Fastenzeit
Lent 1: Matthew 4:1-11
by Vicar Luke Otten
In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.
The text for our sermon today comes from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew the 4th chapter… The paraments are violet; the Gloria in Excelsis is stored away until Easter morning. We are in Lent proper. Pre-lent is over, and we have said our goodbyes to those funny sounding “Gesima Sundays,” or have we? The season of Lent is one of the oldest liturgical seasons in the church and it has gone by many names. We call it Lent, which comes from the old English word, Lencten, meaning “spring season,” which makes sense since Lent normally begins and winter is ending and spring is being ushered in; well maybe that’s not the case in Minnesota, but you understand what I’m getting at. In Latin, the whole season is “Gesima” named. It’s called Quadragesima, fortieth. Since the season is forty days, the whole season is known by length. But that’s not the only thing Lent is known for and named for. Consider the German word for Lent, Fastenzeit. Fasten, simply enough meaning “fasting,” and Zeit, meaning “time.” Lent is “fasting-time.” It’s time for fasting. The season is named after what you do in it. Fast. And so here we are in a season known for its time, its length, and its practices. Let us today contemplate fasting, after all it is Fastenzeit.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth” (Gen 1:1). That’s the first verse in the Bible and in the next chapter you get the first command God gives to Adam, even before Eve was made: “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’” (Gen 2:16-17). God’s first command to man is one of fasting. Don’t eat that! You’ll die! And sure, enough we know what happens, Eve “saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate” (Gen 3:6). The fast was broken and in turn the whole world was shattered, and it’s in this shattered world that we live.
But even we and all who came before us have been given commands by God concerning of fasting, but these aren’t only about food. The whole Christian life is that of fasting. God’s commands, laws, statutes are chiefly about fasting from sin. That’s the first type of fasting. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony against you neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. God commands you to abstain from all these. He wants you to abstain from sin. Do you fast from the sins condemned by the 10 commandments, along with all the other laws of the Lord? You should. That’s your duty as a Christian. That’s the life of a Christian, a perpetual fast from sin.
But you don’t do this fast do you? You gossip about your family and slander your friends. You steal your sibling’s toys. You see a woman who is a delight to the eyes and lust after her. You covet your neighbor’s possessions, perhaps just the other day you desired his big snowblower while you’re stuck with a small one or perhaps only a shovel. So what is the Lenten fast for? Is it the time to fast from sins like these? 40 days to try to be good? Beloved in the Lord, don’t think like that! That’s not what the Lenten fast is. You should always be fasting from sins! You are a Christian, fast from sins all every day, not just for 40 days!
Now yes, fasting from sins is hard. Our flesh craves to be satisfied in ungodly ways all the time, but that’s exactly why we periodically fast from things that aren’t sinful. That’s the second form of fasting, the fasting of Lent, the one we normally mean when we speak of fasting. That’s the fasting today’s Gospel text speaks of Jesus doing while in the wilderness.
Jesus had just been baptized and then “was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (vs 1). During his whole time in the wilderness, he fasts, and, as the texts notes, “after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry” (vs 2). Naturally, he was hungry; He had been fasting for 40 days and 40 nights. He felt the pains of hunger. Who wouldn’t be hungry after that? Most of us would find a 40 hours fast difficult, but a 40 day fast, well, most of us would probably be dead. Many have tried a true 40 day fast and many have died from it. But that’s what we should assume. Fasting shows how dependent we are upon God and his gifts for life. Every time we feel the pangs of hunger, we are reminded of our mortality. We are reminded that we are sustained from things outside of ourselves. For what man can keep himself alive without food? In turn what man can save himself without the Lord?
Consider the men in the Bible who fasted for 40 days, Moses on Mount Sinai, and Elijah on his travels to Mount Horeb. They were sustained by the grace of the Lord as he granted them strength to complete their tasks even as they abstained from food which is what normally strengthens men. The Lord’s word commanded these men what to do and through the Lord’s power in these words did these men endure. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Deut 8:3/Matt 4:4). Indeed, that is true and that’s what the fasting Christ says to Satan as He is being tempted by him.
Jesus was hungry. He hadn’t eaten in 40 days. He was feeling the pains of His flesh. Yet, he had Godly strength to endure all the trials and temptations of Satan. Satan tried his best to get Jesus to crack, to break his fast, to sin, anything that would keep Jesus from accomplishing that for which He was sent. But Jesus was fulfilling all righteousness. He only did good. He always resisted sin. He constantly beat Satan. All these things that you so often fail to do, Jesus did in the perfected flesh of man. Jesus fought for you against Satan and sin and won. He bore the pangs of hunger, of humanity and didn’t give in. From his circumcision to his passion, He suffered the pains of the flesh, all that he might win for you the defeat of Satan and sin and the defeat of your fallen flesh. He lived a perfect life and took up his cross to save you. And from the cross, that sacrificial tree, he gives you the fruit for your life and sustenance. For from that tree comes the fruit of life that you may eat and in eating it you may live forever.
Beloved in the Lord, don’t ever fast from this gift. Don’t ever fast from the Lord’s words and his sacraments. For these are the gifts of life that will sustain you and give you eternal life. If you go without them, you will perish. You will die in the wilderness of this world. You will fall into Satan’s temptations. For if you aren’t strengthened by the sacraments, and you don’t know the Word of God, how will you know fare when temptations come? People will come up to you, offering you worldly sinful pleasures, pleasures that are a delight to your sinful eyes, pleasures that are oh so desirable, and they’ll say, “Did God really say you shouldn’t do this or can’t do that?” If you aren’t in God’s word, how will you know what He has said and what to avoid?
And so that’s a reason why we have the Lenten fast. Not as a fast to fast from sins, but as a fast from non-sinful things. For when we fast from things like alcohol, sweets, meat, social media, video games, we have more time to devote ourselves to prayers and reading the Bible that we may know what God says and also that we deny ourselves pleasures of the flesh. For in doing these, we are better prepared for the temptations of Satan. In a world that begs us to always say “yes,” fasting teaches us to say “no.” To say no to Satan, to say no to the world and to say no to the person it is most hard to say “no” to, ourselves. By denying ourselves the non-sinful things, we are better in shape for denying sinful things that we are tempted with and that we know are sinful by our knowledge of God’s word. The Lord has perfected the flesh of man and gives you the strength to overcome all your temptations, as St. Paul says, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Cor 10:13). The Lord grants you all that you need to support this body and life and grants you that which you need to sustain the temptations of the flesh.
In Lent, we contemplate our Savior’s passion and death, when he took up his cross. If we desire to follow him, let us take up on our cross and deny ourselves and our sinful passions. So for this Lent, for this “fasting-time,” partake in some fasting, be reminded of your mortality which Jesus saves you from. Read your Bible. These will help you fast from the sins of the flesh that you should always be denying and fasting from. That is staying steadfast to Christ and his Word. Lord, keep us steadfast in you and your word. In Jesus’ precious and holy name. Amen.