Below is the manuscript for the sermon I delivered on Feb. 23, 2020 ahead of Ash Wednesday and the Lenten Season at Cortez (CO) Church of the Nazarene.
Text: Ezra 8:21-23 (NRSV):
21 Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might deny ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our possessions. 22 For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and cavalry to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king that the hand of our God is gracious to all who seek him, but his power and his wrath are against all who forsake him. 23 So we fasted and petitioned our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.
A Family On the Move
For our family, there is rarely any experience more stressful than preparing for a trip back to Iowa to visit our parents. The kids are always excited about the prospect of staying in motels, of visiting with Grandma and Grandpa, of going out to eat at restaurants, and of taking a break from school. But for Marcia and me, a trip is a major logistical operation. There are bags to be packed, snacks to be bought, vehicles to be vacuumed and checked, and then there’s all the negotiation that goes with trying to figure out how to split our time between two families who live in the same town, so that one family doesn’t feel like we’ve spent more time with the other family than with them.
Then, once we’re on the road, we have to figure out where people want to eat and there’s always someone who suddenly has never liked the place we just picked, even though they begged for us to go there last week. And of course we have to make sure the dog doesn’t run off when everyone gets out for a bathroom or food break, and each time we stop, every single child wants me to buy them some little trinket or piece of candy. In fact, I’ve gotten so good at saying, “Put it back!” It all comes out as one word now, “Pudditback! Pudditback!” And that’s if everything goes perfectly!
On top of all that, there’s the added risk of a blown tire, or engine trouble, or those big Midwestern storms, or all the motels being full because of some conference, or roving bands of Nebraskan marauders. OK, maybe that last one isn’t as big of a risk, but the point is that there is always plenty of uncertainty involved in just going to visit Grandma and Grandpa, and usually by the end of the trip, we’re more exhausted than when we began. We end up needing a vacation from the vacation!
The Slow Fulfillment of God's Promises
Things weren’t any easier – or safer – for people on the move in the ancient world, and Ezra the scribe, the writer of our passage this morning, knew that. But Ezra was a man “on a mission from God” like Jake & Elwood Blues in "The Blues Brothers." Ezra 7:6 tells us he was a priest and “skilled in the law of Moses that the Lord the God of Israel had given; and the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was upon him.”(1)
Because of his devotion to God and to teaching the Law of Moses, he poured over the scrolls of the Torah and the Prophets night and day, and over and over he read in them how even though Israel and Judah had been judged to be unfaithful, and so had been sent into exile, with the city of Jerusalem and its glorious Temple destroyed by the Babylonians; God had not forgotten His people, and He promised to restore the repentant to the land, and the Temple with it.
Nearly 30 years after the Temple’s destruction, this promise had begun to be fulfilled, when the Persian King Cyrus, who had conquered the Babylonians, issued a decree that the Jews could return to the city and the Temple could be rebuilt.(2) Ezra 4 relates how soon waves of returning families entered the land, but the plan to rebuild the Temple and the city was frustrated by those already there; people who had been transplanted by the Assyrians even before the Babylonians came to power in an effort to maintain control over their conquered territories.(3) They were worried about losing their lands and their favored position within the Empire, and so wrote to their governors and to Cyrus’ successors saying that in the past Jerusalem had been a hotbed of sedition and revolution, and that it didn’t deserve to be rebuilt.
Despite these struggles, for the next 40 years, small groups of people continued to trickle into the land from Babylonia, and Ezra. 5:2-17 describes how they, being inspired by their leaders and the words of the prophets, began building again. This worried the governor of the province. He thought this nonsense about rebuilding the Temple had been ended once and for all! But God was still at work in his people. They still had a mission. And as they continued, he wrote to the Persian King Darius to ask whether they had the authority to do so.
Darius’ ministers discovered an old scroll in his libraries containing the decree of Cyrus, and so Darius added his own – not only was the Temple to be built, but all expenses would be paid from the Royal Treasury!(4) Those who tried to thwart God’s work would now have to pay taxes to see it accomplished! And if they refused, the decree ordered that the supporting beam would be ripped from their house and they would be impaled on it. Those Persian kings didn’t mess around!
Ezra 6:14-15 then relates how the Temple was completed during the reign of Darius and the people celebrated the Passover for the first time in the new Temple, “for the Lord had made them joyful, and had turned the heart of the King of Assyria to them, so that he aided them in the work on the house of God, the God of Israel.”
Another 50 years passed and Ezra the scribe and priest, was living in Babylonia, studying the history of God’s work among his people; when he received his mission from God through King Artaxerxes. It was finally time for priests an Levites to return to the Temple, so that sacrifices could be offered once again, and this time Ezra would go with them – to teach the people about who their God was, what He desired, and what His character was like. But the road was dangerous.
I joked about Nebraskan marauders earlier, but in the ancient world, bands of raiders attacking caravans was no joke! There was no Highway Patrol, no State Police, no Sheriff’s Deputies to maintain law and order. And Ezra’s caravan was carrying a ton of wealth. All the furnishings of the Temple, which had been captured by Nebuchadnezzar over 100 years before, would have to be carted and carried over 1,600 miles. And such a large group, with their wives and little ones with them, would be moving slowly, kicking up huge clouds of dust by day with dozens of glowing fires by night. They would be easy pickings for bands looking to slaughter the men, capture the women and children for slaves, and carry off one of the largest treasures in the Ancient Near East.
Fasting to Prepare for the Journey
So, Ezra knew he needed protection. But as our passage this morning makes clear (5), he also knew, that if he were really going to teach the people about God’s saving work over the centuries, if he was really going to convince them that God loved them and cared for them, he would have to trust God and not in the armies of the Persian King. He certainly could have asked for an armed escort, and I’m sure the King would have given it! But then his people and the Persians themselves would have claimed it was the grace of the Persian King and not the providence of the Living God which protected them.
Verses 21 and 23 tell us in Ezra’s own words, “Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might deny ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our possessions… So we fasted and petitioned our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.”
Ezra wasn’t fasting because he doubted that God would care for him – especially as it was clear from the writings of the prophets and from his peoples’ own history that God had providentially moved to bring them back safely to their own land. And it wasn’t to “convince” God to help protect his caravan either; as if God were some mercenary who required people to deny food to their bellies before He would protect them.
Instead, Ezra called the people to a communal fast because their own hearts needed to prepare for the journey back to the land of their ancestors. They had lived in a foreign land for so long, under foreign influence, and though they may have read about the way God desired to be worshiped in His Tempe, none had ever seen it first hand. Imagine that, none of them had ever offered a Temple sacrifice, or set up the complex schedules and duty rosters required for its maintenance, and now they were being expected to lead it! It was this need to prepare, this need to ready their hearts to participate in God’s mission that I want to focus on this morning.
The Purpose of Lent
In a few short days, the Christian season of Lent begins. It is a 40 day season of preparation, of mourning, of repentance before we celebrate Easter. Its roots are in the individual, biblical fasts of Moses and Jesus, but also the communal fasts we find in places like our passage this morning. And it begins with Ash Wednesday, a day of prayer where traditionally ashes are placed on the forehead as an act of repentance and a declaration of our hope in the saving grace of Christ. The practice itself goes back to OT times as well, where we read about prophets like Jeremiah and kings like David sitting in sackcloth and ashes as they mourn.
For many of you, this practice might seem really odd. At the very least, you might be wondering why we are engaging in a practice that seems so antiquated. For some, the practice might seem too ritualistic, too “religious,” and didn’t Jesus do away with empty religion? And finally, for others, you might be questioning the value of a communal fast – where the whole church comes together to fast and pray; after all, didn’t Jesus command us to pray and fast in secret? These are all important concerns that I want us to address this morning as we prepare for this season, but first I should note that each of these assumptions are based on a misunderstanding of what God actually expects of us when we fast and pray, and why we do it in the first place.
As I mentioned before, when Ezra fasted, it wasn’t because he was trying to bargain with God or earn his favor, it was to prepare the hearts of his people for the journey ahead. But this isn’t the only reason for fasting that we find in scripture.
REASONS TO FAST: MOURNING
Often we find passages where it was combined with the wearing of uncomfortable and plain sackcloth and sitting in ashes, as a sign of deep personal heartbreak. Today, we aren’t nearly given to such public displays of emotion. Often when people grieve, they are expected to get over it in a few weeks as people try to force normalcy on those whose wounds and sense of loss are still fresh. But people are by nature expressive people. Often, when we bottle up our emotions, they end up bursting out in other, unhealthy ways anyway. For ancient peoples, fasting while wearing sackcloth and sitting in ashes for a set time was seen as a healthy way of expressing grief.
We see an example of this in Neh. 1:1-4, where Nehemiah himself writes,
“...While I was in Susa the capital, one of my brothers, Hanani, came with certain men from Judah; and I asked them about the Jews that survived, those who had escaped the captivity, and about Jerusalem. They replied, “The survivors there in the province who escaped captivity are in great trouble and shame; the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been destroyed by fire. When I heard these words I sat down and wept, and mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven. I said, ‘O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments; let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Both I and my family have sinned.’”
Just like with Ezra, Nehemiah’s fast is rooted in trust in “the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love” with his people; and just like Ezra, he is motivated by a deep desire to see God’s will done. But this time, his fasting is brought on by a deep sense of heartbreak at the plight of his people, and a recognition that the Jews in Babylonia have sinned by neglecting their hard pressed brothers and sisters in Jerusalem. Notice that even though he hasn’t specifically done anything wrong or consciously rebelled against God, he still realizes that he is still part of a neglectful people and nation, and so he repents for the part he has played in their sin.
In the same way, on Ash Wednesday and throughout Lent, we also confess the sins of our people, of the nation of which we are a part. We may not have personally stolen or murdered or committed adultery. But we live in a nation enthralled by pornography and lust, where millions of women are forced into sexual slavery, where people freeze to death in the cold, where children die of hunger, where the unborn are aborted by the millions. We have plenty to mourn for and to repent over.
Reasons to Fast: Repentance
And this brings us to the second major reason for fasting found in scripture. It moves our hearts toward repentance, so that we may be saved. In Jonah 3, we read how God sent the prophet to the people of Ninevah to warn them of their impending destruction. He didn’t promise them He would relent if they repented, but in vv. 5-10 we read, “And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.
When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: ‘By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.’ When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.”
The King issued the decree that all the people would fast and mourn together, and it moved their hearts to repentance. And because of that repentance, God Himself was moved to graciously relent and spare them the destruction they had deserved.
Again, it wasn’t some supernatural bargain. Justice cannot be bargained. It was grace. Grace ushered in through repentance and a change of heart. This is why we read in Joel 2:12-13,
“Yet even now, says the Lord,
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord, your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
and relents from punishing.”
God’s grace isn’t earned through fasting, weeping, or mourning. And if we do these things without true repentance of the heart they mean nothing. Our “hearts must be rent” and cracked open, so that God’s grace can be poured in and transformation can begin.
Reasons to Fast: Interceding for Others
Now, you might be saying to yourself, “But I don’t have anything to repent for, or to mourn over. I am forgiven by Christ’s grace the moment I believe and confess my sin. Why should I fast?” And you would be absolutely right! You are forgiven the moment you repent and confess your sin to Him, believing that His grace alone is sufficient to save you. But life isn’t all about us. Faith isn’t all abut our individual salvation either. We are still called to love, to care for, and to intercede for others. And we find fasting utilized for this last purpose in scripture as well. In Ps. 35:11-14, we read,
“Malicious witnesses rise up;
they ask me about things I do not know.
They repay me evil for good;
my soul is forlorn.
But as for me, when they were sick,
I wore sackcloth;
I afflicted myself with fasting.
I prayed with head bowed on my bosom,
as though I grieved for a friend or a brother;
I went about as one who laments for a mother,
bowed down and in mourning.”
Here, the Psalmist is making his case before God that he has lived righteously, even though he has been mocked and abused by his friends. He has interceded for his enemies when they were sick, even though they only wished evil for him. The psalmist was able to do this, and we are able to do this, because when we push aside our own hunger to feed ourselves, we can more readily see the needs of others. The gesture might not be reciprocated, but that’s not the point. The point isn’t about what we get in return. The point is that when we deny ourselves, we follow Christ’s example and are better able to empathize with the needs of others as He has called us to do.
Reasons to Fast: It Humbles Our Hearts
And this brings us to the last major reason for fasting found in scripture: it is a means of humbling ourselves before God and others. In Ps. 69:9-12, the songwriter proclaims,
“It is zeal for your house that has consumed me;
the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.
When I humbled my soul with fasting,
they insulted me for doing so.
When I made sackcloth my clothing,
I became a byword to them.
I am the subject of gossip for those who sit in the gate,
and the drunkards make songs about me.”
This passage is also quoted when Jesus makes a whip and drives the money changers out of the Temple, but notice the last part of the verse: “When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them. I am the subject of gossip for those who sit in the gate, and the drunkards make songs about me.”
Fasting in true humility before God and others is as counter-cultural today as it was when that Psalm was written. In fact, in an increasingly secular culture, fasting can seem downright crazy. But let’s be honest, the Gospel is nuts. The idea that God could love us so much He would take on flesh and die for us is nuts. But it’s true. And not only is fasting a counter-cultural testimony to that fact, it is also a witness to the transforming work that God is doing in the life of the one who fasts and prays. The problem is that it can backfire when fasting is disingenuously used as a means of communicating false humility or self-righteousness.
This is why Jesus says in Mat. 6:16-18,
“And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Jesus isn’t just telling his disciples not to make a scene or to keep their faith private. After all, what is driving the money-changers out of the Temple if not making scene? What is eating with tax collectors and sinners if not making a scene? What is dying on a cross, if not making a scene? And if fasting and prayer were only private affairs, then the early Christians would have no ground for meeting together to “devote themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers,” as in Acts. 2:42. And the writer of Hebrews wouldn’t have instructed his audience in Heb. 10:25 not to, “neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some.” And if corporate fasting as a whole church was just an Old Testament practice, we wouldn’t read in Acts 13:2-3 and 14:23 about how fasting and prayer was part of the regular practice of the Church at Antioch.
Jesus’ point is that we must examine our intent when we fast. Intent is everything. If we are not fasting for the right reasons, it can actually be dangerous to our faith! But, instead of abandoning the practice of fasting and praying together as a church, we should utilize the occasion of a regular season of fasting like Lent as an opportunity to examine our intent and the depths of our hearts, to see where we need to be humbled, where we need to repent, where we need to mourn, and where we need to intercede on the behalf of others.
An Invitation to Fast Together
This is why we will be celebrating Ash Wednesday this week, and why I invite you to fast together with me during the season of Lent. It isn’t an obligation. It isn’t a bargain. It isn’t a means of earning God’s favor. It is so that we can carve out space and time in our busy lives to reflect on God’s mercy and on our own need for a Savior, our own need for repentance, our own need for mourning. And it is also a recognition that there are many out there who don’t yet realize that they need Christ in their lives. They are wandering, hurting, and lost. And so we pray and fast, and receive the ashes for them too, in the hope that they will receive and be transformed by the loving grace of Jesus Christ. Thank you.
FOOTNOTES
(1) Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quoted is from the NRSV.
(2) Ezra 1:2-4.
(3) Ezra 4:4-5.
(4) Ezra 6:8.
(5) Ezra 8:21-23.
Delivered Feb. 23, 2020 at Cortez (CO) Church of the Nazarene.
