Our lives will be marked by concrete caring responses for others. Fasting must deal with reality. It does not skirt issues. It is not an interior escape. The fast God has chosen prepares us within in such a way that we can be used to bring about change in outward circumstances.
Inner liberation spills over into outward acts of caring.
It is as we turn away from a focus on ourselves and redirect ourselves to God and others, that we rediscover the meaning for our life. Fasting is one of the historic spiritual disciplines that enables this to happen. When the lawyer in the Luke 10 text asked Jesus about eternal life and he reiterated the two great commandments, Jesus answered his follow-up question on who his neighbor is by telling the parable of the good Samaritan. In contrast to the two religious leaders in this parable, it is the injured man s natural enemy who demonstrates a God-centered life. This person is the good Samaritan, the one who stops, has compassion on the wounded, and takes action to assist him, even though he was his natural-born enemy.