Fasting or pretending
Fasting or pretending: Do not be like them
The annual month of fasting has started and a few days in, I cannot but question what I see around me in the community I live in. Is fasting according to certain religions something to appreciate, or is it really pretence? Let us see what the Word of God says about fasting. Jesus’ words come on the back of a series of teachings about the Christian life:
1Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. 2Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 3But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: 4That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. – Matthew 6:1-4
Clearly here the emphasis is to not do things so that you can boast about them in public or impress others. Let us note from the start what we are instructed to do or not do:
- You are not to show off your good deeds to impress others, else you have lost any “reward” you may have hoped to gain.
- Let nobody else know what you are doing – do not talk about it and advertise it.
- When you try to do good to others, let it be so private that neither of your two hands, that mostly work together as a pair, is aware what the other one is doing.
Jesus then explains to them how to pray, thus moving from public to private service. Again, He lays down the standards, and these mostly have to do with the fact that a public display of piety means absolutely nothing. After setting the pattern for prayer, as seen in Matthew 6:9-13, He moves on to fasting:
16Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 17But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; 18That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. – Matthew 6:16-18
It is easy to think that we may be singling out a specific, non-Christian religious group, but Jesus’ teaching focused on the wrong things His own people were doing. If you are going to fast, stick to the principles of privacy mentioned earlier:
- First, do not be as the hypocrites – the Jews!
- Jesus is referring to the Jewish leaders who would make a public spectacle by pretending to be suffering (of a sad countenance) to evoke sympathy.
- They display long faces (for they disfigure their faces) to deceive others (that they may appear unto men to fast). They are probably not fasting at all.
- Their reward is empty. What they do is just empty works that mean nothing.
- What should we do instead when we fast?
- When you fast, anoint your head (in the old covenant oil on the head and beard had immense religious significance).
- Wash your face so that you appear normal, refreshed, and publicly acceptable.
This is done so that you appear normal. Nobody must know that you are fasting, and your actions in secret will be rewarded in public. Note that we use the word “normal”. I remember having a discussion with a Christian brother who said that he planned his day-long fast to begin after breakfast and end before supper. I pointed out that this achieves nothing. Fasting is the act of denying yourself eating and drinking during a normal working day, not one that has been rigged to fit in with your fasting period. Missing lunch is no big deal. In a previous job, I often left home after breakfast, worked all day with hardly a break, and returned late at night, in time for supper, and sometimes even missed it. Could this time be seen as fasting? Absolutely not. I still had to work, and there would not have been any time for praying, other than that I always have the Word of God on my mind. If your fasting time is conveniently timed to allow for breakfast and supper, and you spend most of the time in-between sleeping or being inactive, it means nothing.
This brings me to the environment I live in. As one of only a few Christian believers, I respect what the others do, but I see right through the insincerity. After many years working here, I believe that for many, fasting is nothing more than feasting, and this often in excess. Remember we used the word “normal”? Well, to my mind the indulgence of buying tonnes of food, and wasting most of it, is not normal. It may look wonderful to see in the media how food is prepared to feed a nation. What you do not see, is the waste, and I see this every day when I walk past the public dustbins.
Depending on the country you are in, many concessions are made to accommodate the month-long occasion – shorter working hours, a serious scaling down of productivity, different working conditions for adherents and non-adherents, and actions that are perfect examples of what Jesus told us not to do: a sad countenance and disfiguring of faces. Most of the time is spent sleeping until the fast is broken, after which the partying starts. So much for a time of reflection. The feasting continues into the night and ends with another celebration of excess, breakfast early in the morning. By day three or four, the hospitals are full of overfed people, booked off to recover, and even more productivity is lost. The sad countenance and disfiguring of faces is evident in the office, and it looks ridiculous.
A friend once said: “They are very sincere, but they are sincerely wrong.” I could not agree more. There are many things we do that we think are sincere, but they turn out to be very wrong. If the purpose of fasting is to reflect inwardly, and aspire to a closer walk with God, then there is nothing wrong with it. If it is a public spectacle then there is no reward at all, as it is done for the wrong reasons.
The Bible does not require us to fast as a rule. If we do it, then it is because we are prepared to sacrifice something in order to have a closer walk with God. It is not to be used as a method to diet. It is not used to impress anyone else. Study this scripture again:
8Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. – Matthew 6:8
Be not like them. You are different, born of the Spirit and covered by the blood of Jesus. Live this way. If you do fast, only your heavenly Father should know about it.