Matthew 6 vs16-18 Jesus Fasting

Matt-06#v16

Again, keeping this in context with what has come before. Remember, we learned there was a belief that by giving alms, praying, and fasting, atonement was made for sins. Jesus is teaching those are man made ideas. And he is teaching how Yah/God sees things.

Verse 16

And when you //disciples// fast – this makes it a given disciples will fast. What is fasting?

• God mandated a day called the Day of Atonement. It is one of his appointed times. In the New Testament we see this day referred to as “The Fast” in Acts 27. On it, God said to “afflict your souls.” The word for afflict carries the meaning of humbleness, reflecting and confession of sins.
• Fasting was typically done as a result of personal failures, sickness, death, sorrow, conviction of sins, or when making important decisions. When the emotions of the heart were so overwhelming, a person didn’t even want to eat or drink. Thus it became associated with abstaining from food or drink.
• In Isaiah 58, Yah/God discusses how he sees their fasting.
  • He tells them why he has not recognized their fasting:
    • You seek your own pleasure
    • oppress your workers
    • fast for quarrels, fights, and hit with the fist
    • to make your voice heard
    • He says, “Is this the fast I have chosen? A day for one to afflict his soul?
    • You bow down your head
    • You spread out sackcloth and ashes
    • You call this a fast and a day acceptable to me.
  • Then he tells them what kind of fasting he chooses:
    • release the bonds of wickedness and injustice
    • untie and tear off the cords of the yokes, finger-pointing and badmouthing
    • let the oppressed go free
    • break bread with the hungry
    • bring homeless poor in
    • Cover the naked
    • Don’t hide from your own flesh and blood
  • When you fast like he chooses:
    • your light will break forth
    • your healing with spring up
    • your righteousness will go before you with his glory as a rear guard
    • you will call and he will answer
    • your light will rise and your gloom will be like midday
    • He will guide you, satisfy your soul, and strengthen your bones
  • He brings this back around to HIS Shabbat – his holy day.
    • If you turn from doing your own pleasure on my holy day, and call it a delight
    • If you honor it, not going your own ways, seeking your own pleasure, nor speaking your usual speech
    • THEN you will delight yourself in him and he will let you ride to high places and feed you.
• One of the things God mentions as part of the fasting he chooses is breaking bread with the hungry. Fasting isn’t necessarily about the absence of food and drink, it is more focused on what is going on inside, the affliction of your soul. Extreme introspection on your life which can often times lead to not wanting to eat or drink.
• In Esther, we see several passaged in regard to fasting. In 4:16, declare a tzom for me, and neither eat or drink.
• In Matthew 4, we see where Jesus fasted for forty days and nights, and was hungry.

Do not be like the hypocrites, of sour countenances, disfigured faces, THAT men may see.

• Fasting/tzom did tend to have weeping, sorrow, pouring out to God and sitting around all day. It was even done in an assembly, with others, so it did not have to be private. But it wasn’t supposed to be done SO THAT men would see it. It was supposed to be about something which was going on inside, not something going on outside.
• Fasting had become a public thing. People stood out where everyone could see, they would pray long prayers, tear their clothes, put ashes on their heads, and wear sackcloth. This was considered afflicting themselves. Today we might call something like this a penances for sins.

Verse 17

When you //disciple// fast anoint your head, wash your face, so you do not appear to men be fasting.

• Stay clean and presentable, nothing out of the ordinary to see.

BUT/AND to your Father who is in secret and your Father who is seeing in secret, will reward you.

• Bringing this full circle back to Verse 1 in Chapter 6. If you are doing it so men will see it, then man is where you will get your reward. If it’s about something between your Father and you, then he will reward you.

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