing not to nitpick the fact that selective abstinence is not the definition of fasting, there is still much circular spiritualism in the concept “giving things up for Lent.” Lent is supposed to be a fast, after all; but that’s not enough. They have to give it brand and make it an affair. “Giving up something for Lent” translates to “fasting for the fast,” which may as well mean “fasting for the sake of fasting.”
Whenever extrabiblical traditions become expectations for those in the faith, a slippery slope of pietism is inevitable. Lent has proven to be more slippery than all the fish fried for it; and this has even garnered some in-house criticism. Giles Fraser, an English Anglican priest, journalist, and wordsmith, wrote an article for Church Times in 2007 to express his concerns about Lent being treated as a challenge to accomplish spiritual self-improvement goals. In 2014, he doubled down on this in an article for The Guardian, explicitly emphasizing man’s depravity as its proper focus.
“I rather despise the secular Lent of giving up chocolate and coffee, thus having a second go at the new year resolutions that ran into the sand somewhere in mid-January. This sort of Lent is such a pale imitation of the real thing that I prefer to have nothing to do with it whatsoever. This year, I am giving up giving things up.”
“While the Calvinists spoke of the elect – those destined for heaven – secular morality has its less attractive equivalent: the elite, those who have all the advantages of heaven on earth. The whole point of Calvin’s elect was that nobody actually knew that they were a member.”
After some astute insight on Lent, as if on cue, Fraser’s spectacular ignorance on the doctrine of the elect reminds us that he is a broken clock who has taught a host of heresies. Nevertheless, I believe he’s right to point out that, in addition to seeking attention from others, some people use Lent to prove something to themselves.
Finally, the fact that Lent is capable of being commercialized is very telling of widespread lukewarmness within it. When the modern world is eager to cater to practices done in Jesus’s name, this is just as much a red flag as it is a phenomenon. Yet every March, what do restaurants advertise? Limited time Lenten special! All-you-can-eat fish and chips! Pearl lobster tail with caviar sauce and a side of gold! The fact that these advertisements are working proves that Lent isn’t.
Just as Paul emphasized freedom in giving in 2 Corinthians 9, so the Bible emphasizes freedom in fasting. But Christian freedom in anything flows, of necessity, through freedom in Christ. So if we are fasting with our eyes on man’s guidelines, we have not found true freedom. But if we are fasting with our eyes on God’s guidelines, we are free to expect a Heavenly reward.
