Waiting with God in Days of Pandemic

And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. 
Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
Matthew 6:16

Matthew 6:16–18 – ... with God in Days of Pandemic
Third Sunday of Easter – April 26, 2020 (am)
   

Emotions are running high during this COVID-19 season. We actually seem to be moving through the stages of grief! We’ve experienced both shock and pain and are beginning now to see anger and sadness in response to the absence of all we’re lacking. Our kids are actually grieving the loss of school! Simple social gatherings that once ranged somewhere between pleasant a mild intrusion to us now seem like a sweet privilege, a desirable treat! But neither of these two areas can touch worship gatherings. It’s been a truth of conviction up until now, the affirmation that we were made for corporate worship and actually need that involvement in our lives. But now it’s a truth of experience—we feel the absence of it! It bothers us in a way and on a level that’s hard for us even to find words to describe in a satisfying way.

And that raises the question: what is God doing during this season? If He is sovereign over all things in this world, down to the most minute level, as we’ve often pointed out, what is He doing now? What is He trying to accomplish among us during this season? Why is it okay with Him that we’re robbed of corporate worship?

I’ve never felt comfortable speaking for God in areas where He hasn’t spoken explicitly for Himself in His Word. But I’ve noticed that many seem to feel quite comfortable doing that. And most of those who do so seem very comfortable putting words of judgment in God’s mouth, as though all such times as this are a warning from Him rooted in His displeasure. But I’m not persuaded of that. Given Peter’s testimony that God is patient toward [us], not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2Pe.3:9), I wonder if God isn’t showing us some things that are not easy for us to see without His help, maybe even uncovering some things that we wouldn’t be able to identify apart from His direct intervention.

We’ve touched on ideas like this in several of our installments during this developing series, … with God in Days of Pandemic. But today they move front and center. We talked last week about the fact that our dependency needs to be on Jesus and not on the achievements and accolades of this world. We need to count as loss [every advantage] we might claim in this life [in light of] the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus [our] Lord (Phi.3:7-8)) and press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in [Him] (Phi.3:14). This is how we work out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling in full recognition of the fact that it is actually God who works in [us], both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Phi.2:12-13).

That’s how we respond to things that may be counted as an advantage to us in this life. But this week we want to think about how we should respond when God Himself withdraws His blessings in our lives, how we might gain a biblical perspective of such developments, such times. We need to learn to live in times of lack without losing our contentment in Christ. We need to learn to embrace lack and have it fuel our understanding of who we are and also of our desire, our hunger and thirst, for what is right and best in our lives. We’ve tracked with this central need throughout this series, but it came to a climax in last Sunday’s message, Enduring with God in Days of Pandemic. We heard Paul’s passionate description of his desire, his [pressing] on to [forget] what lies behind—laying aside anything in his life that he might be tempted to use as an advantage—and straining toward what lies ahead, by the enabling grace of God, toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Phi.3:13-14), toward the fullness of all God had intended to accomplish in Paul when He made him, then called him into saving faith.

So, some of the lack we feel results from this intentional act of [counting] as loss any worldly advantage we may have in favor of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus [our] Lord (Phi.3:7-8). But some of it also comes from the many familiar goods and services and experiences that have been taken away from us for an indefinite time. In conversations with our Preaching Team the idea has been raised that perhaps the spiritual exercise of fasting would provide a good biblical model to help us hear from the Lord and better grasp and respond to these days of isolation and lack in a manner worthy of the gospel.

Fasting is a spiritual discipline that, from Jesus’ teaching in our passage today, Christians ought to be pursuing. We tend to think of it as a voluntary laying aside of something we treasure and truly need, namely food, in order to sharpen our sense of need and affection and longing and dependence on God. But if we also turn our vision outward in our fasting the way Isa.58 calls us to do, we recognize that it’s not so much an exclusively personal exercise after all. God is not just interested in our feeling hungry and afflicted in our lack (Isa.58:5) to remind us of our longing for Him. The aim in true fasting is for us also to be awakened in our godly affections, in our mercy and compassion for others that reflect His mercy and compassion toward them—toward those who live all the time in the state of lack we feel as we fast. Remember? Isa.58:6 Is not this the fast that I choose: God says through the prophet, to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

So, fasting is a spiritual discipline that is marked by a profound and painful lack in our lives which sharpens our awareness of our dependence on God, but at the very same time it strengthens our display of God-like character to those around us who are trapped in lack that is similar to our present lack. And what image could describe our days any better than this?

Let’s look first at our text (Mat.6:16-18) to understand something of Jesus’ teaching on fasting, then let’s draw some implications from it.

When we studied this passage a number of years ago, we asked it three questions: (1) Should Christians fast? (2) Why should Christians fast? (3) What reward comes from fasting?

To the first question we answered: Yes, Christians should fast. Jesus’ assumption here (16) is that true kingdom-dwellers, pursuers of [surpassing] righteousness (5:20), will be fasting. And over in Mat.9:15 He explicitly added that, even though His disciples weren’t fasting while He was still with them, they would when He was taken away, during the intervening time between His ascension and His second coming. So, even though there’s no place in the NT where Christians are commanded to fast, according to Jesus’ teaching we’re expected to do so.

Why should Christians fast? The opening sentence of John Piper’s book, A Hunger for God, says: The birthplace of Christian fasting is homesickness for God. We’ve been reconciled to God by faith in Christ, but we still live in this world. We’re still locked in a raging battle with our flesh in this life. We’re still striving to wean ourselves from dependence on this world, to count every [advantage] as loss, and [forget] what lies behind as we press on to the goal for the prize of all we’ve [gained] in Christ (Phi.3:7-14). Fasting helps us do this. Fasting says: God is my ruler, not my appetites. As I long for food, even more do I long for You, O God. As I need food, even more do I need You. I desire Your will even if it differs from mine. In fact, as I deny worldly satisfaction to my body, I deny worldly satisfaction to my will, and to my mind also. Satisfy me with the fulfillment of Your will, on earth as in heaven, and with my participation in Your will for Your glory. Fasting is a reminder that [we don’t] live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Mat.4:4; Deu.8:3). We forget that! Food tastes so good. It’s so satisfying. But a full stomach doesn’t set us right with God, nor is it an indicator that we are right with God. In fact, a full stomach can cause us to forget God (cf. Deu.8:11-14). Remember Pro.30:8 … give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, 9 lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?”

Finally, what reward comes from fasting? When we deny ourselves to pursue God like this, He [rewards] us. And He [rewards] us with Himself, intimacy with Him (18; Isa.58). Jer.29:13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. Jam.4:8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.  

What we hear from Jesus here is that we fast because we need it. We need to remember Who God is, and Who we are before Him. We need to look to Him as the Supplier of all our needs, even the basics of [food] and drink and clothing as Jesus will go on to say later in this very chapter (25-34). We need reminders of these truths. We’re dependent upon such reminders. We’re desperate for them because we forget. And this is the most important truth of our lives. We belong to God and He is the Supplier of all we need. Every lack we feel finds its answer, it’s satisfaction, in Him.

God has appointed a fast during these days. Is that His sole purpose? I have no idea. But it is surely a truth that is consistent with the heart of His Word to the point where we can feel quite confident in this as a takeaway for us.

So, what do we do with this insight? I’d suggest two things. First, embrace this season of lack. Use it to seek the Lord and discern where in your life you’ve been dependent on something besides Him for satisfaction, fulfillment, rest. Don’t seek to fill the hours with empty activity. Don’t fear silence as if something were hiding in the shadows. Don’t just try to replace everything you were doing with a virtual expression of the very same activity. Receive this season as a gift from God. Receive it as an opportunity not just to test your affections and reveal their weaknesses, but to cultivate your affections and recalibrate them toward true spiritual north. Read a book. Memorize a passage. Learn a great hymn. Encourage someone in need. Study with a mentor or a disciple. Write a love letter to the Lord. Replace the noise of this world with the quiet of worship and service. And do it quickly, before it’s too late, before this season of fasting before the Lord comes to an end.

Second, serve God by serving one another. Hear that charge from Isa.58 and turn your attention to those in need, especially those who always lack what you’re lacking only for a season during these days. We prepared some suggestions for you this past week—ways you can be involved with one another and with our community in imitation of Jesus. Don’t busy yourselves with this list. Do one a day. Do one every two days. And don’t just let this list mobilize you. Let it also slow you down. Let it turn your attention toward rightly- and well-balanced worship and service, toward a satisfying complement of loving God with all your heart and loving neighbor as yourself.

This is the fast God has chosen (cf. Isa.58:6). Let’s enter into it. These days give us unique opportunity for that.