When You Fast – Matthew 6:16-18
To be human is to experience a complex web of appetites and desires. Many of those desires are healthy and natural; while others are more nefarious, corrosive, and wrong, and in many ways, those desires can master us. For millennia, fasting, going without food and drink for a period of time, has been a core practice of the Church. This is in part because it brings our body and spirit into alignment and clarifies our desires.
On the Sermon on the Mount
The Sermon on the Mount is not an isolated speech.
The whole sermon is Christ describing what life in the kingdom and allegiance to him looks like.
Obedience to the Sermon on the Mount is a practice in imagination.
Food excess, body idolatry/body insecurity and the mastery of the body.
What both food excess and body idolatry have in common is that the body has become our master. Whether it is the temptation toward excess and overeating or the over-sexualization of the human body.
In Freudian thought, the pleasure principle is the seeking of immediate gratification and the avoidance of pain, in order to satisfy biological or psychological needs.
Yet, the entirety of our culture is set up to stoke the fires of desire and to feed our disordered desires.
On Genesis 2: Dust and Spirit
5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground—then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. – Genesis 2:5-7 ESV
Humanity is both dust and breath, or body and spirit. Humans are both physicality and spirituality.
On Genesis 3: To take and eat
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” –Genesis 3:1–6.
Ignatius of Loyola writes; “Sin is an unwillingness to trust that what God wants for me is only my deepest happiness.”
Now whether you read Genesis as history or literary theology, this story reminds us that we all have appetites or desires that are out of sync with God’s best.
On Matthew 4: The New Adam
“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” – Matthew 4:1–4.
Jesus, the new Adam, goes toe to toe with the temptor from the garden. At the moment we think he would be weakest– going forty days without food– he proves himself to be strongest.
Where every other human being has failed, Jesus has victory.
Paul will later offer thoughts on this say, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Cor. 15:22 ESV)
How does Jesus start his kingdom work with Fasting?
16 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” – Matthew 6:16–18 (ESV)
Jesus assumes two things; that we will fast and that we will screw it up.
“When you fast…”
Not if, not on the occasion, but when…
Jesus isn’t necessarily commanding fasting, but there is an underlying assumption that it will be a part of the life of apprenticeship to him.
There are a variety of practices called ‘fasting’; like giving up social media, or TV, or eating a restricted diet. While none of this is bad, I would like to insist fasting should be defined specifically as going without food.
As a first-century Israelite, he was likely fasting on Tuesdays and Thursdays every single week. As Scott McKnight observes,
“The common fast in Judaism was from the evening meal to the next evening meal—skipping food at breakfast and midday. It wasn’t heroic but demanded enough for discomfort.”
What Jesus is calling us to is not heroic efforts, but embodied spirituality.
“Fasting helps us to express, to deepen, and to confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves, to attain the Kingdom of God.” – Andrew Murray
Jesus’ warnings on fasting Matthew 6:16-17
Jesus’ instructions are to not practice fasting before others.
Jesus isn’t discrediting communal fasting. Jesus is not calling communal fasts wrong, he is calling fasting to show off wrong.
The Role of Fasting in the life of the apprentice
Fasting allows us to pray more– every hunger pang functions as an alarm bell.
Fasting allows us to come into solidarity with the poor. The prophet Isaiah, in a critique of the self-righteous Israelites, wrote–
“Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed[a] go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? –Isaiah 58:6-7 ESVFasting helps to clarify our desires.
“16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other,to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things, there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.” – Galatians 5:16–26.
The best way to define flesh is as ‘disordered desires’ or our impulse toward instant gratification.
In fasting, we put both our body and our spirit into alignment by feeding on the energy of the Spirit of God and not food.
SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
Pick a day and try it. We suggest fasting (going without food and drink) twice a week for twelve or twenty-four hours. This can look like not eating breakfast and lunch, or skipping dinner one night and breaking your fast the next night.*
*A note on eating disorders and medical conditions– if you’ve ever suffered from an eating disorder or live with a diagnosed medical condition, you should consult a doctor, therapist, or pastor prior to fasting. Fasting is a helpful practice given to us by Christ, but notice that fasting is not intended to harm the body. Rather, it is designed to bring the body and soul into alignment.Fasting is about freedom– not legalism or pride.
One of the ways to avoid the boasting Jesus warns of is to simply submit to the community paradigm.
