Yesterday in Kroger I passed a table where they were giving samples of paczkis. And though it was “Fat Tuesday” I didn’t take one. In fact, I’ve never had one which is strange because I love donuts—which is essentially what they are just with a weird name. I just really don’t want to observe the whole Lent, fasting for Lent, Ash Wednesday thing. “But you’re a minister! Why don’t you want to fall in line with this biblical tradition preceding Easter?” you may ask. First of all, there is nothing wrong per se with the Lent, fasting, and putting some ash on your forehead thing if that is what leads you to a more meaningful Easter. It’s just that it’s not really a biblical thing. In fact, the origin of Lent is actually kind of unbiblical. Palm Sunday, Holy (Maundy) Thursday, Good Friday, Easter—these are all in the Bible. Lent, paczkis, Ash Wednesday—not so much. Now, to be fair Christmas isn’t something we are told to celebrate in scripture and yet I do celebrate Christmas. Yet, the birth of Christ is in scripture and though we’re not told to have a celebration of Christ’s birth on December 25th, I think we’re on much more solid footing with Christmas.
Let me be clear: fasting, denying ourselves something for a period of time for a spiritual purpose, is a biblical thing that, frankly, we should do more of. And if this is done during the 40 days leading up to Easter, great! Yet, the origins of Lent, Fat Tuesday, and Ash Wednesday make me not really want to observe it… as much as I like jelly donuts. I am asked sometimes by folks why our church doesn’t observe these things. And maybe you’ve been asked “What are you giving up for Lent?” So here’s why in our church (as well as the larger body of churches of which we are a part-The Independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ) we don’t talk a whole lot about it.
The short story is that it’s not in the Bible. So where did the whole Lent thing come from? Glad you asked! The history of Lent is really a story of how Christians strayed from the Bible’s teaching about baptism.
The clear teaching and example in the New Testament regarding baptism is that it is done by immersion and done immediately or as soon as possible upon a person’s desire to become a Christ follower. Baptism should be accompanied by one’s confession of Christ as Savior, the Son of God, and repentance for sin. Acts 2:38-41 is the best example of this. This the practice throughout the entire New Testament: Faith, confession, repentance, baptism, indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
And for about the first 150 years after the church first began, baptism by immersion immediately was the practice of the church.
Starting around 150 a.d. there began to be some concessions made in case there wasn’t an available way to baptize by full immersion. And over the next couple hundred years baptism went from being immersed by any Christian (we’re all told to baptize people) immediately upon conversion to being sprinkled by only clergy and only on Easter.
When the church became a legalized religion in 313a.d., thousands wanted to get baptized and so the church began “saving people up” to get baptized on Easter. But the church had a problem now that Christianity was legal. Did people truly want to take up their cross and follow Jesus, or did they want to become a Christian because it was now in vogue? So they asked “How can we make sure these people are sincere in their desire to be Christians?”
At first, the church asked them to fast the day before Easter as a sign of true repentance. But in the mid 4thcentury a monk named Tyrannius Rufinus found an old letter from the 3rd century written by a pastor named Irenaeus which read:
“The dispute is not only about the day, but also about the actual character of the fast. Some think that they ought to fast for one day, some for two, others for still more; some make their ‘day’ last 40 hours on end. Such variation in the observance did not originate in our own day, but very much earlier, in the time of our forefathers.” (Eusebius, History of the Church, V, 24).
Tyrannius liked this idea. The problem was that when he translated that into Latin from Greek, he mistranslated 40 hours as “40 days.” And so began the tradition of 40 days of stringent preparation to get baptized. And this tradition grew over the years into “Lent.” The word Lent is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word lencten, which meant “Spring.”
So Lent has now become a tradition in the Spring over a period of 40 days (excluding Sundays), beginning on Ash Wednesday and ending the Saturday before Easter (or sometimes ending on Thursday).
Now, again, there is nothing inherently bad about Lent. But we should not feel bad in any way about not observing it (or not eating jelly donuts with 12,000 calories). We don’t celebrate it as a church for these reasons:
First, The Bible NEVER mentions Lent. It’s a tradition that started 300 hundred years after the resurrection of Jesus.
Second, Jesus tells us that his followers are meant to fast IN SECRET. A key part of Lent is giving something up to get closer to God. That’s what the Bible calls fasting and it’s a good thing, but it’s meant to be just between you and God and not put out there for display.
The only passage in the entire New Testament which gives us instructions about fasting is Matthew 6:16-18 in which Jesus says:
“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
In this passage Jesus unloads on the Pharisees specifically. They fasted 2 times a week during which time they evidently didn’t practice personal hygiene. In that time people didn’t bathe regularly, so they applied oil on the body to smell better and take care of the skin. The Pharisees stopped that altogether as a display of how religious they were so everyone would be impressed by their awesomeness.
So Jesus comes along and says, “Listen. I don’t know how to put this nicely. You stink. Like really bad. Take a shower.” You’re not more spiritual just because you stink and are hungry. Jesus is like, “I hate that—just doing stuff so people will notice you!” And so he says emphatically “Don’t be like them—don’t do that!”
And so if you fast or give something up during the 40 days before Easter, no one but God is supposed to know about it. It’s between you and God for the purpose of drawing closer to Him. It’s not about announcing it and putting some ashes on your forehead. And partying it up on Fat Tuesday before Lent starts certainly seems to miss the whole point of being a disciple of Jesus. As followers of Jesus our goal is to be radically obedient to everything He taught every day-24/7/365 (or 366 this year). And there is a sense in which Lent is kind of going against what he has told us to do.
A good definition of fasting is simply going without something you like which ends up forcing you to pay attention to your soul and pray
The impact on our lives can be profound. Going without food is most often associated with fasting, but there are many different kinds of fasts you can go on. Probably today, one of the best things you can go on is a fast from social media and smartphones. The research is so clear about all the ways in which we are too dominated by our technology and especially social media. You can fast from TV or any entertainment as well.
The bible only specifically mentions two kinds of fasting: Sex (1 Corinthians 7:5) and food. It was common during Jesus’ time to fast one day a week, and sometime to do it for longer periods of time. Fasting can help us withstand temptation (Matthew 4:1-3). It can help when we have a hard time making a decision (Acts 14:23). And we can fast in relation to evangelistic and mission work (Acts 13:2-3).
The key to fasting for whatever purpose and in whatever form is simple:
1. Don’t tell anyone you’re fasting
2. Have special times of prayer
3. Spend more time soaking in God’s Word.
Chris Higgins 