Yesterday marked the end of Ramadan (Eid al-Fitr), a month long ritual of fasting for followers of Islam; which means that today (iftar,) Muslims around the world are breaking their fasts with celebration and feasting. A recent news article written by Muslim author, Sabeeha Rehman, gave intriguing insight into several different aspects of Ramadan:

• During Ramadan, Muslims must totally abstain from water and food from daybreak until sundown every day for 29-30 straight days. ”The idea,” she wrote, “is to cultivate restraint.”
• Emotional: The sick, the pregnant, or women who are breast feeding are exempt from fasting, but those who eat must “make up for the missed fast at a later date or feed the poor for each day of missed fast.”
• Financial: Muslims are required to donate financially an “equivalent of at least 2.5% of their savings, gold and commercial property.” This type of calculation apparently can be quite tedious and difficult to ascertain, leaving one wondering if they have given an accurate tabulation.
• Relational: During Ramadan “fighting is off-limits.”

First, allow me as a Christian pastor to ‘tip my hat’ for two things without at all giving credibility to the Islamic faith or the Ramadan tradition:

• First, the idea that a faith community around the entire world would, collectively, at the same season of time, commit themselves to unified fasting is simply remarkable. As a follower of Jesus, I cannot think of a single instance where Christians around the world united across denominational lines and collectively joined themselves together in unity to share a common bond with one another. Yes, of course we have Christmas and Easter, but those are highlighted days on the calendar, not a season where Christians lock arms with one another to share collectively in a common journey. How remarkable would it be if Christians worldwide would do something as a unified practice of solidarity?
• Second, I admire the discipline of the Muslim community during Ramadan. I cannot think of a single time in all my years as a pastor where my church (let alone Christians around the globe) joined together for a month long fast of any nature in order to seek the things of our awesome God. I’m not suggesting that those in the Muslim faith are fasting from a clean heart, nor am I suggesting that faith makes them acceptable with God. I am simply saying that their discipline to take one month every year to fast is something unparalleled in the Christian community.

With that said, as I reflect upon Ramadan and the breaking of the Muslim fast today, there are several things that stand in contrast to those of us who profess Jesus as Lord and Savior:

• Acceptance – Yes, Jesus speaks of fasting, and it seems that it should be a more regular part of our Christian practice. And yes, fasting may help cultivate restraint, not just with our physical hunger but also with the lusts of the flesh. However, the Christian understands that our acceptance before a holy God does not come through acts of our flesh, but through the act of Jesus in His flesh on the cross. If we were to fast collectively as a faith community, it may be right and appropriate to do so, but may we never think that fasting would gain us a more acceptable disposition before the Lord. Our acceptance with a holy God is because of Jesus Christ, and we rest confidently in Him.
• Worship – Ponder a religious structure where people are forced to perform certain actions, and where those who don’t must “pay off” their failure by taking care of the poor or doing the religious duty at a later date. In contrast with this, the Christian is never to be motivated by misplaced shame as if we are “paying God off.” Nor are we driven by guilt as if we have an obligation to make God happy with us. Our actions are motivated by “faith working in love.” The Christian community rests in Jesus’ work as our source of confidence and is not to motivate people emotionally through guilt, shame, or twisting of arms.
• Giving – Whatever else the New Testament says about giving, it is a clear principle that the Christian must not be compelled to give, but each man should give “as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” For followers of Islam, the precise calculation of goods and meeting of certain percentages all speaks to a very controlled practice of legalistic precision. Followers of Jesus are free from this type of mechanical control. Yes, we may give a 10% tithe of our income, but the New Testament in no way restrains our giving at a certain level. Rather, our giving is to be permeated by a spirit of generosity, not driven by mechanical guilt.
• Relationships – Interestingly, fighting is off limits during the one month of observing Ramadan. That’s great. But does it ever occur to people that maybe they shouldn’t fight the rest of the year? The tenets of one’s faith, if good enough to guide 30 days of the year, ought to be observed 365 days a year. In other words, whether a Christian is fasting or not fasting, we are called to love our neighbors, love our enemies, and do good to those who hate us. We may be observing Christmas or Easter, or simply going to work on a typical Monday in August, and yet the principles of our faith are to be practiced around the entire year.

Fellow Christians, we serve the One True Living God!  He is worthy of our worship and praise. Our acceptance is in Him. Our worship is driven by thanksgiving not guilt. Our giving is motivated by a cheerful, willing heart. The principles of our faith are embedded in concrete, guiding us through the entire year as we celebrate a Risen Savior.

Muslims may be eating and feasting today, and yet deep down they are never quite sure about their acceptance before Allah, who is a capricious God. For the Christian, we eat and feast every day with celebration in our hearts knowing that the God of the Universe loves us and accepts us through His Son Jesus. And, if we ever fast from food, we do so to honor the Lord and restrain our flesh; not to gain favor with the Lord, but to give worship to the one who suffered on our behalf.

Feast and eat today knowing that you are loved,

Craig Trierweiler