7 July 2018 - fast company

Today's Readings (Audio)

The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast.

But now he says, "And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (see Matthew 28:20).

What does that mean for fasting? Clearly we are still called to fasting. We commonly read about it already in Acts of the Apostles.

Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off (see Acts 13:3).

So what does fasting mean now that the LORD is always with us? Even though he is always with us we never cease to remember the Cross. We never cease to draw strength from the time when he was taken from us. Fasting is a way of entering into the Cross and tapping into its power.

Entering into the Cross releases power in us:

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (see Romans 5:3-5).

And entering into the Cross releases power in the world:

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church (see Colossians 1:24).

We live in a world that needs us to understand this. We do it no service if we forget, as the primary thing, that the LORD is with us always. We rejoice in the presence of the bridegroom, not just when we occasionally get worked up to do so, but always (see First Thessalonians 5:16). Yet as people who are united to the risen LORD we are uniquely positioned to bring more of that resurrection power into the world by uniting ourselves to the Cross from which that power ultimately flows. The deeper truth of the presence of the LORD enables us to bear such burdens as light and as easy, just as Jesus tells us.

There is no paradigm except the Cross that will make sense of our calling. Any other option will result in the cloth being torn or the wineskin bursting. Only the Cross preserves the treasure in tact.

The LORD himself will give his benefits;
our land shall yield its increase.
Justice shall walk before him,