"Forty Days and Forty Nights", March 6, 2022

 Forty Days and Forty Nights

By Rev Jamie Green Klopotoski
Based on Luke 4:1-13
March 6, 2022
First Baptist Church, Gloucester, MA

Watch here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/476126755790467/permalink/4915938108475954/

I have always been fascinated by the fact that the number 40 appears so often in the bible. 

• The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years before entering the Promised Land.  

• Several early Hebrew leaders and kings, including Eli, Saul, David, and Solomon are said to have ruled for forty years. 

• The epic flood in Genesis lasted forty days and nights. 

• Noah waited for forty days after the tops of mountains were seen after the flood, before releasing the raven and dove. 

• The ceremonies surrounding the embalming of Jacob lasted forty days. 

• Jonah’s prophecy urged the Ninevites to fast for repentance for forty days. 

• Goliath challenged the Israelites twice a day for forty days before David defeated him. 

• Moses spent three consecutive periods of "forty days and forty nights" on Mount Sinai. 

• The prophet Elijah had to walk “forty days and forty nights” before arriving at Mount Horeb.

• And in our scripture lesson today, Jesus retreated into the wilderness, where he fasted for forty days and was tempted by the devil, before he officially began his public ministry.

It is unlikely that all of these events actually lasted a literal forty years or forty days and forty nights. The number “40” was used hyperbolically to mean “a really long time”.  Nowaways, you might hear people say that something “lasted forever” or took “a gazillion days” to refer to something taking a long time, but in biblical times, you might have heard people say something took “forty days and forty nights”. The number 40 was especially used to describe periods of time that involved trials, tribulations, tests, suffering, like the flood, the wandering in the desert, or the temptation of the devil. 

I’m a nerd for words, so I need to point out that the origin of the English word ‘quarantine’ comes from the Latin word for “40” (quadraginta) and originally referred to Jesus’ 40 days in the desert before the word was used to mean the practice of imposing isolation to prevent illness. (The first definition in the Oxford English Dictionary for quarantine is “the place where Jesus fasted for forty days”).

In addition to the word “quarantine”, Jesus’s 40 days in the desert also inspired the practice of Lent, the 40 day period starting on Ash Wednesday that leads to Easter morning (technically it’s 46 days, but the Sundays don’t count.) Christians in the year 325 started observing a 40-day fast to celebrate the season of Lent, and in the early centuries, fasting rules were strict. One meal a day was allowed in the evening, but meat, fish, eggs, and butter were forbidden. Most modern day Christians no longer adhere to this strict interpretation of fasting, some only fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, some observe a meatless fast on Fridays during Lent, and some choose to give up specific pleasures or cravings, or things that tempt us, such as chocolate, alcohol, television, sugar, or even social media during Lent.

Giving up something during Lent can be a way to foster simplicity and self-control; you can use your cravings or desires or temptations for the items you have given up as a reminder to pray and to refocus on spiritual matters and align yourself with God’s will. But I wonder whether that is what actually happens during Lent. I wonder whether the act of “giving something up” has become an empty ritual, just 40 days of a minor inconvenience that does nothing to enhance one’s spiritual experience. Has giving up something for lent just become a thing to do with no deeper meaning?  

The Prophet Isaiah also wondered this after witnessing how the people of Israel fasted. He said: 

“On the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.

Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists.

You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.

Is this the kind of fast God desires, only a day for people to humble themselves?

Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?

Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?

Is not this the kind of fasting God desires:

to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke,

to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry

   and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—

when you see the naked, to clothe them,

    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?”

Isaiah saw that the people were fasting for no other reason than that they were told to, and it was the thing to do. Everyone else was doing it, so they did too. There was no deeper meaning behind it. Fasting didn’t change their behavior; they were still arguing and fighting and being cruel to their workers and fellow humans even while they were fasting. Isaiah wanted the people to know that God does not want us to fast just for the sake of fasting, just because it’s tradition or it’s the thing to do or because everyone else is doing it. The point of fasting is to get closer to God, to make the relationship between us and God become stronger and deeper, the point of fasting is to deeply change us. 

So Isaiah gave a new definition, a new understanding, of the practice of fasting. Isaiah said that a genuine fast, a true fast, the fast that God desires, is a fast that loosens the bonds of injustice, let’s the oppressed go free, feeds the hungry, brings the homeless poor into your house. This is the kind of fasting that will change us, that will grow our relationship with God. It is not necessarily giving something up, but about taking something on. But really when you think about it, in taking something on, you ARE essentially giving something up. For example, if you take on sharing your bread with the hungry, you are giving up your bread. If you take on volunteering, you are giving up some of your time. But ultimately, whatever we do, however we choose to fast, if the fasting doesn’t essentially change you, there is no point in doing it. Because the kind of fasting God desires is a meaningful fast meant to change us. 

On this first week of Lent with forty (ish) days stretching out before us, it might be of value to spend time setting our intentions for the season. And I invite you, if you so choose, to try a new kind of fasting this year, consider the perspective that you are taking something on rather than giving something up. There are many, many examples of this. Our responsive reading this morning suggested taking on things like practicing prayer, compassion, gentleness, patience, hope, optimism. You can take on volunteering, doing acts of kindness, having a thankful attitude. You can tip your servers well, return your grocery cart, post only positive comments on social media. There are so many things you can take on that might actually change you during these forty days and forty nights of Lent.

Forty days and forty nights to walk closer with God.

Forty days and forty nights to trust in God in the wilderness.

Forty days and forty nights to reflect, to repent and to reorient our lives towards doing the will of God in the world.

Forty days and forty nights to gaze at the stars and feel the ground beneath our feet as we connect with the wonder of Creation.

Forty days and forty nights to make a change.