Day 48
Leviticus 4:1‐5:19; Mark 2:13‐3:6; Psalm 36:1‐12; Proverbs 10:1‐2
New Again!
In preparation for Easter Day, many Christians celebrate the 40 days before as a time of fasting called Lent. When asked in his Sunday school class what he was going to give up for Lent, one small boy said, “I’m giving up liver. I hate liver.” Not quite the right attitude.
Although Jesus did not specially tell us to fast, what He did tell us is that if we choose to sacrifice through a fast, we are to do it in secret and combine it with prayer. Fasting is an inward, private thing that we can do as an act of contrition and preparation. How profound that Jesus, the only one without sin, fasted for 40 days. He had nothing for which to repent, but He fasted in preparation for the war against death which we deserve for our sins
.Some people pointed out to Jesus that the Pharisees were fasting, along with John’s disciples, but not Jesus’. What the Pharisees were doing was for show, not for sincere remorse, and not for the renewal of their souls.
Fasting, therefore, has several purposes. Certainly, it is an act of penitence, but it also is a preparation for something that could change our lives. Its purpose is not to give up a thing that has no meaning but to focus on that which does; to make us new again.
The Rev. Danielle Dubois Morris