(Audio and Text)
Title: Fasting (Part Two)
As we begin our second week on our study on fasting, I want to quickly revisit the end of last week’s message and look at the conclusions we drew as a refresher moving forward this week. If you recall, the conclusions I suggested from last week’s introduction and background on fasting were as follows:
Recap from last week:
- Fasting, while not directly commanded, has always been an assumed practice of God’s children. (Pastors note: the goal of my sermon is not to condemn you if you don’t fast, but rather to encourage you, as a mature believer, to consider the practice of fasting and how it may help you in your walk with Christ.)
- Fasting most usually involves food, but can also involve work, or other personal sacrifices. (Ben’s two types of fasts in college: Food and Technology)
- There are various reasons for fasting, but all of them focus on giving up a physical need in order to have a spiritual need met.
This week we will dive back into Jesus’ discussion on fasting and look at three key teachings and elements that Jesus gives us in regard to how we ought to fast. But first, let’s read through our passage and ask that the Lord would bless our time together this morning, shall we?
(read/pray)
- Do not be like the hypocrites
The first command we see from Jesus is that when we fast we are to not be fasting in the same way that the hypocrites fast. And Jesus gives us two things that are wrong with their fasting practices.
First, they have a sad countenance. The NIV says they are “somber.” The NASB says they “put on a gloomy face.” You get the idea. They mope around. They play the “notice me” game in the midst of their fasting. They draw attention to the very fact that they are fasting.
Secondly, we see that they disfigure their faces. The NASB says they “neglect their appearance.” They purposely go out into public attempting to draw as much attention to their appearance, both by acting sad and looking unkempt in an attempt to draw sympathy and attention to their pious activities.
I wish at this point I had some witty pastoral anecdote about a modern day parallel to this type of behavior, but I don’t. And I think this is why: people drawing attention to themselves in our society today simply isn’t rare, it’s the norm. All of us know people we’d call drama queens, or drama kings. People who feed off of attention from others. Whether that attention is positive or negative doesn’t matter, these people just feel the need for any attention. I can’t stand that type of behavior. And the reason that behavior frustrates me to no end is three fold.
First, I think it is the most selfish way a human being can live their existence. It is the ultimate form of self gratification: get people to notice me, get people to pity me, get people to eventually praise me for all I’m going through.
The second reason I hate this behavior is because it lacks all humility. John 3:30 says “He must become greater, I must become less.” Phillipians 2 talks about considering your brother more esteemed than yourself, and this type of “notice me” behavior reeks of self-importance and self-preservation. We assume that our situation is more relevant that our brothers, we seek to have our needs met first. Scripture teaches us to represent Christ everywhere, always, and when we act like this we are living for ourselves.
The final reason this is such a frustration to me is, sadly, because this is exactly who I was before I was saved. I was not dramatic in my approach to things, I was melodramatic. Weather it was triumph or tragedy, the goal of my life was pleasure, and one of the main ways we draw pleasure is to draw attention and admiration. I was not comfortable in the background, I did not like serving others, I did not want to wait my turn.
Now, thankfully, the Lord has done a great work in me over the last 15 years, but he’s also put me in front of people to teach, and Satan knows that, and he knows what my flesh craves more than anything is attention, respect, admiration, approval. So I have to walk ever so carefully day to day, knowing the sin of selfishness that I am prone to lapse back into. And you, as my brothers and sisters in Christ, need to know these things about your pastor, so that the measure of accountability you hold me under is always commiserate with scripture.
- They have their reward
The next thing we see Jesus say at the end of verse 16 is that these people already have their reward. They have forsaken the approval of an eternal God in exchange for the immediate gratification of men.
What a foolish decision indeed. Simply put, and we see this lesson again and again all over scripture: Making the right decision often involves postponing immediate gratification for a better long term result.
In other words, their sin is not in seeking approval or gratification. Their sin is in seeking approval and gratification in anything besides the Almighty.
What is the reward of the hypocrites, and why is it so bad? (take answers)
- The attention of men is fickle and fleeting.
- It also is temporary
- It can’t help you eternally
- To your Father who is in the secret place
So, how then, ought we to fast? Well Jesus is painting the picture using oppositional teaching. If the hypocrites are disfiguring themselves and making themselves appear to be sad, the Christ tells us in verse 17 to anoint our heads and wash our faces.
Anointing one’s head was a symbol of rejoicing amongst Jews and it was done every day, except when one fasted.
Washing your face means to clean up, the equivalent of us taking a shower and washing our hair before going into work each morning.
So imagine fasting, but also giving up showering, and then rubbing manure on your clothes before going to work. You think your are going to draw attention to yourself?
And when someone asks, “What’s wrong with you?” You, with the saddest, most “woe is me” look on your face say, “I’m just going through an extremely difficult time right now and I really can’t hear God’s voice in all this, so I’ve begun a very intense fast and prayer time…thank you for asking.”
Jesus condemns that very behavior. He teaches us that our fasting and prayer life is between the father and us, period. To pray to our Father who is in that secret place, pray and fast in humility, pray and fast not drawing any attention to ourselves, and then, the Father, who sees what you secretly, who sees that you don’t draw attention to your own struggles and trials, but even in the midst of those trials and struggles you are helping and serving others, then, then he will reward you openly.
This teaching on fasting parallels exactly Christ’s teaching on how to pray found earlier in this chapter. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. Jesus understood that prayer and fasting went hand in hand, and he wanted us to know that the same selfless attitudes needed to accompany both acts.
Have you ever asked yourselves why Jesus calls these types of prayers and these types of fasters hypocrites? For Jesus, both prayer and fasting, and his examples of the hypocrite boil down to one issue: authenticity.
Your prayer and fasting life have to be real for them to be meaningful. The hypocrites in Jesus’ examples were not praying and fasting for their spiritual maturity, they were praying and fasting for attention. They had no desire to become better people, they just wanted to be more popular.
Be honest for a moment and ask yourself this: when you do what you do, what is your real motivation?
pray/qa