Fasting Convinces …

Ash Wednesday Reflection on Jonah 3: 1-10

It was a day of fasting at the city of Nineveh. After the miraculous save of Jonah through the belly of a fish, Jonah finally arrived in the city of his destination, Nineveh to proclaim the prophecy of God. At prophet Jonah’s call, the entire city from the king to the citizens to the animals joined the fast and put on sackcloth seeking repentance from God for their wicked deeds. The cry of Jonah, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” put the city to test and gathered the political attention, for His Highness the King of Nineveh took the lead and made it a public policy in calling for a fast with his royal proclamation. The call for the fast included turning away from the evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands, besides putting on the sackcloth and ashes. The call for fast on that day put God in a fix to change God’s plan for the sake of the life for that city. From the clashes of conflicts, the city went into fasting and ashes, and out of ashes, the city came out into a splash of liberation and life. 

1. Fasting Challenged the Polis (5 V)

As Jonah proclaimed the prophecy of God, the people of Nineveh believed God, and sought God’s help through a very democratic, political and spiritual way of fasting. This idea of fasting emerged from among the people of the city. The fast they proclaimed was communitarian and for the need of their city. Their fast was not for a selfish need or for an individuals need or for an exhibition of their piety. Their fast was a political necessity, for it challenged the whole of the city. As the fast was proclaimed, everyone in the city without any objections or reservations or concessions observed their fast by putting on their sackcloth and ashes. Great and small in the city, man and women in the city, child and adult in the city, the sinning and the sinned-against in the city, powerful and powerless in the city, irrespective of their lines of divisions and identities, the city came out to the open for a fast in support of their city. When the whole city got together to fast, both the sinned and the sinned against joining the fast meant repentance with regard to the sinned and an indication from the sinned-against that time is ripe for reconciliation. This fasting, which included everyone and in which no one was excluded, displayed the true spirit of fasting. It was this fast that challenged the city.

2. Fasting Challenged the Polity (6-9 Vs)

With the impending peril at hand, when a fast was proclaimed by the city, the royal power at the city, who represents the polity, furthered the fast. The fast for the city was a mandate that emerged from the people and for the people, and therefore His Royal Highness was challenged to endorse it and made it a public policy for the good of the city. The king with all his power consciousness could have easily downplayed and rejected the idea of fasting, for as kings they only know to feast and they cared least if the city would go into a doom. The king was challenged by this fasting, and therefore at the peoples call for fast, he had to rise from his royal throne, had to remove his royal robes and had to cover him with sackcloth and had to sit in ashes. The spirituality of this fast was such, that it demanded the powerful to give up their power costumes, attires, attitudes and masks, and calls for a wholesome solidarity with the powerless and weak symbolized through ashes, the waste product that comes after the consumption of energy. The fast for the city challenged the king to issue a public decree calling everyone in the city to restrain from food and feed and be in solidarity for the cause by putting on the sackcloth and ashes. The royal public decree calls everyone in the city to turn their evil practices, practices of discrimination and oppression and to turn away from violence that was in their hands. The king also felt, such a fasting that comes from the community may also challenge God.

3. Fasting Challenged the Prophecy (10V)

The king, who was challenged by the communitarian fasting, felt that even the prophecy from God could be challenged of such fasting by people attempted for a change in the city, and may change God’s plans for the sake of promoting life. As was foreseen, the fasting challenged the polity and eventually challenged the prophecy of God according to the writer of this book. The prophecy from prophet Jonah that ‘forty days from now, Nineveh shall be overthrown’ was challenged because the fasting was for the sake of community and not for an individual need. The prophecy was challenged for the barriers of power, for the powerful gave up their power and joined the common, and the community encouraged each other along with the creation to save their city. The prophecy was challenged that the residue ashes became the common binding and bonding symbol in the city, which reveals their deepest concern for righteousness. The prophecy was challenged for both the oppressors in the city and the oppressed in the city joined together to fast, where the oppressor sought repentance from God and the oppressed and oppressed could see justice being enforced in the land. This fasting challenged the prophecy of God, for it was political in nature, for the fast focused on ‘save the city’. This fasting was for the common good of the people and the community in the city, and it has shown the city’s belief in God and in their spiritual quest for God’s intervention. On all these counts, this fasting by the city of Nineveh challenged the prophecy of God and challenged God, for according to the understanding of the writer of the book of Jonah, the city did not perish as was willed by God earlier.

Fasting in the book of Jonah is the recognition of the fact that 

• God is concerned about unrighteousness as disastrous for creation. 
• God’s concern of impending danger as proclaimed by the prophet can bring people and powers together for common good, which directs the mission as lobbying. 
• The righteous could feel excluded in this process of reconciliation like Jonah, and such people need to include themselves in God’s act of reconciling all.

As churches, we are called to prophecy, reconcile and heal our situations of wickedness and bring in transformation to our localities and societies. The polis, the polity and the prophecy were thoroughly challenged by the fasting of the people in Nineveh that brought in a change within and around them. Out of clashes they went into ashes, and out of ashes they came out splashing life and change.

Implications for Today 

• In the season of Lent, is our fasting political and for a communitarian purpose? 
• In the context of the Campaign for climate justice, should not our fasting in this season sensitize our congregations and communities to be akin with the flora and fauna, address indiscriminate mining and save our splendid earth?
• In the context of the growing violence, oppression and discrimination done in the name of caste, gender, religion and region, should not our fasting in this season conscientize our communities to become peacemakers and bring in justice and liberation?