Christ endured 40 days without food or water

[friend of]

Why did he fall 3x?

 

[PeaceJoyLove]

Why did he fall 3x?

Where is that in scripture?

 

[friend of]

It's something that is professed in Catholicism. Jesus fell 3x according to Catholicism.

 

[mukk_in]

It's something that is professed in Catholicism. Jesus fell 3x according to Catholicism.

Don't know much about Catholicism, but He endured because He was full of the Holy Ghost. Peace in Christ .

 

[PeaceJoyLove]

Wow.

 

[St_Worm2]

Hi Friend Of, St. Peter denied the Lord 3x (then a rooster crowed .. Luke 22). Could that be what you're thinking of by any chance?

 

[friend of]

No I'm thinking of the 'stations of the cross' which is Catholic. Go to this link for expounding.

I'm just wondering... if Jesus was capable of enduring the desert for 40 days and nights, why would Jesus fall down from exertion in his walk at Golgotha? It doesn't make sense to me.

What are the Stations of the Cross and what can we learn from them?

1. Jesus is condemned to death.
2. Jesus is given His cross.
3. Jesus falls down for the first time.
4. Jesus meets His mother Mary.
5. Simon of Cyrene is forced to carry the cross.
6. Veronica wipes blood off of Jesus’ face.
7. Jesus falls down for the second time.
8. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem.
9. Jesus falls down for the third time.
10. Jesus is stripped of His clothing.
11. Jesus is nailed to the cross – the Crucifixion.
12. Jesus dies on the cross.
13. Jesus’ body is removed from the cross – the Deposition or Lamentation.
14. Jesus’ body is placed in the tomb.

In the traditional form of the Stations of the Cross, however, stations 3, 4, 6, 7, and 9 are not explicitly biblical. As a result, a “Scriptural Way of the Cross” has been developed. Below are the biblical descriptions of the 14 Stations of the Cross and the life application of each.

 

[A_Thinker]

Why did he fall 3x?

Firstly ... I don't think that Jesus' wilderness fast excluded water.

Secondly, the fortitude to maintain a 40-day fast ... and the physical strength to endure carrying the cross to Golgotha call upon different reserves.

The fast would call upon SPIRITUAL strength.

Carrying the cross ADDITIONALLY called upon PHYSICAL strength.

And recall that Jesus was beaten before carrying the cross, as well.

 

[FireDragon76]

We don't believe Jesus was superhuman. In his physical humanity, he was absolutely identical to you and me. He was vulnerable. After receiving a scourging, he would have been left weak. The type of scourging Romans did, some people would have died from eventually.

 

[Shempster]

Moses seemed to have survived 40 days as well on Mt Sinai

 

[friend of]

Faster for 40 days seems pretty superhuman to me

 

[Bob Crowley]

For one thing, the term "40 days" in ancient Hebrew simply meant a long time. It did not literally mean 40 days.

Since you've chosen to debate a Catholic tradition as to Christ falling 3 times on His way to the cross, then I've included a Catholic link which gives some information about the Biblical references to 40 in the sense of 40 days, 40 years, and the 40 days of Lent (leading up to Easter).

Forty Day & Forty Nights

Secondly I don't think Christ didn't drink for "40 days". We can last some time without food, but we need water, no matter who we are. And if Christ got through "40 days" of fasting without taking a drink due to His supernatural powers. then that would have been a form of cheating.

I have no trouble believing Christ fell 3 times on his way to Golgotha. He'd been scourged with a whip which had been laced with bits of bone and iron in the thongs. And if the devil was behind it, it would have been laid on with a will.

He'd have been in a shocking state. In the prophetic words of Isaiah, He "hardly appeared human".

Isaiah 52:14 NIV

Just as there were many who were appalled at him -- his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness--

Finally there's a brief Catholic explanation as to the tradition of 3 falls, which may or may not be accurate - but I have no problem whatsoever that Christ fell. You go through what He went through and see whether you can stay on your feet the whole time.

EWTN.com - Jesus falls 3 times

 

[Dkh587]

Firstly ... I don't think that Jesus' wilderness fast excluded water.

Secondly, the fortitude to maintain a 40-day fast ... and the physical strength to endure carrying the cross to Golgotha call upon different reserves.

The fast would call upon SPIRITUAL strength.

Carrying the cross ADDITIONALLY called upon PHYSICAL strength.

And recall that Jesus was beaten before carrying the cross, as well.

Fasting, in the Hebrew language and culture, means to cover/close your mouth. For example, if an Israelite fasts, it's assumed that they would not be eating or drinking anything

In Christian culture, we hear things like the "Daniel fast", but Daniel did not really fast. He only ate vegetables. That's not fasting.

Fasting is refraining from all food and drink.

 

[Bob Crowley]

"Fasting, in the Hebrew language and culture, means to cover/close your mouth. For example, if an Israelite fasts, it's assumed that they would not be eating or drinking anything
In Christian culture, we hear things like the "Daniel fast", but Daniel did not really fast. He only ate vegetables. That's not fasting.
Fasting is refraining from all food and drink."

You're pinning your whole argument on a legalistic interpretation of a Hebrew term, and completely ignoring Christ's humanity. He was both God and human with human limitations.

Let's look at the record for a start. What is the first tempation that the tempter offers Him? Food! There's not a single word about being thirsty. "Turn these stones into bread.."

Matthew 4:2-3 NIV The Temptation of Jesus -

1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. 3The tempter came to Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread. But Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God...."

Contrast this with the episode of the Samaritan woman at the well.

John 4 NIV Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman

"Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Christ had only been walking for one day, and He was tired, and thirsty, or He would not have asked for a drink.

He didn't live in a supernatural vacuum. He had human limitations. Stop interpreting Scripture through the legalistic lens of language use.

Christ somehow had water to drink during the "40 day" fast, but He didn't have food, and that was the very first thing the devil tempted him with. If I had a raging thirst and an overpowering hunger, I'd want the drink first, then the food. If I was that dry, I wouldn't even be able to eat the food, until I'd had a drink.

Yet nowhere does the text state Christ was tempted to drink.

 

[Glaucus]

It is highly unlikely that Jesus fasted from water during his 40 day fast. We are told nothing about Jesus' physical state during his fast. He likely did stumble and fall during the later days of his fast.

The fast and the carrying of the cross are completely different. Before his walk, he was severely beaten and disfigured. He was not physically beaten during his fast. Add that fact and a heavy cross on his back, of course his human flesh and bones were failing.

 

[Ron Gurley]

The 40 day fast from FOOD by Jesus was to strengthen Him spiritually and physically and to prepare Him for about a ~3 year ministry.

Miracles:
1. NO HUNGER for 40 days, probably drank
2. the angels were ministering to Him
3. avoided temptations of the devil by using the "word of God"

Matthew 4:2
And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.

Mark 1:13
And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him.

Luke 4:2
for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry.

 

[yeshuasavedme]

Fasting is refraining from all food and drink.

On the cross, Jesus thirsted.
After the 40 day fast in the wilderness, he hungered, not thirsted.
Brother Yun who is called "the heavenly man", in China, would not eat or dirnk for 74 days while in prison in China. He wanted to die. God did not let him die, but his body did shrink up so that his mother and wife who were allowed to visit him in prison did not recognize him, and claimed it was not he. His ears shrunk to the size of raisins.
Look him up...
He was sustained by the LORD, and he is only one person who is alive today to tell the story, but in the two thousand years since the Church was empowered at Pentecost after the ascension, there are many miracles of God's intervention in the lives of His people, and history is filled with the miracles God has done to demonstrate His power, in His servants and through His servants.