Driven to Fast

According to Mark’s first chapter, the Spirit DROVE Jesus to the wilderness immediately after Jesus’ baptism. Strong language! He was DRIVEN to the wilderness to fast, to pray, and to face the temptations that inevitably come with fasting. In my occasional fasting, I have seldom fasted more than one day at a time. I cannot even imagine how hungry Jesus must have been after forty days.

Some of you know what fasting feels like after giving up a couple of meals on Ash Wednesday. For me it has been a gift. After our Ash Wednesday service last year, I sat with some of our brothers and sisters in Christ who had gathered for a “break-fast” meal. I slowly took a bite of a grape. I shelled a roasted peanut and ate one of the nuts inside. Then I took a small bite of cheese. The tastes exploded and the natural foods tasted so sweet and rich! For that time, fasting had given me a new attitude toward food. It gave me an attitude of thankfulness and appreciation.

Fasting made me appreciate the meal. It made me eat more slowly and focus on the people I was with instead of the food on my plate. I savored each bite rather than swallowing it quickly so that I could get to the next one. When I take food for granted, I eat way too much of it. And I lose the gratitude.

Perhaps this is too self-revealing in such a public forum. But I confess that food is often an escape for me, or even an idol! Arrogantly, I have placed a high value on feeling full when much of the world is truly hungry. We have access to the best food in the world and plenty of it. We shop in markets and stores that are so well-stocked that people from other-world countries would be in utter disbelief to see the selection, quantity, and quality of food.

I’ve fasted before and I’ve come to these same conclusions before, but I forget them. Fasting regularly also helps me be more disciplined in other areas. I feel better, breathe better, sing better, need less sleep, and generally feel that I have more time to get things done. I am more attentive in conversations with people and in prayer.

This is not meant to be bragging. I am sharing with you a humble discovery in my journey of faith. It is more a confession of my own weakness. But it is also a new insight into Jesus’ fasting during the forty days we remember during Lent. I had assumed Jesus would have been at his weakest after being famished for so long. As we look at what follows in the desert, Jesus may have been at his strongest point spiritually after his exercise of spiritual discipline. He was hungry. But he was able to decline the temptation to change his loyalties and sell out for the worldly kingdoms. He was able to think clearly and resist the tempter boldly.

The Spirit DROVE Jesus to the wilderness to fast. Not to weaken him, but to give him strength!