Confusion About Fasting (Mark 2:18-22)

I admit it, I was a strange little girl. I wanted to please God but I wasn’t sure how. Sometimes I would pray while on my knees until I’d lost the feeling in my legs. Sometimes I would sleep beside my bed instead of on it. Why I thought this would please God I don’t know! And yet when I read about some of the fasts that are mentioned in the Bible I realized that I was not alone in my confusion.

In the book of Zechariah a question is asked, “Should we mourn and fast in the fifth month as we have done these many years?” They were using this fast to commemorate the final defeat by the Babylonians. However, it wasn’t a fast that God had ordained. He didn’t want them to continue to focus on their failures. The Old Testament only prescribed fasting for all the Jews on the Day of Atonement, as an act of repentance. The focus was to be on God. The fast was a means to make them aware of their sins and a way to express sorrow, so that they could turn away from their sin and turn towards God.

The Pharisees in Jesus’ day had promoted a voluntary fast on every Monday and Thursday which focused on their piety. Jesus’ disciples weren’t fasting, and this prompted the question, “Why don’t they?” Jesus used this question, as He often did, to ask a question of His own. “The wedding guests cannot fast while the groom is with them, can they? (Mark 2:19) Jesus presents His time with His disciples as a wedding. Guests at a wedding are focused on the beginning of something new. It’s  a time of celebration.

Fasting on the Day of Atonement was a time to pause to become aware of sin. The awareness of sin was to be accompanied by sorrow and a desire to repent. However, for the Pharisees the fast had become the focus. The practice that was to awaken in their heart sorrow for their sins had become a source of pride. It had become a measuring rod by which they could measure their own righteousness.

When Jesus had come to John to be baptized John proclaimed,“Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” When Jesus began preaching the good news of God He said: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God had come near. Repent and believe in the good news!” The Pharisees were so focused on their self-righteous fasting that they failed to hear the good news--the good news that atonement was to be accomplished through Jesus, the lamb of God. Those who received the good news of atonement were ready also to celebrate a nearness of the kingdom of God.