Preparing for Easter

What is the meaning of Lent, and where does the custom come from? An exploration and application for our personal lives.

Easter is a very special holiday, when Christians remember the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Apart from Christmas, it’s arguably the most important date on the Christian calendar.

Easter is celebrated across the West. Many are looking forward to warmer weather and spring vacations. Children especially enjoy the extra attention, special decorations, and familiar traditions. There are brightly painted eggs, Easter bunnies, and small gifts. Some families also serve roasted lamb on this day (mainly in Europe), a direct illustration of Jesus’ substitutionary death for the sins of the world.

The Lenten season used to help us prepare for Easter, although Mardi Gras has largely eclipsed it in popular culture. It was intended to allow us to eat well and joyfully, before having to abstain from certain foods for the next few weeks. 

Many religious traditions practice fasting. Foregoing food, and sometimes drink, is generally understood to be a special symbol of sacrifice and gratitude. The most well-known of these is probably Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting. During this time, Muslims are not permitted to eat or drink anything while the sun is up. After sunset, however, people often eat all the more. Fasting is also a regular practice in other religions.

Christian countries used to mandate several periods of fasting (for example, before Easter). But it was never a matter of complete abstinence from food, but just temporary avoidance of certain luxurious foods.

Easter dinner would include all the foods that people had been making do without. In addition to meat and sweets, this also included eggs. Some suspect that this is the origin of the brightly colored hidden eggs that are so closely associated with the holiday. Eggs produced during Lent couldn’t be eaten, but were instead boiled and saved for Easter. But this alone isn’t likely the full explanation. In the past, the egg was often referred to as a symbol of life and resurrection. A chick miraculously emerges from what appears to be a dead stone. In the same way, Jesus emerged alive from His stone tomb at Easter.

The Bible: Remembrance and Grief
People fast for many different reasons. Some are participating in a tradition that has value to them. Others want to prove their self-discipline by giving up certain things for a time. Many people today fast for health reasons, or to lose weight. And, of course, some people also fast involuntarily, because they don’t have enough to eat or are seriously ill.

Interestingly, the Old Testament prescribed only one truly obligatory day of fasting per year: the day of preparation for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement (Lev 16:29, 31). Fasting could also be a feature of being attuned to God after a personal encounter with Him. Moses fasted for 40 days on Mount Sinai (Exod 34:28). Hannah also fasted before she came to God (1 Sam 1:7-10). Jesus fasted for 40 days in the desert in God’s presence, while preparing for His future ministry (Matt 4:2). And fasting sometimes reminds us of God’s miraculous interventions in the past, as with the fasting before Purim (Esther 9:31).

Of course, we see fasting on other occasions in the Bible: involuntarily during times of famine, voluntarily as a sign of deep mourning (1 Sam 31:13) or remorse for sin (Joel 2:12). Some also chose to forego the necessity and enjoyment of food because of a lost loved one, a national catastrophe, or because guilt and regret weighed so heavily upon them. Sometimes people try to urge God to action through fasting, offering Him their sacrifice to reinforce their request. This could also be interpreted in a negative light as attempted bribery, which would certainly be rejected from a biblical standpoint.

Fasting can be misconstrued as a religious achievement or a burdensome obligation, causing it to lose its meaning. Even the Old Testament prophets criticized a purely external, unmotivated fasting by people who lived the rest of their lives to serve themselves, apart from God. “Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high” (Isa 58:4). This kind of fasting is useless, a pious farce. Anyone fasting for reasons of faith should also be trying to lead the rest of their lives to please God.

The New Testament scribes and Pharisees fasted twice a week to demonstrate their special piety (Luke 18:12). They looked down on Jesus’ disciples because they didn’t observe such a strict fasting regimen (Mark 2:18). But Jesus warned against this kind of religious showmanship. Anyone who is fasting to receive special attention from the people around him is only thinking of himself, not God, even if he claims otherwise (Matt 6:16ff.).

Church History: Spiritual Warfare and Good Works
Tertullian records that during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, many Christians would fast until 3 pm every Wednesday and Friday. Fasting often referred only to meat, broth, fresh fruit, and wine. Over the course of the Middle Ages, there were frequent changes to the regulations that governed what, specifically, should be avoided and when. Most of the time it was food that was considered a luxury. This often included sweet or fatty foods, milk, honey, meat, eggs, and alcoholic beverages.

Christians were often urged to take special care of those in need, especially during Lent. To this end, Origen encouraged, “Blessed are they that fast for the sake of feeding the poor.”

In the early Church, one of the most popular dates for baptisms was Easter morning, the day of Jesus’ resurrection. Although it was permissible to eat in principle, the congregation and the one who was being baptized would continue to fast. The whole night before Easter morning was spent singing and praying together. And when the sun would rise, the symbol of resurrection and life, these young Christians stepped into the water and testified to their faith, taking part in symbolic death and resurrection along with their Lord and Redeemer from sin, Jesus Christ. Then they would eat milk and honey in remembrance of Israel, God’s Promised Land, which was described as flowing with milk and honey (Exod 3:8). The true Promised Land was understood to be spiritual, in eternity with God.

Even in the early Church, fasting was practiced throughout Holy Week (the week before Easter). Beginning in the 4th century, a 40-day period of fasting was established, following the examples of Moses and Jesus. But at the same time, there were also places where fasting would occur between two and eight weeks prior to Easter. In 715 AD, it was decided that the Lenten period would begin on Ash Wednesday.

Some monks considered fasting to be a spiritual weapon in the fight against temptation and demons. It wasn’t done for positive physical benefit; people were primarily concerned with suppressing earthly lusts and growing closer to God spiritually.

The concept of atonement for sins through fasting is still widespread today, particularly in Catholic spheres. This mindset views fasting as a form of “good works” that can compensate for sin.

However, excessive fasting was repeatedly criticized because it put pressure on others, and because it was assumed to be an esoteric rejection of physical creation, despising food as a good gift from God.

Martin Luther expressed skepticism about fasting due to his own experience in the monastery. He found it more of a burden. Hunger distracts people from their work and makes them weak; in some cases, it even leads to more temptation rather than less. Fasting can also be easily misunderstood as payment for the forgiveness of sins. However, Luther also warned against giving up on fasting entirely, whether from a contrarian spirit or from abuse of the spiritual liberty Jesus granted us. In that case, the person would be enjoying life’s luxuries with a clear conscience while others are going without.

John Calvin was more positive toward fasting. He saw it as an effective means of overcoming one’s lusts, preparing for a more intense time with God, and an expression of spiritual humility. He even recommended establishing mandatory days of public fasting.

The Purpose: Gratitude and Deepening of Faith
Fasting can still be a meaningful practice today, even before Easter. By temporarily abstaining from certain foods, you become aware of their value in a whole new way. You’ll value something all the more if you haven’t had it for a while. Fasting can undoubtedly help us better understand the suffering of those who often go hungry because of poverty as well. In a nation and a time of plenty, refraining from eating can help us avoid taking our privileged position for granted.

Of course, fasting is only one side of the coin. In parallel to restricting what we eat, we should also be concentrating on other areas of life. Time and energy that we would have devoted to cooking and eating should now be focused on God. Of course, it’s difficult at first when our stomach is growling. But once a certain threshold has been crossed, thoughts of food recede into the background, and it becomes easier to focus on vital issues and, of course, God.

Today: Political or Personal
Renouncing luxuries and entertainment during the Lenten period is reflected in Germany to this day, by an official ban on dances and other festive events on Good Friday. But because a majority of people have no connection to the Christian faith anymore, this law is increasingly being called into question.

For many, only Mardi Gras (“Fat Tuesday”) or Carnival remains of the Lenten traditions. In fact, the two are very closely related. In light of the weeks of fasting ahead, people in earlier centuries wanted to eat well and celebrate in advance. Fasting would begin on Ash Wednesday. People still celebrate Mardi Gras, but the subsequent fasting has all but been forgotten.

In bigger churches (in Europe), fasting before Easter is often reinterpreted through a political lens. Instead of Jesus, it’s about the usual political issues of economic justice or climate change. We should be giving up luxuries in order to do something good for the planet or for the poor. Most of the time, the concepts remain so general that they appeal to everyone, but nothing really changes. Inner preparation for the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection, degenerates into support for secular self-righteousness. It’s a true shame.

It is a pleasant thought to want to consciously remember God’s acts of salvation. Additionally, it’s probably a good thing for everyone to specially prepare themselves for an encounter with God. Yet sometimes these encounters occur in the seemingly ordinary circumstances of everyday life. In any case, after death, each person will stand before God. On that day, some of the things we invested a lot of our time in, that bothered us or made us happy, will be completely irrelevant. A time of rest and fasting can help us to examine ourselves and readjust our focus.

Internal and external preparation for the celebration of Jesus’ death and resurrection, is still profitable for Christians today. In the weeks leading up to Easter, Christians are encouraged to pray and read their Bible more than usual, to allow God to show them their sins and then repent of them. Additionally, we can gather more often during this time for fellowship, congregational singing, and reading the Psalms. It’s always easier to fast when we’re not doing it alone but in a community, so we can encourage one another, and talk about and with God together.

Midnight Call - 03/2025