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<\/a>by Peter Leithart<\/em><\/p>\n The Mosaic liturgical calendar prescribes only one fast, the day of atonement, when Israel was commanded to \u201chumble your souls\u201d (Leviticus 16:29; 23:27, 29, 32; the verb is sometimes translated as \u201cafflict\u201d). By way of contrast, Israel celebrated two week-long festivals, a handful one-day festivals, and a weekly Sabbath, when they were to eat, drink, and rejoice in Yahweh\u2019s good gifts.<\/p>\n This seems to imply that fasting plays little or no role in Israel\u2019s religious life, but that conclusion is premature. As Israel\u2019s history goes on, fasting becomes more prominent, not less. Israel first proclaims a fast during the civil war with the tribe of Benjamin (Judges 20:26). Naboth is falsely accused of conspiring against Ahab at a fast (1 Kings 21:9, 12), and when Jehoshaphat seeks the Lord, he marks it with a fast throughout Judah (2 Chronicles 20:3). In response to a locust invasion, Joel says, \u201cConsecrate a fast! Proclaim a solemn assembly!\u201d (Joel 1:14); \u201cblow a trumpet in Zion! Consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly!\u201d (2:15).<\/p>\n As Ezra returns from Babylon, he calls on the people to humble themselves to seek the Lord (Ezra 8:21-23). In preparation for her dangerous passage to the king, her \u201cday of atonement\u201d entry to the king\u2019s inner chamber, Esther asks Mordecai to assemble the Jews for a three-day fast (Esther 4:13-17). Fasting isn\u2019t limited to Israel. When Jonah warns Nineveh of impending destruction, the people show their penitence by calling a universal fast (Jonah 3:5-9), in the hope that God will turn and relent.<\/p>\n Fast days become fixed on the calendar. In Zechariah 8:19, the Lord promises to turn \u201cthe fast of the\u00a0fourth, the fast of the\u00a0fifth, the fast of the\u00a0seventh and the fast of the\u00a0tenth months\u201d into joyful feasts. At least for the duration of the exile, Israel commemorated the moments of Babylon\u2019s invasion and conquest of Judah with fasts.<\/p>\n By the time we reach the New Testament, fasting is one of the main acts of Jewish piety. John\u2019s disciples fast, and the Pharisee in Jesus\u2019 parable boasts of fasting twice a week (Luke 18:12). Jesus\u2019 disciples, controversially, do not fast during His earthly ministry (Matthew 9:14-15), but Jesus predicts that they will when the Bridegroom departs (Matthew 9:15). In Acts, the disciples fast in connection with ordination to mission (Acts 13:2-3; 14:23), prayer (Acts 14:23), and as a part of \u201cministering to the Lord\u201d (Acts 13:2).<\/p>\n Is the increasing incidence of fasting a mark of Israel\u2019s failure, a sign of her history of rebellion and unfaithfulness? Not exactly. Israel\u2019s history of rebellion is also a history of maturation<\/em>. The increase of fasting shows maturation in patience, penitence, and humility, a deepening of Israel\u2019s increasing awareness of her dependence on the mercy of the Lord. Fasting is part of Yahweh\u2019s pedagogy, designed to transform Adamic Israel into a new-Adamic humanity, to mold Israel into a nation that does not seize forbidden fruit but waits in faith for the Lord to keep His promises.<\/p>\n Jesus\u2019 instructions about fasting are the climax of this progress. He tells His disciples to fast with anointed heads and clean faces (Matthew 6:16-18). Washing and anointing are normally preparation for feasting (Ruth 3:3); they mark the end, not the beginning, of a fast (2 Samuel 12:20). Jesus turns fasting inside out. He wants us to dress for a feast when we\u2019re fasting, dress for a feast when we are feasting, dress for a feast for every occasion in between.<\/p>\n We can allegorize: Jesus Himself is our festal clothing, His Spirit the oil that anoints our head, baptism the water that cleans our faces. Whether fasting or feasting, we have this anointing and this washing. Fasting or feasting, we wear Jesus and His Spirit, our festal robe and light-giving oil.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s something else going on. Jesus came to inaugurate the feast of the kingdom. That feast is still ahead of us, but He began the feast of the kingdom already here and now. The feast is future, and the feast is present. We have to wait for a joy already granted.<\/p>\n Our practice fasting should reflect the reality of the new covenant, the maturity we have reached in the risen Son. When we\u2019re children, there\u2019s a chasm between hunger and satisfaction, between suffering and glory, between losing and winning. As \u2013 if<\/em> \u2013 we mature we learn to see a glimmer of success embedded in our failures, the glory of our sufferings, the joy in sorrow. Jesus tells us to discover the feast in the midst of the fast, the fullness at the center of our hunger.<\/p>\n As you enter Lent, act the part of grownups: Wash your face; put on that pomade; let the joy of the Spirit fill your heart. The feast that is ahead has already begun, and it has invaded our fasting.<\/p>\n Peter Leithart is President of the\u00a0<\/span>Theopolis Institute<\/a>\u00a0in Birmingham, Alabama. To learn more about Theopolis, sign up for the e-newsletter\u00a0<\/span>In Medias Res.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Peter Leithart The Mosaic liturgical calendar prescribes only one fast, the day of atonement, when Israel was commanded to \u201chumble your souls\u201d (Leviticus 16:29; 23:27, 29, 32; the verb is sometimes translated as \u201cafflict\u201d). By way of contrast, Israel celebrated two week-long festivals, a handful one-day festivals, and a weekly Sabbath, when they were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[394,396,393,391,186,392,397,86,395,362],"class_list":["post-613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ascesis","tag-ash-wednesday","tag-discipline","tag-fasting","tag-lent","tag-maturation","tag-maturity","tag-peter-leithart","tag-spiritual-disciplines","tag-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\n
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