I settled in to my quiet time, little lamp on for ambiance, my piping hot cup of coffee in my favorite cup (Mmmm – picture Elf sitting in the corner of his dad’s office on his little stool, self-focused, savoring the smell of the hot liquid…) then BAM! I read Matthew 6:16-18. What? Where did that come from?
In reading Matthew 6:16-18 I was convicted right off the bat. How many times I have found myself doing something I didn’t want to do but knew I should do and I want others to see me. Blah! It probably happens everyday. How do I overcome this?
Backing up for context: Directly after Jesus teaches his disciples (and us!) how to pray he continues to discuss our hearts. Matthew’s character under the direction of the Holy Spirit creates a bridge of humility for us. In Matthew 6:14 he moves us from prayer to learning of a way to grow and change: “For if you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly father will forgive you also, but if you do not forgive those, neither will your father forgive your sin.” Praying in the way we are taught just before this by Jesus, moves us from pride to humility. We are taught in this prayer to be content with the will of God – in fact we are to pursue the will of God – not our own. Jesus moves this another step deeper: you are to be so free to let go of your own will that you are easily able to forgive.
The beautiful tool of confession and forgiveness (whether among humans or between humans and God) takes our hearts and moves them from pride and self-focused desire (I win!) to humility and truly being content with the will of God in any interaction.
Matthew 6:16-18 takes the idea of contentment with the will of God and puts an exclamation point on it. Jesus begins to talk of fasting. In so doing he is speaking of our hearts. “When you fast do not be gloomy as the hypocrites, they disfigure their faces so that they are revealed to be those who are fasting;” These are self-focused people – pleasers. (Yikes!)
So then, what is fasting?
C. S. Lewis said: “Fasting asserts the will against the appetite—the reward being self-mastery and the danger, pride. (bold print mine). . . Ascetic practices which, in themselves, strengthen the will, are only useful insofar as they enable the will to put its own house in order, as a preparation for offering the whole man to God.” (CS Lewis, The Problem of Pain)
I believe this is why we see fasting and prayer together very often. As Christians we do not look to strengthen our will – we look to do the will of our Father, his good and pleasing will (see Romans 12). This attitude of seeking God’s will by setting our own aside beautifully prepares Jesus audience for the rest of the Sermon on The Mount – which is of course all about our hearts first and then the outward actions that follow. Fasting, and fasting in the will of God, sets us up for spiritual success!
What an amazing Saviour we have!!! Jeremiah exclaims something similar: “Righteous are you, O LORD, when I complain to you; yet I would plead my case before you….But you, O LORD, know me; you see me, and test my heart toward you” (Jeremiah 12:1,3). We have a God who hears our struggles and knows our hearts! Yet he doesn’t just know our hearts he gives us his Word as a way to learn and grow and change into his glorious image! (See: the Sermon on the Mount) Wow!
To look at this culturally, think about, for instance, the sports games in our current time. We hear so much about making our kids ‘winners.’ We drive them to desire the praise of men. We tell our children how marvelous they are, and we praise them to others (I’m picturing Will Farrell again: “I love you! I love yooooou and I don’t care who knows it!!” Yeah we can look like that with our kids – or grandkids).
Zoom in on what Jesus is teaching here. He is teaching much more than the discipline of fasting. He is teaching us to love the Lord in a way that draws attention to him and not to ourselves. This would train us to be the exact opposite of people pleasers who love the praise of men. That is such a terrible trap for us, for our children, and it is borne of a self-focused rather than a God-focused heart. Jesus says, “truly I say to you they have received their (wages or) reward” (Matthew 6:16) which is the praise of men (or mom or nana). But back to fasting…
Cornelius Plantinga, Jr in The Reformed Journal (November 1998) said this about fasting: “Self-indulgence is the enemy of gratitude, and self-discipline usually its friend and generator. That is why gluttony is a deadly sin. The early desert fathers believed that a person’s appetites are linked: full stomachs and jaded palates take the edge from our hunger and thirst for righteousness.They spoil the appetite for God.” I had to pick up Whitney’s book on Spiritual Disciplines. (Donald Whitney Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life published by NavPress; also check out his website The Center for Biblical Spirituality) Why should I fast? The answer is somewhat obvious: for the purpose of godliness. That is pretty much the title of that chapter in his book.
Those of us who are locked up at home for the most part have been given a gift. We have the gift of time to develop the discipline of fasting. This discipline is not so that we are reassured we won’t end up on “My 600 pound Life” (or whatever its called) but it is TIME that we can use to perpetuate the disciplines of our fathers of whom we read in the Scriptures. We can learn and grow and change seeking with our whole hearts what is good, seeking God with your whole heart: “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me with all your heart,..” (Jeremiah 29:12-13).