THE third aspect of the Christian?s life which Jesus deals with is Fasting. The first was almsgiving which is concerned with doing good to others. Then we have been looking at the subject of prayer, which is concerned with the believers relationship with God and spiritual life. Now we come to Fasting which is concerned with the subject of discipline. It needs to be said straight away that discipline in the Christian life is something which we must practice and need to practice all the time. It is not something we take up at special times. Paul tells us in Romans that we must put to death the misdeeds of the body (Romans 8:13) and this is something we must be engaged in all the time.

The fact is that fasting is often used as a discipline to enhance holiness at certain times, but this is a wrong use of fasting. The fact is that we should always be moderate in our eating. Jesus deals with this particular issue of fasting because it had become misused by the Pharisees and religious leaders, and people were being led astray. It is for this reason Jesus seeks to correct this and give us a proper view of fasting.

In the Old Testament there was only one fast appointed under the law of Moses, and this was in connection with the day of atonement, and was in nature an aspect of the action and worship of the day, rather than an end in itself. The fact is that fasting was used in the Old Testament times because of special reasons, which involved sorrow for sin and seeking the Lord, but it was not an integral part of the religious life. In fact in Zechariah 7 Israel was told that the many fasts they had been engaged in were not necessary. Having said this Jesus does not condemn fasting, but simply the wrong use of it and the wrong attitude to it. The fact is that Paul fasted many times and we know Jesus did from time to time.

From the actions which Jesus condemns in the verses before us we can see that fasting often is practiced in a wrong way, and for wrong reasons. It seems from what Jesus says in the verses we are considering that fasting was a religious practice amongst the Jews which was thought to be a sign of great holiness and deep spirituality. Those who fasted the most were considered specially holy and near to God. For this reason those who sought a reputation for spiritual life and holiness engaged in fasting, and by their actions sought to gain a reputation from society for their holiness. To obtain this goal, fasting was done in an ostentatious and public way. The Pharisees and others went to the lengths of putting on a serious face, and even disfigured their faces in order to seem to be suffering and so engaging in great self sacrifice.

We can see from this that fasting had become an end in itself. The idea was that if you fasted then you were doing a meritorious act which automatically placed you higher on the scale of those approved by God, and because such a position was felt to be specially wonderful in the religious life of the community, fasting was used to gain a reputation for sanctity.

This is often how the practice of fasting is viewed today amongst those who commend it. The ostentation of these Jews may not be there, but people feel that they are somehow increasing in holiness by virtue of fasting, and so getting closer to God by doing it, but this is false thinking. We may obtain a feel good factor, and gain a good reputation, but this is the only reward we will get. We will not get a reward from God. Any action in the Christian religion that seeks to gain merit before God is wrong and doomed simply because our obligation before God is to be perfect, and nothing we can do is over and above what we owe to God, and nothing we do every meets the holy requirements of God.

However Jesus does suggest here that fasting is something which is good to engage in from time to time because he tells us how to go about it. He tells us it is something between ourselves and God. Fasting is something that never should be paraded to gain kudos. In fact we should go out of our way to keep the fact we are fasting a secret from others.

Jesus also tells us that fasting is something we do before God and before him alone. From this we can see that fasting is something we do under special circumstances before God, and so we can deduce also that fasting is something that is helpful if we need to seek God for some special reason. This could be some crisis in our life and we need God?s special guidance. This could be when we are under some special sense of our sinfulness, and are seeking God?s mercy and forgiveness and his strength to overcome. This could be that we feel God is guiding us to some special ministry, or we have to engage in some hard task, and we specially need the wisdom and blessing of God in the doing of it. These are the sort of things which could prompt the believer to fast.

So fasting is laying aside eating for a time so that we can concentrate on God, and specially to seek him and to know him. Fasting is not an end in itself but a means to an end, and that end is to draw near to God, to hear God, to learn from God, and to be strengthened by God.

Life is so busy that sometimes we feel that everything is getting in the way to our communion with God, and our knowing God, and the good of soul, and so we set aside a time to fast. This may be ceasing from eating for a time, but it also may be laying aside legitimate activities so that we can give ourselves to God.

Jesus tells us that when fasting is engaged in properly then it has real benefit. We learn this because Jesus says here that God will reward the action in a real way. This reward will be real progress in our personal Christian living, or some deeper sense of the presence of God and the reality that we are forgiven and heirs of heaven. It may also be that in ministry we are engaged in we find special blessing being given by God.