Lent: Self-Denial and Fasting

Lent is the six weeks before and leading to Easter. The observance and celebration of Lent is meant to encourage believers to engage in reflection as we prepare our hearts and lives in approaching the Holy Week.

One of the usual practices during the season of Lent undertaken by Christians all over the world is fasting. As a part of the worldwide church, it is fitting that we learn about this practice so that we may join our brothers and sisters all around the world in this important spiritual exercise.

As we prepare for the commemoration of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, we are to heed the call uttered by the prophet Joel to the Israelites. The prophet Joel ministered even before the time of Jeremiah or Ezekiel. This means that the Israelites were not yet in exile. However, they were surrounded by powerful nations and empires, and they knew that their lives would be affected by the conflicts among these nations. The prophet Joel painted the picture of the coming invasion of Judah by using the analogy of a swarm of locust. The aftermath of the invasion will not be a good sight (Joel 1:10-12):

The fields are ruined, the ground is dried up;
the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up,
    the olive oil fails.

Despair, you farmers,
    wail, you vine growers;
grieve for the wheat and the barley,
    because the harvest of the field is destroyed.
The vine is dried up and the fig tree is withered;
the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree—
    all the trees of the field—are dried up.
Surely the people’s joy is withered away.

It is in the context of this prophecy that Joel calls the people to humble themselves before God in prayer and fasting (Joel 1:13-14):

Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn;
wail, you who minister before the altar.

Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
you who minister before my God;
for the grain offerings and drink offerings
are withheld from the house of your God.

Declare a holy fast;

call a sacred assembly.
Summon the elders
and all who live in the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
and cry out to the Lord.

The essence of fasting is self-denial. It is not really the mere fact of abstinence. The call to fast is the call to abandon our needs for the sake of something else. In the passage, and in consideration of the situation of Joel and the Israelites, three important lessons can be discerned about fasting.

To Fast is to Transcend the Logical

God’s call for the Israelites to engage in fasting or to not eat was completely illogical. It actually seemed counterproductive. It must be remembered that the problem of the Israelites was that there was war going on around them, and that they were implicated in it whether they liked it or not. It did not matter who will win the war between the two biggest empires of the time: Assyria and Babylon. They were pretty sure that whoever won the war would expand their territory, and that Israel would certainly be an appetizing target.

In this sort of situation, the most logical advice would be for them to prepare for war. The call to abstain from food just did not make sense. How can becoming physically weaker a solution to their fears? Yahweh should have said: “Gather all the iron you can find. Melt them and let the blacksmiths labor day and night. Fortify the walls, all you who are young and old. Create a training center to hone every able person to handle a sword. Gather as much supplies as you can: grain, water, and fruits.” But Yahweh did not issue these commands. Instead, He commanded them to fast. Such was definitely an illogical war strategy.

Yahweh was calling His people to have faith. Throughout the history of Israel, Yahweh has always called His people to put their faith, trust, and confidence in Him alone. He commissioned Gideon to defeat the Midianites with only 300 soldiers. The manner of selection was based on how one would drink. Then instead of arming the 300 soldiers with swords and spears, Gideon gave them trumpets (Jud 7:1-25). Similarly, in order to take down the mighty wall of Jericho, he asked Joshua to blow trumpets and sing songs. Instead of the army commander to lead the way, the people who were in front were priests carrying not weapons but the ark of the covenant. Instead of firing arrows, they were to shout (Josh 6:1-27). In both these instances, God was asking His people to trust Him. As the writer of Proverbs calls us today: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight” (Prov 3:5-6).

To Fast is to Transcend the Self

One of the core messages of fasting is this: “It’s not all about me and what’s best for me or what’s my need.” When we fast, we transcend the me-centeredness that is so entrenched in our human selves. Fasting is only meaningful when we abstain from the things that we need (like food and water) and from the things that are so dear to us (like make up, pleasure, dessert, etc.). Fasting sometimes entails abstaining from even good and healthy things.

To deny one’s self does not mean hiding our identities or suppressing our desires. In fact, self-denial requires the courage to face who we truly are and the honestly to admit what we really want in life. Whether our desires are honorable or embarrassing, we must be ready to admit the innermost contents of our dreams and aspirations, and be true to ourselves. It is only when we recognize what is dear to us do we truly understand what it means to deny ourselves. To paraphrase Bob Michaels,

I will not fast from anything that costs me nothing
I’ll sacrifice nothing less than my favorite best
‘Coz If I’m called to sacrifice
It will be worthy of my Christ
I will not fast from anything that costs me nothing

When we fast, we deny ourselves of the things that we know are so important to us. This, of course, is not easy. Why? Because we are prone to follow our desires, we love ourselves, we have the ability to do and get what we want; and we are surrounded by temptations. Even our peers can be primary tempters.

We live in a consumerist world, where self-indulgence is the order of the day. Hence, the call to fasting and self-denial somewhat sounds strange to our ears. The call to self-denial is totally “against the flow” today, because the world we live in actually encourages us to do the opposite. The world wants us and compels us not to deny ourselves but to engorge in more things. We see advertisements everywhere—on TV, on billboards, on the web—about bigger burgers and pizzas, or bigger homes and cars, or bigger entertainment sets, etc. More and more things are invented these days, and people are getting really creative about what to sell. More and more beauty products go out of the market every day. It is no wonder why a lot of ladies (and some men) look absolutely ridiculous for wearing more make-up than what is really needed. Some even have whiter faces than their necks!

In our consumerist culture, we are no longer surprised that the world is filled with addicts: sex addicts, drug addicts, TV addicts, alcohol addicts, tobacco addicts, games addicts, food addicts, etc. Addiction is a state that nobody willfully decides to be in. It begins with one small act—sometimes just out of curiosity—and develops overtime into something that enslaves people’s minds and habits.  The bad news is that no one is exempted from the tendency towards addiction. We can easily become an addict (if not already). This is why, from time to time, we must fast. We must deny ourselves our basic rights and privileges. It is only when we do this do we transcend our animalistic and survival instincts. It is only when we do this do we transcend ourselves.

To Fast is to Transcend the Present

Fasting is not an end in itself. It is a spiritual exercise that has a deeper underlying significance and purpose. When we fast, we deny ourselves of our present needs and wants, not because we are masochists, but because we want to prepare ourselves for greater things.

The principle is extremely simple: If we cannot deny ourselves with little things in the present, how can we even think of denying ourselves in obedience to a greater demand from God someday? For instance, how can we say Yes to God if he calls us to something with less economic support, if we can’t even give our full tithe today? How can we say Yes to God if he calls us to full-time ministry, if we are not willing to give up some things momentarily? How can we truly surrender ourselves to God completely, if we do not know how to surrender a few things in our lives? How can we say No to the big temptations in life, if we are not able to say No to small and basic temptations? To rephrase Jesus’s statement in Luke 16:10, “Whoever can sacrifice very little can also sacrifice much, and whoever cannot sacrifice very little cannot also sacrifice much.”

It is important to practice denying ourselves now, transcending our present needs, because God may have in mind to call us someday to full-time ministry. If we try our best to avoid suffering today, we will always avoid suffering, even at the cost of disobeying God. We must wake up to this reality. As human beings who are still learning, we must admit that self-denial and surrender is a gradual experience. We grow into it. We mature into it. Fasting teaches us about our ongoing and renewing surrender to God.

There is truth in a line from the 2007 Bee Movie, when the tour guide said, “you have worked your whole life to get to the point where you can work for your whole life.” In terms of self-denial, we can say: “we have fasted our whole life to get to the point where we can fast our whole life.”

But even if we are not called to do a ginormous thing in the future, we must still pursue self-denial in the little things. In our everyday lives, we are rarely called to do great and important things. In our everyday lives, we are often called to do and accomplish the littlest things. As we interact with people, hear their stories, and see their lives, we are always summoned to small sacrifices: may these be a sacrifice of time, resources, strength, effort, and the like.

Conclusions

We are going to commemorate the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. He made the greatest sacrifice there. As we approach that day, shall we also begin practicing self-denial? Just for six weeks, Christians should engage in fasting, and this is not limited to abstaining from food. We can give up anything for the next six weeks and make a covenant with God that we are not going to taste such and such in that period of time. I know people who gave up going to fast-food chains, or going to fancy restaurants, or going on a leisure trip, or not using the aircon, or not driving. I know people who gave up cosmetics (but please do not give up taking a bath). I know people who gave up certain food, like ice cream, chocolate, or going to Starbucks. Some people give up meat, and only eat vegetables for six weeks.

  

What are you going to give up?

It is quite interesting that great people in the Bible fasted before embarking on something grand. Moses fasted forty days in preparation for receiving the Ten Commandments (Exo 34:28). The Israelites fasted three days before meeting God at Mt. Sinai (Exo 19:14). The prophet Daniel fasted for three weeks before receiving his vision (Dan 10:2-6). Elijah the prophet fasted forty days before God spoke to him (1 Kings 19:8). And we all know that Christ our Savior fasted for forty days in preparation for His temptation by the devil and for the beginning of His ministry (Mt 4:1-11, Lk 4:1-13).