Saturday March 7th – Lent 2009

An article by Dale Campbell    No Comments

One might try to make a case against things like ‘Lent’ based on Luke 5:33-35.

In this passage, Jesus is questioned why his followers don’t fast and pray like the disciples of John and of the Pharisees.  Jesus responds with another question: Can you make the friends of the bridegroom (the ole KJV puts it better – “the children of the bridechamber” – referring to a festive place/time) fast while the bridegroom is with them?

For anyone who’s been to a stag party, the answer is obvious.  Wedding festivities of any kind are not times or places for displays of self control or self denial when it comes to food.  They are times of joy and celebration.

But there’s more.  The disciples of John and of the Pharisees weren’t just fasting to show off religious piety.  Their fasting and praying was an expression of their longing for God’s kingdom to come – which (among other things) entailed national deliverance from the Roman Empire currently oppressing them.

This makes the meaning of the feasting and celebration (‘eating and drinking’) of the disciples of Jesus even more obvious.  In and through Jesus presence and ministry, the very thing that the others were praying and fasting for had already begun!  The wedding festivities had been kicked off.  The bridegroom was in the bridechamber with his mates.  The kingdom was there – the kingdom was then.  Time to party.

So what about Lent, then?  We follow Jesus, right?  We’re living for his kingdom to come ‘on earth as it is in heaven’, right?  Why fast?  Why pray?  Why do things like Lent?

Well, Jesus didn’t stop there.  He also referred (somewhat cryptically) to his coming betrayal, arrest, ‘trial’  (if you can call it that), and crucifixion.  “But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days [emphasis mine].”

There is a time for feasting; and there is a time for fasting.

There are many reasons throughout many of our lives for feasting.  Weddings, Stag parties, birthdays, work dos, holidays and many more.

And there are also many reasons in the world to pray and fast.  Hunger/starvation, oppression, inequality/injustice, dehumanising structures and processes, slavery, etc.  And that’s just stuff ‘out there’.  There’s also plenty of stuff in our own lives that ought to get us fasting and praying.  Selfishness of all kinds (i.e. ‘sin’), apathy/indifference, busy-ness, separation from genuine relationship/community with others, etc.

In sum – as long as the bridegroom (and the fullness of life that comes with His kingdom) is not fully present either in our own hearts/minds/lives or in the wider world, we have much reason to fast and to pray.

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Dale Campbell is a volunteer advocate for TEAR Fund New Zealand. He is an Associate Pastor at Northcote Baptist Church in Auckland, New Zealand and runs a blog that is well worth reading – Fruitful Faith.