Lent is a season of fasting leading up to Easter, observed by several Christian denominations, including my family's own tradition. It's marked as a time for fasting from something in particular, as well as acts of service.
This Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, I woke up immediately knowing which Bible verses I was going to meditate on that day. My heart took me straight to Isaiah 58:5-11:
"Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
The Lord will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail."
The context of this quote is the God of Israel admonishing God's people for trying to manipulate God into doing what they want (earlier in the chapter, God calls them out for saying that they're fasting while "you do as you please/and exploit all your workers.") God is telling them what a fast truly is.
Reading the verses this year, I'm struck by how thematically resonant these stanzas are with the description of the "Year of the Lord's Favor" section a few chapters later (61:1-2):
"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."
These are the words that Jesus used to announce the beginning of his ministry in Luke 4:18-21. He was here to proclaim the Year of the Lord's Favor, the Jubilee: forgiveness of debts, freeing of slaves, return of land, redistribution of wealth, fasting from work, and feasting from the bounty of the land.
God was saying that our notion of fasting is all wrong. It's not about making a show, beating ourselves up, folding every inward in the search for asceticism and personal piety. It's a pouring out of our resources— compassion, energy, time, money, food, shelter, power, privilege— that creates abundance for others. It's a chance to realign ourselves with God's outpouring of love, a chance to realize the abundance that is already in our lives. We fast so that others may feast, but as others feast we are buoyed up as well, so that eventually the fasting and the feasting are one: as Proverbs 11:25 observes, "Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed."
This Lent, I'm meditating on what it means to spend myself for the hungry and to satisfy the needs of the oppressed. If you follow Christ, I want to invite you on this journey as well. Let's lay down our power, our certainty about the world, and our desire to be good and right, and listen humbly to the direction of God, who cares for the poor and the downtrodden. Let us pray for our eyes to be open to those who are crushed by burdens and chained by oppression. Let us empty ourselves, and listen.
~~~
beautifully stated
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