Fasting
How long is the longest you have gone without eating food? For many of you it is around eight hours, and that’s when you get a full night’s sleep. You do know what the first meal of the day is called, right? Breakfast. Break-fast. You are breaking the fast you just did when you slept. And if you are a hobbit, you then have second breakfast to break the fast between first breakfast and second breakfast. The longest recorded time someone has gone without eating is 382 days. It was by a man named Angus Barbieri in the United Kingdom in 1966. He lived on tea, coffee, water, soda water and vitamins in a hospital from June 1965 to July 1966.[1] That doesn’t sound too appealing, does it? But here we are in the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus is expecting us to fast.
Fasting is the abstinence from food for the sake of seeking God.
When most people hear the word fasting now days, they often think about health fads and diet plans. Intermittent fasting is trendy right now. You skip breakfast and maybe lunch, drink water a lot of water, and hopefully lose a few pounds. But biblical fasting isn’t a trendy diet plan. It is for the purpose of seeking God. Don Whitney defines it as “a believer's voluntary abstinence from food for spiritual purposes.”[2]
This is why throughout Scripture fasting always revolves around food. Every single example in the Bible where fasting is mentioned is tied to not eating in order to pursue God’s presence or His help. Moses fasted on Mount Sinai before receiving the law.[3] Esther fasted before she walked into the king’s presence.[4] Ezra fasted for God’s protection.[5] Daniel fasted for wisdom.[6] Even the Ninevites—pagan idolaters—stopped eating and cried out to the Lord.[7] And of course, Jesus Himself fasted forty days in the wilderness before facing temptation.[8] And if you wonder what kind of fast Jesus did, whether if it was with food or not, the Bible makes it very clear for us. Look at the end of Matthew 4:2: “After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.” Of course, He was hungry!
To go without Netflix or Instagram may be good discipline, but it’s not fasting in the biblical sense of fasting. It is self-discipline. That is a good thing. But Christian fasting is always about food. Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains: “Fasting means an abstinence from food for the sake of certain special purposes such as prayer or meditation or the seeking of God for some peculiar reason or under some exceptional circumstance.”[9]
Why food? Because food is the most basic human appetite. If you can tell your stomach no, you can tell your lust no. If you can tell your appetite no, you can tell your greed no. If you can master your stomach, you can train your soul to hunger for God.
Think about how strange fasting sounds to our modern, consumer-driven world. We live in a culture that doesn’t just eat enough…it eats more than enough. Statistics show the average American consumes around 3,900 calories a day.[10] Healthy adults typically need between 1,600-3,000 calories per day. We eat a lot. We eat more than a lot. Our fridges are overstocked. Our restaurant choices are endless. Y’all it’s not even enough for us to have fast food now. They had to invent DoorDash so fast food could be delivered to our door. We are surrounded by an abundance of food. So, the idea of deliberately not eating feels like torture. It is completely countercultural and counter to our very physical nature.
But fasting is a bodily way of saying, “God, I need you more than I need physical sustenance.” It is the whole body saying, “Lord, I want You more than I want food. More than I want my most basic desires. More than I want anything.” Don Whitney notes, “Few Disciplines go so radically against the flesh and the mainstream of culture as this one. Nevertheless, we dare not overlook its biblical significance.”[11]
So let me ask you a hard question: when was the last time you felt your hunger for God more than your hunger for food? Some of us can’t even make it through a 45-minute sermon without thinking about what’s for lunch. What does that say about our appetites? Maybe the greatest reason many of us don’t persevere in prayer or experience victory over sin is because we have never learned to say no to our stomachs or other appetites so that we can say yes to God.
Fasting is a normal expectation for God’s people. (16-17)
Notice how Jesus begins in verse 16: “And when you fast.” Not if you fast. Not for the super spiritual among you who fast. He says, “When you fast.” Then again in verse 17: “But when you fast.” Twice in two verses. That repetition is not accidental. Jesus assumes fasting will be a regular part of discipleship.
Think about it: in Matthew 6, Jesus teaches about giving, praying, and fasting. In each case, He uses the same pattern. “When you give…” “When you pray…” “When you fast…” Nobody argues that giving is optional. Nobody argues that prayer is optional. But somehow, we’ve decided fasting is extra credit. It’s an extracurricular activity, like being on the chess team at school. Jesus places all three side by side though. That means fasting is not for the spiritual elite. It is for all of us who are followers of Jesus seeking the will of God for the glory of God.
In Jewish practice, fasting was common, at least once a year. The Law required fasting once a year on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:27).
“Now on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves[fast] and present a food offering to the Lord.”
Over time, national fasts were added in times of crisis, like drought, war, or judgment.[12] By Jesus’s day, though, the Pharisees had made it a ritual twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. They turned it into an obligation. It was a show. It wasn’t out of seeking. It was to be seen.
But Jesus strips away the show and gets to the heart. He assumes His disciples will fast, and He cares how they fast. They practiced it for the purpose of seeking God. Look at how the early church lived this out. Acts 13:2 says, “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Before they sent missionaries, they fasted. Acts 14:23 says Paul fasted when appointing elders: “And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.” In other words, fasting was normal part of church life. And it’s because the church was seeking God’s direction and guidance and glory.
But we live in an age that resists desperation. We would rather stay comfortable. Let’s be honest. The church today is far more shaped by comfort than by cross-bearing. We’re willing to “fast” Netflix only if the internet goes out. We will “fast” Chick-fil-A but only on Sundays because they’re closed. The thought of voluntarily skipping meals to seek God feels foreign. Yet Jesus says fasting should be normal for those who seek Him.
So why is it missing in our lives and in our church? Either 1) We haven’t understood fasting, or 2) We’re not seeking God like we should, or 3) an unhealthy mixture of both of those.
Fasting must be done with pure motives before God. (16–17)
Here Jesus presses on the danger like in the previous two on prayer and giving in saying, “Do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others” (16). The word hypocrite means actor. In Jesus’ day, actors wore masks. They put on a face. That’s what some did with fasting. They would walk around unwashed, sprinkle ashes on their heads, sigh loudly, just so everyone knew, “Wow, what a spiritual guy. He must really love God. Look at how miserable he looks.” Ha! That’s what some people must think when they look at some of you! Just kidding…
D.A. Carson explains the context for us well:
“What began as spiritual self-discipline was prostituted into an occasion for pompous self-righteousness. Some would wear glum and pained expressions on their faces, go about their business unwashed and unkempt, and sprinkle ashes on their head, all to inform peers that they were fasting. What was once a sign of humiliation became a sign of self-righteous self-display.”[13]
And what Jesus says about that is this: (16b)“Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.” The applause of people is all they’re going to get. If you fast so that others will think highly of you, then enjoy your pat on the back because that’s all the reward you’ll ever see. But Jesus says instead, “Anoint your head and wash your face” (17). In other words, look normal. Act normal. Don’t put on a show. Fasting isn’t about impressing people. It’s about seeking God.
Christians can turn anything into a show. People show off how many Bible studies they attend or podcasts they listen to. They make sure you know they woke up at 4 a.m. for prayer and Bible reading. And you know because they put it on Instagram or Facebook. “Hashtag, can’t start my day without Jesus and coffee!” Or they casually drop, “Oh sorry, I can’t eat that, I’m fasting right now.” Jesus says that’s hypocrisy. Fasting must be about hungering for God, not hungering for attention. That’s why Jesus emphasizes secrecy: “That your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret” (18). God is the only audience that matters. Fasting is a chance to get low before God and say, “God, You see me. And that’s enough.”
Fasting is about hungering for God above all else. (18)
Jesus ends with a promise: “And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (18). Notice the repetition: “is in secret… sees in secret… will reward you.” God isn’t blind. He notices the hidden act. And He promises to reward you.
But what is the reward? Some treat fasting like a vending machine like we talked about last week in prayer. Put in your hunger, pull out your blessing. Lloyd-Jones warns against what he calls this “penny in the slot” view. He says, “There are some people who fast because they expect direct and immediate results from it. In other words they have a kind of mechanical view of fasting…If you fast you will get the results.”[14]
No. You know what the greatest reward is from fating? God Himself. The Father gives Himself to those who hunger for Him. John Piper said, “Christian fasting, at its root, is the hunger of a homesickness for God.”[15] When you fast, you’re saying, “I want the Bridegroom. I want the presence of Christ more than the pleasures of this world. More than food.” This is why Jesus said in Matthew 9:15, “And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” That’s now. We fast because we long for Jesus!
And here’s the great paradox: in fasting we starve the body to feed the soul. We empty our plates to fill our hearts.
I want to ask you this today: What do you hunger for most?
Some of us hunger for food. Some hunger for approval. Some hunger for control. Some hunger for sexual desire. Some hunger for comfort.
Fasting exposes what rules us. It tests whether our appetites have become our master.
Maybe the reason fasting feels so radical is because it unmasks our idols. It shows us how much we really love our own comfort more than God. It forces us to face the question: Do I really hunger for God above everything else?
And here’s the good news: the Father promises reward. It’s not always in the way we expect, but it’s always in the way we need. It’s a deeper relationship with Him. So when Jesus says, “Your Father who sees in secret will reward you,” He is promising that fasting will never be wasted. You may not get the applause of people, but you will get the presence of God. And that is better than anything you could eat.
So, the question is not, “Should I fast?” The question is, “Do I desire God enough to fast?”
[1] https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/78789-longest-survival-without-food
[2] Donald S. Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, rev. and updated ed. (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2014), 192.
[3] Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 9:9
[9] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1959), 38.
[10] https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/chart-detail?chartId=58376
[11] Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, 192.
[12] D.A. Carson, The Sermon on the Mount: An Evangelical Exposition of Matthew 5-7 (Baker Book House, 1978), 72.
[13] Carson, The Sermon on the Mount, 72
[14] Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 39.
[15] Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, 197.
