Sermon Tone Analysis

As I sat in study this week, I couldn’t help but notice the irony of where our passage fell this week.

On the week of Thanksgiving, the holiday where we as Americans gather with our friends and families to feast and overeat, the passage falls on the topic of fasting.

Now, I know the Holy Spirit works in these ways, but if you don’t see at least a little humor in that, I’m concerned about the health of your funny bone.

This is the third of three topics that Jesus has been addressing, issues of Piety or religious deeds that we ought to do, but we must guard carefully to be sure that we don’t do them “in order to be seen by others.”

We have already covered the topics of charitable giving and prayer thus far.

Those two things, as we noted, were religious deeds or deeds of piety that would have been part of the normal, routine life of the faithful Jew.

And as Jesus addressed them, he speaks assuming that they will continue to be part of the lives of His followers also.

He says, not if, but“when you give your alms… When you pray…” and finally here he says, “when you fast...”

Fasting, of the three, is probably the least spoken of, the least understood, and the least practiced - at least in my experience.

Now, maybe I am revealing too much about myself there - but as I think back on teaching I’ve heard and read, and conversations I’ve had with many many Christians in my lifetime, I can say for certain that giving and praying are assumed for most Christians, but fasting doesn’t get nearly as much air time.

What is Fasting?

The basic meaning of the words for fasting used in the Bible mean to abstain.

In the Old Testament, the word means specifically to abstain from food.

The New Testament word is a little more broad, meaning simply to abstain, but it is always food in the Bible that is being abstained from in a fast.

Most of the fasts we see in the Old Testament were communal fasts.

Fasts that were done as the congregation of Israel to mark a special time, a time of mourning, or a time of repentance.

As the topic turns into the New Testament, we see smaller fasts, or even individual fasts becoming the more usual form.

Now, in our day, the most common type of fasting that we hear of is dietary fasting for the purpose of regulating health.

There are things like intermittent fasting for weight loss, fasting before a weigh-in for athletes in certain weight classes, etc.

But this is a modern adaptation - fasting in ancient times was only voluntarily done for religious purposes.

In a time where food supply wasn’t as regulated and guaranteed, a “dietary” fast would have seemed foolish or at least odd.

Jesus, of course, isn’t speaking to the idea of medical or dietary fasting in this passage.

The Bible doesn’t speak to that concept.

As this is grouped with prayer and giving, this is clearly a religious fast.

Fasting, then, in this case, is a specific time of abstaining from food for the purpose of religious devotion.

It is almost always coupled with prayer, seeking an answer, seeking forgiveness, or seeking wisdom.

Perhaps we are less prone to fasting because the idea of being in need of answers or provision is further from us as 21st century individuals.

But Jesus assumes His followers will fast, and He gives instruction on how to do so in a God-honoring way.

For followers of Jesus, fasting is not an empty ritual, but a time of private and earnest devotion; seeking the will of God, not recognition by men.

1.

A Survey of Fasting

This first point might be a bit tedious, and we are going to look at a lot of scripture, and I’ll try to keep my comments to a minimum.

But I want to take a quick survey through scripture to see fasting in as full as a sphere as possible, because it is such a foreign concept to many people.

We will start in the books of Moses and work our way all the way to the early church in Acts.

Lets start with the Old Testament

A. Old Testament

To begin, we first see the command to fast at the celebration of Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement.

We see fasting there in the term “afflict yourself.”

Now, that is not the exact word for fasting, but the way it was always applied historically, and still today by Jewish people, was in fasting.

There is no question, historically speaking, that fasting was in mind here.

So Israel was commanded to fast on the Day of Atonement, a day marking the cleansing and purifying from sin of the congregation of Israel.

That really is the only regulatory “command” to fast that we have in the scripture.

Now, there are other times where people were told to fast at specific times, but as far as an overarching command to fast, we only see that on the Day of Atonement.

The idea of fasting in relation to forgiveness, atonement, or repentance continues through the Old Testament in a big way, though.

There, through the prophet Joel, the Lord tells his people to return to him, and part of their repentance was with fasting, fasting and mourning.

This even was seen among those who were not Jewish.

In the story of Jonah, the city of Nineveh also took part in this kind of penitent fasting.

So fasting often took place in times of repentance or atonement, but it also was seen often in times of general mourning.

Here, after tens of thousands of people of Israel were killed in a war with the Tribe of Benjamin, the army of Israel took part in a corporate fast of mourning for their great loss.

Here, after the death of Saul, the bones of Saul and his sons were gathered, buried, and some of the warriors took part in a fast of mourning for seven days.

So fasting in the Old Testament was largely corporate, although it was done in smaller groups at times.

We see it was only commanded at the day of atonement, but was seen as appropriate at other times of mourning as well.

B. New Testament

As we turn the corner into the New Testament, the use of fasting really shifts from corporate repentance and mourning, to personal devotion.

The first example we see of Fasting is that of the Prophetess Anna, the Old Woman who was present when Simeon gave his blessing over the baby Jesus in the temple.

This was not a commanded fast, it was simply a personal, private fast for the purpose of worship and devotion.

The next example of fasting that we see is Jesus fasting alone.

This is really the greatest example of “devotional” fasting that we see in scripture, where Jesus was fasting in the wilderness for 40 days.

We see Jesus was prepared for this battle with Satan, even being physically weakened by a long fast, yet he fought valiantly with prayer and the Word of God as he had sought his Father earnestly for 40 days.

By Jesus’ day, other private or individual fasts were quite common.

It is noted in history that the Pharisees fasted twice weekly, and we see a snippet of that in Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.

This personal fast by the Pharisees was typically done on Monday and Thursday, and it was common knowledge among the people they came in contact with.

That is much of what Jesus is probably addressing in this passage.

More on that in a bit.

By the time of the early church, we see fasting was carried on by the Christians as they prayed and sought the Lord.

one example we see is at a major turning point in Christian History, when the Holy Spirit separated Paul and Barnabas to take the Gospel of Christ to the Gentile cities of the known world.

This sparked the beginning of the greatest missionary endeavor that has probably been seen with human eyes.

And fasting seemed to be a continual part of this mission as well.

Later on, we see fasting involved in the planting of the early Christian churches.

So we have seen both corporate and private fasts.

We have seen fasting for repentance, mourning, worship, consecration, and seeking wisdom.

Fasting almost always seems to be accompanied by times of prayer and devotion to God.

By the New Testament era, individual fasts seem to be much more commonplace than corporate fasts.

God’s people throughout the centuries have utilized fasting as a means of drawing near to him, focusing their minds and intentions, and seeking the Lord.

But just like prayer and giving, fasting certainly can be an avenue for showboating or pretense.

That, of course, is exactly what we are to avoid in all our religious acts.

So let’s look at negative examples of fasting.

One from the book of Isaiah, and one from Jesus’ teaching in our passage today.

2. Negative Examples of Fasting

A. Isaiah

If you think back around 10 months, you might remember this topic coming up in Isaiah 58.

I won’t re-preach that sermon, but lets just look at a few verses from that chapter.

Here, the people are asking God a question, and fasting is involved here.

“Why have we fasted, and you see it not?

Why have we humbled ourselves, yet you take no knowledge of it?”

The answer, of course, was because their fasting was only an outward exercise that wasn’t backed by any true spiritual change or devotion.

They fasted with their mouths, as it were, but they continued acting unrighteously.

We could ask this question - if we fast from food but keep on in our unrighteousness, what good is our fasting?

The answer to these people was stern but direct - Fasting like this will not make your voice to be heard on high.

That sounds exactly like what Jesus says in Matthew 6, so lets finally come to His words.

B. Jesus

Jesus’ words here speak, really, about the same problem and the same result that Isaiah spoke of.

You have people fasting, publically, openly, expecting some reward from it - but their fast was false, because it was only a facade of righteousness with no depth.

We mentioned in the first point, that the pharisees made a practice of fasting twice a week - normally on Monday and Thursday.

This, again, was common knowledge.

They were personal fasts, but public displays.

Jesus, again, uses the word “hypocrite” here - a play actor, a stage actor - to describe people who fasted to be seen by others.

What he says is really interesting.

He says, “don’t look gloomy like the hypocrites who disfigure their faces.”

The “hypocrites” are no doubt some of these pharisees, and Jesus will use that word specifically for them in later passages.

They fasted personally, but they intentionally made themselves appear famished and gloomy so others would know they were fasting.