A Community of Holy Hunger
For Meditation (Corey Widmer)
After spending a couple of weeks on Jesus’ teaching about prayer, we’re now turning to his teaching on the third discipline he covers in Matthew 6, fasting. In the same manner that he taught about giving and praying, Jesus assumes his disciples will fast (“when you fast…”). Fasting was an extremely common religious practice in the first century, and most faithful Jews practiced fasting at least twice a week. Jesus does not seem to be trying to prohibit this but assumes this will continue for his disciples (he suggests this explicitly in Matthew 9:14-17).
At the same time, Jesus warns about the dangers of fasting for the wrong reasons, in the same way he warned about praying and giving . He cautions those who might use fasting as a way to get approval or attention from other people. If you do that, he says, you have entirely missed the point!
So what is the point of fasting? “When you fast,” Jesus says, "put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Jesus says the motivation for fasting is God himself. We lay down our appetites for things that we crave, even good things, for the sake of cultivating our appetite for the best thing; God alone. We fast because our driving desire is to know God and be known by him.
This Sunday, we’ll explore this practice of fasting and especially why Christian have seen it as an important discipline for Lent. As you prepare for worship, consider the following:
What has been your experience or impression of fasting? Have you ever fasted? If so, what was your experience of it, either positively or negatively?
What are some modern examples of the ways that people might using fasting, or other disciplines of self-deprivation, as a way to serve their own egos?
Can you think of some positive examples of fasting in the Bible? Or examples you have personally witnessed?
What are some ways you could imagine fasting could be incorporated into your life or the life of our community, ways that are healthy and renewing?
Matthew 6:16–18
“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”