I just completed a 48 hour fast where I ate nothing and only drank water, rotating in water infused with electrolytes. Fasting has been a part of my walk with Jesus, but this was my first fast from calories. The first 24 hours were manageable as my body functioned off of stored up calories. The real challenges came the second day. Everything took effort from breathing to communicating my thoughts. My heartbeat was a little faster than my norm, my body temperature fluctuated, and I slowly and cautiously moved throughout the day. On day two, my body was eating its own fat reserves, and I physically and mentally felt the effects.
Why Fast?
First, Scripture tells followers of Jesus to practice righteousness (1 John 2:29, 3:7 and 3:10). Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, talks about fasting, giving, and prayer as three ways to practice righteousness (Matt 6:1-18). Jesus says not to be “like the hypocrites” (vv. 2, 5 and 16) who give, pray, and fast in order to “be seen by others” (vv. 1, 5 and 16). We are not to sound a trumpet when we give (v.2) or alter our appearance when we fast (v.16) bringing attention to ourselves. After all, it is Christ’s righteousness that the believer bears. We can take no credit in our righteousness, so why would we take credit in practicing it? Christ gives salvation, and to those whom he gives it, it is to be exercised or worked out (Phil 2:12). Therefore, we cannot even boast in working out our salvation because salvation is not ours by our doing. It is a gift. We did not earn it.1
Sometimes circumstances can bring about fasting. A big decision, a major life change, the close of a season or the start of a new one are just a few examples of what may cause a follower of Jesus to fast. Fasting can help us gain clarity from the Lord and can make us more dependent on him. We can fast from social media, Netflix, certain apps, sweets, or certain foods. With this particular fast from all food, I thought often of Jesus’s words that he is the bread of life (John 6) and the living water (John 4). In the numerous times I thirsted for water in 48 hours, I could not help but ask myself if I am as desperate for my God, who is the living water. Am I longing to let him quench my needs, allowing his living water to flood my thoughts, fears, selfishness, and sin? And in the times I wanted bread (or any kind of food), I thought of the sweetness of Jesus being the bread of life. He alone is who sustains us until eternal life.
A third reason for fasting is it is good for our health. I learned the health benefits of fasting from watching Chris Hemsworth’s Limitless Episode 3 on fasting. As I watched the beginning of the episode with my husband, I laughed and said – It’s like Jesus knew what he was talking about. Then about three-fourths of the way into the episode, a family of Orthodox Christians becomes a focus. This family is fasting while on a three day walk to church for Easter. (What?! My family struggles on our 25 minute drive to church in an air conditioned car!) The family is interviewed and the father says they fast “to be closer to God.” He goes on to say how he started fasting at age seven. He has fasted for 68 years and has never suffered from the common cold or any other disease. Fasting can reduce inflammation in the body, foster weight loss, and reduce sugar in the blood. The longer you fast (after 24 hours) the more your body regenerates its cells. Jesus did know what he was talking about. Clearly, he’s God. He knew the benefits fasting would have on the human body because he designed it!
Here is the beautiful part about the God of the Bible. Not only is he the reason for the righteousness we practice, not only can we draw closer to him, and not only did he know the health benefits fasting would have on our bodies because he is the author of life (Acts 3:15), but he also knows what we go through when we fast because he did it himself as the person of Christ (Matt 4, Luke 4). His hypostatic union of being both fully God and fully human means (among many other things) he experienced all a human experiences when fasting, and he did it for forty days and forty nights we he lived on earth.
The New Wine of Jesus
In Matthew 9:14-17, John the Baptist’s disciples ask Jesus why they fast, but his (Jesus’s) disciples do not. Jesus responds that his disciples will fast when he, the bridegroom, is taken away (v.15). He expands on his point by getting his audience and us to picture unshrunk cloth on an old garment and new wine poured into old wineskins. Jesus is the unshrunk cloth and new wine. He is the new reality. His disciples would fast when he was no longer with them, but the fasting would be different from the Old Testament fasting. The OT system of fasting (the old wineskins) cannot contain Jesus, the new wine. The new wine has come! The kingdom of God is here! Now when believers fast, they fast tasting Christ’s presence because he has come and will come again!2
Here is what I learned from this past fast. I want more of Christ. I want more of the new wine. I did not necessarily want him in the hard moments of the fast. It was when I broke the fast with a layer of natural peanut butter spread on top of a (not natural) Eggo waffle that a smile broke across my face as I thought about feasting with Jesus in the new heavens and earth. I long for the day of my bridegroom’s return. I long for life as it was always meant to be. I long to be playing and swimming in water (hence the picture on this post) with no care or concern and no schedule to take me out of the water. I am ready to be in my God’s presence forever, no longer hindered by sin.
“Almost Home” by MercyMe, one of my favorite songs, played through my internet radio as I was writing this post. Take in these lyrics.
Almost home
Brother, it won’t be long
Soon all your burdens will be gone
With all your strength
Sister, run wild, run free
Hold up your head, keep pressing on
We are almost home
Well, this road will be hard
But we win in the end
Simply because of Jesus in us
Until then, I will keep on practicing righteousness as my bridegroom taught and demonstrated. It is his righteousness imputed to me that I practice, and he is worthy of the practice. He is also so glorious that I do not have to wait until his return to have more of him. I can experience him now through the Holy Spirit. I get to have more of Jesus now.
As I slowly ate my Eggo slathered in peanut butter enjoying every bite, Jesus reminded me of his words in Matthew 26:29 and how he is still fasting at the right hand of God the Father. He says, “I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” Jesus is the faithful covenant partner who will not break his fast from wine until he is with his bride in the coming kingdom. What a faithful bridegroom! He is the new wine, and he offers the new wine of himself now to his bride, yet he will abstain from wine and not drink it again until he is with his bride. He is waiting to be with me and all of his people as we are waiting to be with him. “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.” (“When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” by Isaac Watts)
1Jesus then commands that practicing righteousness should be done “in secret” (verse 4) because our Father “who is in secret . . . sees in secret,” and he “will reward” us for practicing righteousness (verses 4, 6 and 18). There is a lot packed into these three repeated phrases. Simply, it seems here that God cares about the posture of our hearts as we live for him, which is consistent with other passages (Ps 51:17, Is 57:15, Ezek 44:7, Rom 2:28-29). He will reward us (if not now, then definitely) at his return for those places in our walk with him where we were okay to go unnoticed by others because we were so caught up in him.
2John Piper does a beautiful job talking about fasting in this 1995 message. If you read the transcribed text below the audio message, I found the section titled “Why didn’t Jesus’ disciples fast?” extremely helpful. https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/when-the-bridegroom-is-taken-away-they-will-fast-with-new-wineskins