Do I need to fast ?

Jesus responded to the query from John’s disciples about why his disciples did not fast with a question, "How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them?”. He then went on to elaborate saying, “They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.” (Mark 2:19,20)

Jesus did not say fasting was not necessary. Rather, he anticipated that they would fast at a later point in time. But before they could be expected to fast, he was at work in them. He was preparing their hearts so that when they fast they would not do it as an obligation to keep the law. Instead, they would do it for the right reasons. Jesus conveyed this through a metaphor. "No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins." (Mark 2:21,22). He was giving them a new robe of righteousness. He was transforming their hearts that were old wineskins into ones capable of being home to his Holy Spirit. With his righteousness, they would then fast so that they are with the Lord even as their bodies are away from Christ. With fasting we seek him and draw near to him.

Today, some people fast as the pharisees did. They do it for all the wrong reasons . . . to be seen to be holy by others, to earn brownie points with God, or to wring God's hands into acting out what they desire. There are others on the other extreme who reject fasting as mere observance of the law that is no longer required, or as a dead tradition that yields nothing good. Jesus did not consider fasting to be an inconsequential and unnecessary practice.

In fact, Jesus thought and taught ‘Fasting’ to be an essential part of a child of God – putting it in the same league as praying and helping the poor – as can be seen from another passage in the Gospels. In his sermon on the mount, he preached saying, "When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Mat 6:16-18)

Why should we fast? If we know why we should pray, we would then know why we should fast. Fasting can be considered as an intense form of prayer. When we pray God often works changes within us though at times he additionally works out changes outside us too. Anyone who spends time with the Lord is transformed by his presence. In Exodus we find that whenever Moses returned from the Lord’s presence after speaking with him, his face was radiant (Exo.34:34,35). On most such occasions, his prayer was also accompanied by fasting. Prayer and fasting bring such glorious transformation. Fasting helps one to humble himself before God in order to experience God's intimate presence and more grace.

How is fasting an intense form of prayer? In prayer, we fervently petition God. In fasting, our prayer is all the more fervent and potent. A poet wrote “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of”. It is all the more true of fasting. In Mark 9:17-29, we find Jesus rebuking and driving out a deaf and mute spirit that also threw the boy it possessed to the ground, making him foam at his mouth, gnash his teeth and become rigid. His disciples wondered why they could not drive the spirit out. Jesus had a short reply, "This kind can come out only by prayer and fasting." Fasting is needed to save people from bondage to evil.

In the early church that got established soon after our Lord’s ascension, we find the apostles and the early Christians praying and fasting. In Acts 13:2 we find that while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." As they reaffirmed their consecration to God through fasting, he set out to do wonderful things in their midst. In verse 23 of the next chapter we see that Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust. Here, when they set out on a new task, they fasted to seek his grace for the task, even as Christ himself fasted ahead of his ministry (Mat 4:2).

Jesus fasted. His disciples fasted after he was taken up from the earth, true to the words he spoke while he had been with them. The early church fasted. All this should certainly encourage us to fast more than we do now, even as we are driven in our hearts to increase and abound in prayer.