Friday 7th June
Read Matthew 6:16-18
“‘When you fast, do not look sombre 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. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face,18 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.” (NIVUK)
Fasting, though a physical act, can’t be equated with other physical acts, like going for a run. With running the reward accrues with repetition. One gets fitter. The reward is clear. However when someone fasts, they physically get weaker. A true fast affects us outwardly, physically, and Jesus would have hide that change. Perhaps because his grace is most fully revealed in weakness?
Isaiah condemned the mere physical, ritualistic act of fasting also. He argued that fasting only counts if the loss in one’s physical strength is because that strength is transferred to those who are weak!
“‘Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.
4 Your fasting ends in quarrelling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
6 ‘Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter –
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” (Isaiah 58:3c-7) (NIVUK)
Is there a way in which your fasting is transferable?
