If . . . Then!

If I truly crave you 
the way I feel hunger pangs 
on a day of fasting, 
not forgetting to seek you 
like I do when I am “fed”,  
satisfied with earthly food, 

if I really listen for you, 
and let those pangs alert me 
to pause, to hear what you say, 
hungering for your words, 
the bread we undervalue, 
and let you satisfy my soul, 

then I need to respond, 
to turn and put in action 
the words that you speak. 
What you want me to do 
is to help others, be merciful– 
it matters more than sacrifice. 

And then, you say, I will be 
like sunrise breaking through 
dark clouds: bright light! 
I will be the very water 
thirsty souls are looking for,
an orchard full of fruit!  

Meaningful celebrations are getting closer every day: Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem (then his betrayal by the people), his gift of love when he became the sacrifice that saves us, then his resurrection—the grave could not hold him! During these days leading up to those crucial memorial holidays, we are in “Lent,” a season of preparation for them. It has morphed from an exclusively Catholic observance to one that is meaningful to many Protestants as well. The practice that most often comes to mind is fasting during the forty days leading up to Easter. It is self-denial—which could be traditional fasting from food during certain hours or days, or even from social media or some other “addiction” or habit in order to focus more time reflecting on all that Jesus gave up for us. That can be very worthwhile when it is accompanied by digging into the Word and time in prayer. But, as my Master told me when I wrote that poem above, “then I need to respond, to put in action the words” that he speaks.

There is nothing wrong with fasting—Jesus himself fasted for forty days and nights in the wilderness before launching his ministry. It also prepared him to go through intense temptation (Matthew 4). The widowed prophetess Anna fasted and prayed day and night (Luke 2:36-37). Early church leaders fasted so that they could listen more clearly to the Lord’s leading in decision-making (Acts 13:2; 14.23).

The danger is that it can become yet another religious rite. And just giving up something for a few days certainly does not earn us points with God—there is no way we can increase our standing with him just by changing a habit for a short while. It depends on how it is done and for what purpose.

Jesus made it clear that one must never do it to show off (Matthew 6:16-18); only if fasting is done solely in the presence of God will it ever be rewarded. And the reward seems to be mainly spiritual growth, and renewed sensitivity to our Lord’s voice as certain distractions are removed. The yearning for whatever it is that we give up can become an incitement to focus more on him. I tell myself: May each hunger pang turn my heart toward Yahweh, to listen and to converse! This produces the reward’s healthy spiritual fruit that can nourish others.

There is a powerful passage concerning this in Isaiah 58:1-11. Moïse and I were just working through translation of these verses into Nyarafolo last month, and I had to digest it once again. In the context, God is explaining to his people why they have deserved the punishment he has inflicted on them. They wanted him to answer their prayers, to give them a smooth road. success (Isaiah 57:1-18). But their hearts were divided: They also wanted to commit sexual sin, to worship false gods. Many of us could shrug that off as irrelevant to us (depending on how one interprets other ways of adoring physical satisfaction or a seemingly powerful person).

But then Yahweh becomes explicit about another thing that made him truly angry: sinful greed (v.17). Each one was going on “in the way of his own heart.* (Isaiah 57:17 ESV) They wanted to manipulate God to give them what they needed or wanted, but reserved the right to make their own choices, do their own thing.

For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?'” (Isa. 58:2-3a NIV)

Sound familiar? A person like this could be a faithful church attender, or even one who regularly listens to sermons online. It could be an American who only cares about certain issues that are biblically based, while others are discarded as irrelevant. Let’s consider the principles that Yahweh underlines:

Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? (Isaiah 58:3b-5a NIV)

They were not caring appropriately for those they supervised. And in their own fellowship group they were quarreling, lashing out at each other. In this political season it is all too easy to fall into this latter trap.

So then Yahweh explains that practicing self-denial as a way to get God to act as they please is useless. He goes into detail about the kind of self-giving that matters. It demonstrates an undivided heart, one totally in submission to the Master’s values:

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:

to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke,

to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry

and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-

when you see the naked, to clothe them,

and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness¹ will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,

with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry

and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,

then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.  (Isaiah 58:6-11 NIV)

I propose that in the days of Lent that remain, we consider how we can actually do what Yahweh, the Almighty Sovereign of the Universe, our Father and Master, says we must do—if we really want him to guide us and provide for us, making us shining lights and refreshing sources of food and water for those around us!