Communion and Fasting

Last Sunday I led the communion thoughts at my church. We're going through a series on spiritual disciplines and this week was fasting so I decided to try and tie that together. I tried to spend time thinking about it and writing it out, so I thought I'd post it here.

"We have come to the point in our service when we share the Lord's Supper. Those of you who have been here know that our Bible classes, Eric's sermon, and our small group discussions tonight will all be focused on the spiritual discipline of fasting. With that in mind I'm going to share some thoughts on the relationship between fasting and communion.

Fasting and communion are the only two practices that I know of that we are given related to eating, yet we don't often think of them as having anything to do with each other. But I think understanding how they relate will help us understand each one a little better.

To me, they seem related in some important ways.

We fast, in part, to remind ourselves that "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God", that physical food and material things cannot sustain our lives or satisfy our souls, though often we live as though they did. We take communion, in part, to remind ourselves that Jesus, the Word of God, does satisfy our souls and give us life, though often we live as though He didn't.

Jesus said we would fast when he was no longer physically with us, implying that we might fast to mourn Him. Jesus also said to take this bread and this cup in remembrance of Him, to proclaim His death until He comes again.

In reading about the relationship between these two acts, I found that in many other traditions within Christianity, fasting is done in preparation for the Lord's Supper. In groups that don't take communion every week, as we do, sometimes the church has to be notified at least a week in advance so that they can fast and reflect and examine themselves so they will be ready.

Other groups might institute a fast from Saturday evening to be broken with communion on Sunday.

There is a symmetry in this that makes sense to me. We remind ourselves first that food and physical things don't give us life, so that we will be prepared to remind ourselves that Jesus does gives us life, and to partake of that life. For His flesh is real food, and His blood is real drink.

We fast, mourning that Jesus is no longer with us physically, to prepare ourselves to feast, celebrating that He is in us and with us, and will come again. One prepares us to do the other more gratefully and properly.

I believe we who do practice communion weekly can sometimes run the risk of taking it for granted rather than examining ourselves. I believe that fasting regularly with the feast of communion in mind is one way that we can grab hold of this idea of preparing for the Lord's Supper. Seen this way, taking this meal every week can be a beautiful way to live our whole lives in preparation for the Lord's Supper.

At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus fasted forty days, and was tempted by the Devil. I believe Jesus fasted in preparation for his mission, in preparation for the cross. The Bible does not indicate that His fast was pleasant. He was sorely tempted, as He would be again later, to give up. I believe that in an important way, Jesus' fast prepared Him for what was to follow, prepared Him for the act in which He would become Bread and Wine given for us.

I believe fasting helped form Jesus into who He needed to be to go to the cross for us. How much more then do we need to be formed to be the kind of people who can share this meal, and lay down our lives to invite others to share in it? Let us also then, live our lives in preparation for what we are about to do."