By Don Hooton
Lent season is upon us. It began on Wednesday, March 5, forty days before Easter. Lent is a tradition that developed in Catholic tradition in the period after the Council of Nicaea (May AD 325). Today, it is mostly a Catholic and Greek Orthodox practice – but practiced in some protestant traditions. It involves prayer, meditation, and fasting for forty days to mimic Jesus’ fasting in the wilderness. I know a few Christians who have left the Lord’s church professing a desire to be part of these traditions. And just last week, a question from Africa came about fasting.
When we look at practices in Lent (and other days in the calendars of these churches, often called liturgical calendars), some wonder what the concern is. In the case of Lent, what could be wrong with prayer, meditation, and full or partial fasting in light of Jesus? If practiced as individuals, a reminder of Christian liberty regarding days and periods observed “to the Lord” certainly applies (Romans 14:5-6). And, no one would want to restrict someone’s discovery of a closer walk with the Lord, which is certainly the meaning Paul had in that context of these things being individual and “to the Lord”.
In fact, Jesus anticipated that disciples in His kingdom would fast. He said, “Whenever you fast, don’t be gloomy like the hypocrites. For they disfigure their faces so that their fasting is obvious to people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting isn’t obvious to others but to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:16-18). For Jesus, this was intended to be between the believer and the God He serves “in secret.” Of course, He does say the same for prayer (5-8) and giving alms (1-4). It might be public, but it is not for publicity. It is to be “secret.”
And in fact, congregations of Christ did fast. “Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, a close friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after they had fasted, prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them off” (Acts 13:1-3). This fasting was not personal or penitential. It was an act of devotion to the mission Barnabas and Saul were sent on by the Holy Spirit. There was no ash on foreheads or preset 40 days of abstinence from a select item. Their fasting accompanied prayer for a specific, congregational act. All the churches did not participate: Only Antioch. Additionally, congregations who appointed elders at Paul’s direction fasted too: “When they had appointed elders for them in every church and prayed with fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed” (14:23).
It is not a practice to be abhorred. But if it is personal and penitential, it was to be private “so that it is not obvious to others.” Jesus said that. Full stop. And if it is congregational, it was directed for a specific, communal activity of mission: sending off evangelists and appointing elders. It was not “church-wide.”
There’s a lot that’s worth considering here. And even more for us to reconsider about our resistance to this age-old practice that Jesus and the inspired Apostles practiced with the early church. But what is in the New Testament is not what is being presented today in Lent.
Today’s practice is a tradition bound on churches through calendar forged on human traditions. Do the traditions of men really not hurt anyone? I’d suggest that Jesus knew the power of human devised traditions. He said, “Abandoning the command of God, you hold on to human tradition.” He also said to them, “You have a fine way of invalidating God’s command in order to set up your tradition!” (Mark 7:8-9). Jewish leaders set up loopholes to evade the force of God’s direct instruction. And Jesus’ point is that God’s command is what must be upheld – not traditions men have created around it.
Rather than being rich with meaning, human-caused tradition cheats us of the real meaning of God-things. During their wilderness wanderings, the Israelites complained about the food God provided and were punished for it through an infestation of biting serpents (Numbers 21:4-6). After they repented, God told Moses to make a bronze serpent as part of a solution to the serpent bites (Numbers 21:7-9). Later in Israelite history, this bronze serpent transformed from being an object that could have given testimony to God’s salvation on that day in the wilderness to becoming an idol that people worshipped (2 Kings 18:4). While the Bible doesn’t record the steps of this transformation over the course of centuries, it is easy to imagine how humans do this. We watch ourselves and learn. The bronze serpent went from being an object that inspired remembrance like the memorial stones at Gilgal (Joshua 4:19-24) to being an object revered as something divine. What had initial value became not just a stumbling stone – but a sin in the hearts of people.
Finally, while God authorized the memorial stones at Gilgal (Joshua 4:1-3), He did not authorize any such memorial usage for the bronze serpent. And to imagine that it is a good idea borders too closely on being like the Pharisee who spoke for God when God had not.
So Lent is a humanly contrived feast to bring to remembrance something Jesus nor the Apostles ever instructed the church to practice. And if one tradition bound is fine, then every event in the ministry of Jesus is game for memorializing? When our calendars fill up with things God has never spoken to, and things which church tradition has burdened on believers as a mark of righteousness, we are back to the very thing Jesus censured in the Pharisees – and other man-made traditions: You nicely set aside the command of God to follow your traditions.
Fast in the way Jesus said. And no other.