Fasting From The World To Find The Kingdom, part 1 (re-post)
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(This is part one of a two part re-post of four posts from 2012)
“And when you fast, don’t put on a sad face like the
hypocrites. They distort their faces so people will know they are fasting. I
assure you that they have their reward. When you fast, brush your hair
and wash your face. Then you won’t look like you are fasting to people, but
only to your Father who is present in that secret place. Your Father who sees
in secret will reward you.
-Mathew 6:16
Jesus mentions fasting, in the sermon on the mount, in
Matthew, chapter 6: He says, “and when you fast..." Jesus
gives instruction to his disciples on how to fast differently than the
super-religious people of the day. The purpose of fasting, like all
kingdom activity, is to bring our lives into alignment with heaven. God
rules and reigns in heaven, without restriction. In fasting, we seek
God's rule and reign in our whole being.
I got the idea that we can fast from the world to find the kingdom
of God . This was perhaps the
original idea behind monasteries and hermitages. This is also the
idea behind getting away to pray and retreats. Jesus himself went away to
pray.
But the majority of the majority of Christ-follower's lives
are lived in the world. For the Christian, worldly appetites need to be
abstained from, to make way for the kingdom in our lives.
In fasting, we deny our selves worldly things and instead
focus on spiritual food. In fasting, we train our appetites that they
come second to our desire for God.
The values of the world are at odds with God's values.
Everywhere, the world is involved in rebellion against God: Idolatry,
deception, and lies. The Christian lives in the midst of this. How
then do we function in our new walk outside the world, while in the
world? By intentionally fasting from the world as a way of life.
The disciple of Jesus lives a life of God first, all the time, everywhere.
This is sounding hard, you might say. But, God gives
us grace, more grace (James 4:6) to work out walking with him and under the
banner of the kingdom in this world. God gives us latitude and leeway in
our walks. In the new covenant it is all about Jesus. He has done
it all already.
You cannot earn anything, but you get to decide, every day, how far you want to go. You really can decide to be cold or lukewarm or hot, and if you are a son or daughter, you can expect discipline, with love, from God. We are not under law, but as sons and daughters, the bar is actually higher.
You cannot earn anything, but you get to decide, every day, how far you want to go. You really can decide to be cold or lukewarm or hot, and if you are a son or daughter, you can expect discipline, with love, from God. We are not under law, but as sons and daughters, the bar is actually higher.
In the sermon on the mount, after Jesus mentions fasting,
everything he says, up to verse 34, is instructive on how to fast from the
world. Remember that for everything that Jesus instructs, God has already
made provision for you to do, with the help of the Helper, the Holy Spirit.
"Don’t put on a sad face like the hypocrites."
You may feel sad and get sad and therefore, look sad. That is ok. Jesus is saying to not put on the sad mask, to be a spiritual phony. Keep is real, be genuine, be yourself.
You may feel sad and get sad and therefore, look sad. That is ok. Jesus is saying to not put on the sad mask, to be a spiritual phony. Keep is real, be genuine, be yourself.
Jesus contrasted his ways with the religious leaders of his
day. Hypocrisy was their corporate culture: saying one thing and doing
another. The religious hypocrite has many masks. They are fake
actors, rather than real, transparent, and authentic.
Don't be like the religious hypocrites Jesus says.
They mouth things about God, but they are man centered. They are law
centered, devoid of the Helper, the Holy Spirit.
"You won’t look like you are fasting to people, but
only to your Father who is present in that secret place. Your Father who sees
in secret will reward you."
Fasting is something you just do in the kingdom. You do not have to do it, and your are not required to do it. You might fast and pray if you feel so led, or you might fast (stop) something in your life that is impairing the kingdom in your life. You won't need to advertise it. Christ followers have a secret life with God.
Fasting is something you just do in the kingdom. You do not have to do it, and your are not required to do it. You might fast and pray if you feel so led, or you might fast (stop) something in your life that is impairing the kingdom in your life. You won't need to advertise it. Christ followers have a secret life with God.
One of the marks of a Pharisee is that they don't do things
in secret, but display them. The Pharisee also gets a thrill out of the
display being seen, of showing and telling. Each Follower of Jesus has
their own secret history with God, which God rewards. You don't need to
show off.
Fasting, by definition means to abstain from food. I learned
from Christian elders that you can also fast from things like reading the news
paper or watching television. I few years ago, I read about a church that
was fasting from gossip. We might need to fast from things that get out
of control in our lives. Like a weed or an unwanted plant in your yard,
these things start small and get bigger and can take over, if totally ignored.
I noticed in
Matthew 6, that right after Jesus gives some instructions on fasting (don't do
it in a show-off way), that he talks about some other things that can get
out of control in our lives and need to be abstained from.
Imagine a movie
about a time before the modern era. Perhaps the first, second, or third
century. A man or woman looks for pebbles all day, gathers them, and puts
them on display. He or she wakes up each morning and gazes fondly at the
pebbles. The person might also have friends that collect pebbles and they
compare and muse for hours about the different pebbles they might find or tell
stories of the rarest pebbles that others have found.
Jesus had
something to say about this kind of thing:
"Stop collecting treasures for your own benefit on earth, where moth and rust eat them and where thieves break in and steal them. Instead, collect treasures for yourselves in heaven, where moth and rust don’t eat them and where thieves don’t break in and steal them. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." -Matthew 6:19-21
Fasting from the
world means to stop the collecting activities that are not kingdom
activities. "On
earth" is contrasted with "in heaven". Nothing is wrong
with collecting treasure for yourselves, as long as it is heavenly and not
earthly treasures. It is very true that, "you can't take it with
you".
Everywhere,
advertisements are crying out, telling us that we deserve this and that
benefit. There are shopping websites and idea websites that we look at
for hours, that lead us towards benefiting ourselves with earthly
treasures. Some people see shopping as their joy and recreational activity.
We have to corral
our desires back to God, back to God's kingdom, back to kingdom activity.
Jesus says "stop", because we may have to deny our selves something
in order to bring it down to a smaller place in our lives.
What is heavenly
treasure and what can you take with you? Relationships built in Jesus
will last. You get to take your children with you. You get to take
what you give to the Lord with you: "Thank you for giving to the
Lord, I am a life that was changed!" You get to take what you did in
his name with you. The prayers you prayed, the spiritual seeds you sowed
will yield treasure in heaven. When you suffer for his name, and when you
are faithful; you are laying up heavenly treasure.
“The eye is the lamp of the body. Therefore, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how terrible that darkness will be!" -Matthew 6:22-23
Fasting from the
world to make way for the kingdom of God in our lives brings up the issue of what
we look at. What you gaze upon is what you become. To make way for
the kingdom in our lives, we need to be more careful what we look at.
Darkness inside a person of the light is a tragic thing.
Are we constantly
looking at things, wanting them, lusting for them, coveting other people's
things? Is our life marked by discontent or generosity? Are we
constantly looking to have, to desire, to want for ourselves; or are we always
attentive to what we can give and are we content on earth, while hungrily
desiring more of heaven? Cultivate generous eyes. Learn to see how
Jesus sees. The Holy Spirit will help you see this way.
"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be loyal to the one and have contempt for the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." -Matthew 6:24
Some of us may
need to fast from serving wealth. Is your life centered around making
money or serving God? Nothing is wrong with making lots of money and
being wealthy. But, is building wealth or building the kingdom your
priority? Who do you serve? Has your wallet gotten saved?
I read all four parts you wrote on the fasting, and I totally agree with you on the priority to seek the Kingdom. However, in some of your wisdom you contradict my teachings, what was taught to me. I am wondering if you have read the Gospel of Thomas, and what your thoughts are regarding Jesus's teaching in this text?
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting. I have looked at Thomas, in my studies. I believe Thomas is a reflection of what Christian communities, who were perhaps less than orthodox (esoteric), believed to have been circulated in the 2nd and 3rd centuries; and not really what Jesus said, verbatim. Some people say that Thomas teaches Gnosticism, which is incompatible with the NT. In this post, I was wrestling with the idea of fasting from the world to find the kingdom. In Thomas, I see that fasting is also mentioned a couple of other times, with a different perspective; saying that you can go overboard with fasting (14 & 104). Tertullian, Clement and Justin also apparently wrestled with these issues of fasting, referring to the Thomas text(s); according to F.F. Bruce (Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament, p. 125)
ReplyDeleteI am curious what I wrote that contradicted what you believe?