Feasting & Fasting
“And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”” (Mark 2:16)
This past Lord’s Day we looked at the rhythm of feasting and fasting that Jesus modeled for us in Mark 2:13-22 (you can listen HERE). I wanted to share some choice quotes on both of these rhythm’s from thinkers that I’ve found helpful over the years.
(*Note: A list of recommended books are below, which are the origin of many of these quotes*)
Feasting
Robert Karris - “In Luke’s Gospel Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal.”
Tim Chester - “So the meals of Jesus represent something bigger. They represent a new world, a new kingdom, a new outlook. But they give that new reality substance. Jesus’ meals are not just symbols; they’re also application. They’re not just pictures; they’re the real thing in miniature”
Tim Chester - “The Christian community is the beginning and sign of God’s coming world—and no more so than when we eat together. Our meals are a foretaste of the future messianic banquet. Our meals reveal the identity of Jesus. Our meals are a proclamation and demonstration of God’s good news”
Tim Chester - “Jesus spent his time eating and drinking—a lot of his time. He was a party animal. His mission strategy was a long meal, stretching into the evening. He did evangelism and discipleship round a table with some grilled fish, a loaf of bread, and a pitcher of wine.”
Peter Leithart - “For Jesus “feast” was not just a “metaphor” for the kingdom. As Jesus announced the feast of the kingdom, He also brought it into reality through His own feasting. Unlike may theologians, He did not come preaching an ideology, promoting ideas, or teaching moral maxims. He came teaching about the feast of the kingdom, and He came feasting in the kingdom. Jesus did not go around merely talking about eating and drinking; he went around eating and drinking. A lot.”
Rosaria Butterfield - “Let God use your home, apartment, dorm room, front yard, community gymnasium, or garden for the purpose of making strangers into neighbors and neighbors into family. Because that is the point—building the church and living like a family, the family of God.”
Rosaria Butterfield - “Jesus dines with sinners so that He can get close enough to touch us, so that He can participate in the intimacy of the table fellowship as a healer and a helper. Jesus comes to change us, to transform us, so that after we have dined with Jesus, we want Jesus more than the sin that beckons our fidelity”
Fasting
Tim Challies - “Fasting is something you can add to prayer. You fast in those times you earnestly desire to seek God, the presence of God, the will of God, the power of God, and the forgiveness of God. If it is worth pleading with God about it, it’s worth fasting about it. Ultimately, prayer is a means of seeking God himself, and fasting is God’s mysterious but effective means of assisting that noble desire. It is putting aside the satisfaction of food to come to a deeper satisfaction in God. It is diverting the desire for food into a desire for God.”
David Mathis - “Fasting is an exceptional measure, designed to channel and express our desire for God and our holy discontent in a fallen world. It is for those not satisfied with the status quo. For those who want more of God’s grace. For those who feel truly desperate for God.”
Bob Jennings - “I wonder why fasting is so little employed by even true Christians when it is such a powerful spiritual weapon? “This kind (of demonic power) does not come out but by prayer and fasting”, Mark 9:29. When Daniel prayed and fasted something happened in the demonic realm. When Jehoshaphat and his army fasted God sent angelic help. It is the “big gun”, it is the heavy artillery for the Christian soldier. It sharpens the edge of our prayers. It is itself a silent prayer saying to God, “I’m desperate”.”
John Piper - “Therefore bread was created for the glory of Christ. Hunger and thirst were created for the glory of Christ. And fasting was created for the glory of Christ.
Which means that bread magnifies Christ in two ways: by being eaten with gratitude for his goodness, and by being forfeited out of hunger for God himself. When we eat, we taste the emblem of our heavenly food—the Bread of Life. And when we fast we say, “I love the Reality above the emblem.” In the heart of the saint both eating and fasting are worship. Both magnify Christ.”
John Piper - “The final answer is that God rewards fasting because fasting expresses the cry of the heart that nothing on the earth can satisfy our souls besides God. God must reward this cry because God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.”
Don Whitney - “Fasting has to be a discipline, otherwise it is a blessing we’ll never experience. When should you fast? Times of special need, when important decisions must be made, or occasions when spiritual longings are especially intense, are often promptings to enter into a fast. But Christians are free to experience the blessings of fasting as often as they desire. Fasting expresses in a God-ordained way our belief that we have tasted and seen that the Lord is good (Ps. 34:8) — so good that there are times we’re satisfied to feast on Him instead of the food that the Lord made for us to live on. Fasting is a temporary physical demonstration that we believe the truth declared by the gospel, namely that, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). Do you believe that? Do you fast?”
Church, let’s embrace the rhythm of feasting and fasting!
“The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.” (Mark 2:20)
Recommended Books: