Ash Wednesday—Fasting Not for Earthly Treasure
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. When you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. When you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.” (Matthew 6:1–2, 5, 16)
There is a point. I want you to think about this point. There are more words of our Lord explicitly instructing us to support our local congregation and pastor through our means and to help those around us in need, more words from our Lord explicitly spurring us on to prayer together as the Church and in our homes, and more explicit words from our Lord to fast and exercise ourselves in self-restraint, than there are from our Lord to go to private confession and absolution to a pastor. Much more. Because there are zero times that Jesus tells us to go confess our sins to our pastor privately and receive absolution. Zero.
He establishes the Office of the Keys (Matthew 16:19; John 20:22–23), but He does not say anything about private confession and absolution to the pastor.
Think about that. There is no Dominical statement from our Lord Jesus. There is no institution or command concerning the Christian going to his pastor and confessing specific sins that trouble him and receiving absolution. But would any of you Lutherans who know better say, “Let’s get rid of private confession and absolution. It isn’t in the Bible. It isn’t necessary. Rip it out of the hymnal”? I doubt it.
Maybe there are very few among us who make regular use of private confession. But I doubt many of us here would say we need to rip those pages out of the hymnal. It’s evil. It’s not necessary. It’s not in the Bible.
Our Lutheran Confessions say things like this: “Our churches teach that private absolution should be retained in the churches.” (Augsburg Confession XI) It also says, “We also keep confession, especially because of the absolution.” (Augsburg Confession XXV) Absolution is God’s Word which, by divine authority of the power of the keys, pronounces upon individuals. Therefore, it would be wicked to remove private absolution from the Church. If anyone despises private absolution—receiving it from the pastor privately—they do not understand what the forgiveness of sins is or the power of the keys.
Our Lutheran Confessions speak this way about something that the Confessions also admit is not expressly established by Jesus in the Bible—confessing your sins privately to a pastor. And yet we retain this thing as a great aid against sin and as a consolation to a troubled conscience. It’s a wonderful gift and a tradition from the Church, an exercising of Christ’s established Office of the Keys that we hold near and dear and we retain.
Unfortunately, I would have to guess that proper Christian fasting gets a worse rap among us than private confession. We sort of give lip service to private confession if it comes up. But Jesus actually teaches and instructs us to make use of this afflicting of oneself in Christian disciplines like fasting. He gives commands and instructions about it—about depriving ourselves, about doing without, and increasing other things. Doing without food and drink, maybe entertainments, to pray, read God’s Word, and to spend time with our family, and to have more money to give to the poor and give to the Church. Jesus does talk about that.
But you hardly ever hear that. You’ll hear about private confession and absolution maybe once in your life nowadays in a Lutheran church. But you won’t hear much about fasting. It’s coming up more now, and that’s good, but you hardly ever hear about it.
Because of the clear Scriptures commanding such discipline to be performed by Christians—like fasting and other disciplines—our Lutheran Confessions, citing some of the most important passages about these practices, say this:
“Our adversaries object by accusing our teachers of being against discipline and the subduing of the flesh. Just the opposite is true, as can be learned from our teachers’ writings. They have always taught that Christians are to bear the cross by enduring afflictions. This is genuine and sincere subduing of the flesh—to be crucified with Christ through various afflictions. These are the things we cannot choose for ourselves.”
Furthermore, they teach that every Christian ought to train and subdue himself with bodily restraints or bodily exercises and labors—not to make satisfaction for sins by such outward exercises. Such outward discipline ought to be taught at all times, so that neither overindulgence nor laziness may tempt a Christian to sin.
And then they say, Christ commands, “Watch yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life.” (Luke 21:34) Also, “This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” (Matthew 17:21) And Paul says, “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection.” (1 Corinthians 9:27)
Here he clearly shows that he was keeping the body under control—not to merit forgiveness of sins by that discipline—but to keep his body in subjection and prepared for spiritual things, for carrying out the duties of his calling.
That’s what our Confessions have to say about fasting and other bodily disciplines in the Christian life. They do not merit the forgiveness of sins. But they strengthen us to keep us from being tempted into unbelief by overindulgence and laziness.
We say in our Lutheran Confessions that since Jesus says “when,” not “if,” that these necessary voluntary exercises should be constant, because they have God’s permanent command.
So you have the things that are thrown on you by the Lord and the things that you voluntarily pick up. You voluntarily drove here for Ash Wednesday service. You did not know how hot it was going to be when we were all sitting in this room. He has laid that on you against your will. But you chose to drive here. That’s the difference. But both are in the Christian life.
This season of the Church Year has a special emphasis on penitence—sorrow over our sins. What drove the Lord to die on the cross? Like Question 16 in Christian Questions with Their Answers: “Why should we remember and proclaim His death?” There are three reasons there.
First, so that we may learn to believe that no creature could make satisfaction for our sins; only Christ, true God and man, could do that.
Second, so that we may be horrified by our sins and regard them as very serious, that if we ponder and consider sinning, we remember and be horrified by the fact that our sins put Him there—not other people’s sins—our sins.
That’s the second reason: horrified.
And third, so we may find joy and comfort in Christ alone and, through faith in Him, be saved.
This time of the Church Year reminds us of this. It’s like the three Sundays before Advent are about the end of the world. Advent is about the sudden return of Jesus and for us to be ready for that. During Easter, what are we emphasizing? Jesus rising from the dead.
Seasons in the Church Year emphasize different biblical truths—not that you shouldn’t think about them all the time, because we should think about the fact that Jesus rose from the dead every day, that He died for our sins every day, that He’s going to come back again to judge the living and the dead every day. But in the Church Year, we have these opportunities to look at particular Bible passages that remind us of these things.
And during Lent, it’s a time to remember, to have sorrow over our sins, to realize the great cost that it cost our dear Lord Jesus in giving His life and suffering the wrath of God, that the Father sent His Son and gave Him up for our sins—how dearly it cost Him.
It’s also a season to remember that the Christian should not only patiently endure afflictions laid on us, but also choose disciplines to put our body into subjection so that we are not overcome by overindulgence and laziness.
That’s part of this season’s reminder to us.
It’s why in German the season was called Fastenzeit—fasting time. This was the first day of the fast. That’s what this day was called, and that’s what the season was called. Lent is just a word for spring. It’s Fastenzeit—fasting time—time to remember that Christian discipline is an important thing to pick up for ourselves.
Now the last thing I want to say here: remember what Jesus says. We don’t do these things to be seen by men. And we don’t store up treasures on earth, “where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19)
With that in mind, I want you to listen to this quote. It’s from G.K. Chesterton in his book Heretics:
“When everything about a people is for the time growing weak and ineffective, it begins to talk about efficiency. So it is that when a man’s body is a wreck he begins for the first time to talk about health. Vigorous organisms talk not about their processes but about their aims. There cannot be any better proof of the physical efficiency of a man than that he talks cheerfully of a journey to the end of the world. And there cannot be any better proof of the practical efficiency of a nation than that it talks constantly of a journey to the end of the world—a journey to the Judgment Day and the New Jerusalem. There can be no stronger sign of a coarse material health than the tendency to run after high and wild ideas. It is in the first exuberance of infancy that we cry for the moon. None of the strong men in the strong ages would have understood what you meant by working for efficiency or productivity. Hildebrand would have said that he was working not for efficiency but for the Church. Danton would have said that he was working not for efficiency but for liberty, equality, and fraternity. Even if the ideal of such men were simply the ideal of kicking a man downstairs, they thought of the end like men, not of the process like paralytics.”
This is it in particular what I want you to think about. When Jesus is telling you, “When you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance…that they may appear to men to be fasting.” (Matthew 6:16), that’s not why you do it.
You also don’t fast, or practice Christian discipline, or work out, or get up early in the morning to be skinnier and healthier, or have better mental health, or anything like that. As a personal confession for me, I wish I were like twenty pounds less heavy, and I always think in my head, so that I would look like I’ve got self-control.
But do we just want to look like we have self-control? Or do we actually want to have self-control? And do we want to have self-control just for the sake of having it, so other people see us and we can pat ourselves on the back? Or are we pressing on to a high goal and ideal—to the New Jerusalem?
It’s the latter.
It’s not the process. It’s not earthly goals. It’s not a reward now—the reward now of shedding a few pounds or feeling like you’ve got better track of your life because you’re getting up earlier and getting more done. It’s not about that. Those things may happen. Let them happen. Let them not happen. Who gives a rip?
The part of this that we need to remember is that it is our Lord Jesus who went to the cross, living a perfectly obedient life in our place, suffering His Father’s wrath for our sins in our place, rising from the dead in victory over sin, death, and the power of the devil for us. And He is coming again to bring us to Himself.
It is that Jesus—your Lord and God and Savior—who is the One who says, “When you fast, do not be like the hypocrites.” Don’t do it for earthly treasure here, for people to give you accolades, for you to feel better about your sinful flesh. Who cares, ultimately, anyway, if you’re twenty pounds lighter? This body is going to rot away. “To dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19)
We are striving for an eternal goal. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.
“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it for a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” (1 Corinthians 9:24–27)
Remember that. And remember the Lord Jesus promised, “Your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.” (Matthew 6:4, 6, 18)
That’s why you do it. The end, not the process. Not the near-term worldly goals.
Eternal life—that’s already secure for you in the Body and Blood of Jesus.
Let us pray. Merciful God and Father, we give You most hearty thanks that by Your divine power You have given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Your Son (2 Peter 1:3), and that in Your Word You have set before us the everlasting Kingdom toward which we press. Grant us true repentance and sincere faith. Teach us to bear the cross by enduring afflictions, for this is genuine and sincere subduing of the flesh—to be crucified with Christ through the troubles by which You exercise us in this. Grant that we may obey Your will and present our bodies as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1). And in addition to the cross You lay upon us, grant us also diligence in the necessary voluntary exercise of self-discipline. Keep us watchful, lest our hearts be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness, and the cares of this life (Luke 21:34). Teach us to discipline our bodies and keep them under control (1 Corinthians 9:27), not to merit grace nor to make satisfaction for sins, but that neither overindulgence nor laziness may tempt us to sin; that our flesh may be kept in subjection and prepared for spiritual things; and that we may faithfully carry out the duties of our calling. Preserve us from secure and unconcerned hearts. Let us not practice righteousness to be seen by men (Matthew 6:1), nor lay up treasures on earth (Matthew 6:19), but fix our hearts where our true treasure is—in Christ and in His promises. By Your Holy Spirit make us diligent to add to our faith virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love (2 Peter 1:5–7), that we may not forget that we were cleansed from our former sins (2 Peter 1:9). And when our course is finished and our sinful bodies return to dust, grant that we may be raised incorruptible (1 Corinthians 15:42), and be openly rewarded—not with the praise of men—but with the joy of seeing our Lord Jesus Christ face to face and so enter abundantly into His everlasting Kingdom (2 Peter 1:11); through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever. Amen.
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