Fasting and Praying

Recently, a friend told me he fasts intermittently to lose weight. Nearly twenty years ago, another friend in India visited me on a Friday morning. I offered him tea or coffee. He refused, saying that he was fasting. He fasted every Friday from the time he woke up until noon. People fast for health or spiritual disciple. This was and is an ancient practice.

Moses fasted 40 days without eating bread or drinking water before receiving the Ten Commandments from YHWH (Exod 34:28). Jehoshaphat fasted when faced with a large army (2 Chron 20:2–3). Esther asked all Hebrews to fast before she visited the king to seek his favor (Esth 4:1–3). Following this tradition, John the Baptizer’s disciples and Pharisees fasted and prayed (Luke 5:33a).

In contrast, Jesus’s disciples didn’t fast (Luke 5:33b). The Pharisees and scribes wanted to know why.

Jesus answered and said,

“The sons of the bridegrooms do not fast while the bridegroom is with them.” (Luke 5:34)

Translations change from “sons” to “friends” to accommodate modern-day culture, where bridegrooms rarely have children from a previous marriage. In ancient cultures, many wealthy men had more than one wife, and when they remarried, their sons and daughters celebrated with feasts. They didn’t starve while their fathers entered yet another marriage.

Similarly, while Jesus was with them, the disciples celebrated. They didn’t starve or fast; they feasted. But it would change.

“The days are coming when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.” (Luke 5:35)

In Jesus’s absence, the disciples would fast.

Fasting and praying are good when we realize why we fast and pray. We are not manipulating God to do an action. Instead, we are mourning the loss of a friend. In a spiritual sense, the Lord Jesus is always with us. We don’t miss him. But in a real sense, he isn’t ruling the events of daily living. As such, we mourn, fasting and praying for his will to happen on this earth.

Although I find it difficult to fast and pray (as I think of food more so when I fast than when I eat), I believe in the power of living by God’s word more than food. I am willing to forgo food for fellowship with the Father. That was the core of the Lord’s teaching. We fast because we miss fellowship; we feast because we have his fellowship.