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Jesus in Prayer, Part 2
Following from yesterday’s exercise of making time and space for the kind of prayer Jesus seemed to have engaged in often, today we continue to look at Jesus in prayer.
Read Luke 4:1-2:
“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.”
Larry Bird was a freakishly good NBA basketball player who played mainly during the 1980s. Many people still refer to him as the “Basketball Jesus.” There was one stretch during the ‘86 season when he was actually bored by how good he was, so he started using his left hand more, just for a challenge. During one game, he only took left-handed shots during the first half. He did this kind of thing often, experimenting with all the different ways he could beat a defender in the low post, seeing how many times he and Bill Walton could run the backdoor play in one game, etc. He intentionally weakened his game just to feel challenged and make it fun again.
It’s tempting (no pun intended) to see Jesus’ wilderness temptation in the same way. We oftentimes assume that the fasting depleted Jesus of spiritual power, so the devil could tempt him when he was at his “weakest,” like Superman trying to save the world with kryptonite in his pocket, or like Larry Bird only taking left-handed shots.
Indeed, fasting for forty days does make one hungry, but when you compare this passage to others that feature a fasting Jesus, an interesting picture starts to emerge. It seems that Jesus didn’t spend forty days in solitude and fasting in order to weaken himself, but to strengthen himself and prepare him for the severe testing ahead. Fasting and solitude seem to be more of a spiritual training regimen than a way to weaken oneself.
In John 4, when the disciples rejoin Jesus after his conversation with a woman at a well in Samaria, they urge him to eat something, and Jesus responds, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” He explains, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” Fasting in an opportunity to feast more fully on the sustenance that comes directly from God in the kingdom. Like the Israelites in the desert fed by manna, the “bread of heaven,” fasting from normal food for awhile has a tendency to tune us in more fully to the “spiritual food” that God provides. Fasting turns into feasting on the presence of God. It’s not just something for monks and pastors, it’s for all of us who want to more fully experience the bread that God provides in the kingdom.
Exercise:
Most of us don’t think about fasting very much, and if we do it’s normally thought of as a strange, archaic custom like self-flagellation or sitting in mud or something. Take some time to simply write down on a page all your qualms, questions, and thoughts about fasting. Take these to God in prayer (during one of those 3 times per week you’ve carved out!). Listen to what God may say to you. Perhaps you’ll want to plan a day in the coming week to intentionally fast one meal and spend that time in prayer.For further exploration, read and take notes on either Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline (the chapter on fasting) or Scot McKnight’s Fasting. Plan a time to experiment (safely) with fasting, perhaps one meal per week for several weeks.