Preacher to Preacher

From the Editors

And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, who try to look pale and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I assure you, that is the only reward they will ever get. But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face. Then no one will suspect you are fasting, except your Father, who knows what you do in secret. And your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:16-18, nlt)

I checked several translations. It’s the same in each of them. I even went back to the original language. No luck. It’s there too. Jesus really did say, “When you fast.” I sure do wish he had said, “If you fast.” That would make it a whole lot easier. But there’s no mistaking it. It’s “when you fast.” It’s apparently the normal and expected action of a disciple.

I really hate that. I wish I could avoid this section of the Sermon on the Mount altogether but I can’t, particularly during Lent. There it is confronting me.
I don’t know of anyone who took the whole issue of self-denial more seriously than St. Francis. Once, while he was recovering from an illness, he had eaten a little chicken on a fast day. After he regained his strength he entered the city of Assisi and pressed a certain brother who was with him to tie a rope around his neck and drag him like a robber through the entire city. He also commanded him to shout to the people in the streets, “Behold the glutton who has grown fat on the meat of chickens!” I don’t particularly recommend that style of discipleship and I’m not sure Jesus did. Nevertheless, St. Francis knew something about the deep connection between self-denial and spiritual maturity.

This season of Lent is full of opportunity for spiritual growth. It calls us to a way of life that is truly counter-cultural. It also provides an important pastoral opportunity to call our people to disciplines of self-denial that can help them to resist the seductions of a world bent on self. Lent calls us away from easy religion. It confronts us with the obedience, suffering, and death of Jesus Christ and it forces us to hear again his disturbing words, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34)

Lent asks hard questions: “What does it mean for me to take up my cross? How do I lay down my life for others? Have I been crucified with Christ so that it is no longer I who live but Christ living in me? Do I embrace the scandal of the cross in any significant way at all?”

Pastor, these are precisely the questions you need to be putting to your people during the Lenten season. In your preaching and teaching during these weeks don’t be afraid to be prophetic in the widest sense. It’s a way of remembering that we depend on God alone and draw all our strength and resources from him. May God help you to sound a clear call during these weeks to embrace the cross.