Everybody knows Lent has forty days. A few of us might even have some ideas about why the period from Ash Wednesday on 21 February until Easter Eve on 7 April does not in fact comprise forty days, but forty-six (something to do with not fasting on Sundays, if you need a clue!) But isn't it all rather superstitious and unscriptural?
We know from our Bible that the Jews fasted, that the disciples of John the Baptist fasted, and that the apostles fasted. It comes as a surprise that nowhere in the first five books of the Old Testament is there any mention of fasting - the first reference is in Judges 20, where it is accompanied by weeping and sorrow at the slaughter of 18000 men at the hands of the Benjaminites, and the second is not until 1 Samuel 7, when there is a day of fasting in penitence for having worshipped foreign gods. The third is a seven-day fast at the death of Saul (1 Samuel 31).
Fasting is a sign of sorrow, and also a sign of sincerity in prayer, of humbleness and a confession of our own powerlessness. As the prophets warned, it can become an empty formality:
Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight, and to strike with a wicked fist.
Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high.
...Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?
Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
(Isaiah 58:4-7 NRSV)
Jesus himself came with the good news of the Kingdom, and for him, sorrow, contrition and fasting were not an issue. But he foresaw that his disciples would fast, and echoed the prophets' concern that this fasting should be genuine. "Whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you." (Matt 6:16-18).
In the Acts of the Apostles, fasting is part of the preparation for setting people aside for positions of leadership. What we do in Lent goes back to the days when converts to the Christian faith had a long period of instruction, and then prepared themselves by fasting before their baptism at Easter. For those of us who are already Christians, it seems good to share in this same commitment, even if the practice of Easter baptism has long disappeared.
The forty days recall Jesus' own time in the desert at the outset of his ministry, as well as the forty days Moses spent on Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:18) and Elijah's forty-day journey to the same place (1 Kings 19:8). The theme again is one of preparation for a task ahead.
This should be our own theme during Lent - making ourselves fit for new steps on our Christian path, relying not on our own resources, but on God, and recalling with sorrow the sinfulness around us. If giving up meat, or chocolate, or whatever, helps in this, then we should give it up. But we should bear Isaiah's words in mind. If we do not use this time to move closer to God, to make ourselves better people, then we will have failed. Thank Heaven that God is there to forgive us and to strengthen us!
HD