Hungering For God (Matthew 6:16-18)
March 8, 2020
Why do we care so much about what people think of us? We want everyone to like us, and we often try to figure out how much people like us. If someone doesn't talk to us, we assume that they have something against us. If someone says something critical about us, we think that they hate us. If they say something positive, we might blow it out of proportion and let it go to our head. Regardless, we care about what people think, and most of us spend much of our time trying to convince people to like us more than they already do.
In the first two sections of Matthew 6, we have seen how we tend to advertise our goodness. After we become more righteous like God, we want people to see that righteousness and praise us for our achievements. Jesus has revealed that giving and praying to be seen by other people will remove any reward that we were expecting to get from God. Our giving and our praying must be done to glorify God and not to glorify ourselves.
Today I want us to look at the third section in this series, which is about fasting. As we study this section, I want us to be extremely critical of ourselves and think about how we can overcome this anxiety about other people's opinions.
Fasting
Matthew 6:16--18 (ESV) --- 16 "And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
In this text, we see that the Jews have mastered the art of fasting. In the first century, they would typically fast on Mondays and Thursdays in addition to the law's requirement that they fast on the day of atonement and possibly at the New Year. These Jews would have seemed extremely zealous as they kept themselves from eating anything from sunrise to sunset one or two days a week. There are many things we can abstain from, but fasting throughout the Bible is always referring to abstaining from eating food. We see examples of fasting throughout the OT in men and women like Moses, Hannah, David, Daniel, Ezra, Esther, and Nehemiah. These righteous men and women would refrain from eating, and so the Jews wanted to follow in their footsteps.
We might look at someone fasting today and think that they are doing it because it is a popular thing to do. We live in a society that has no shortage of food. People fast to lose weight, save money, practice self-discipline, prepare for sporting events, to feel better, etc. These methods of fasting are purely focused on ourselves, and they often have no spiritual aspect attached to them. In the first century, fasting was probably not for any of these reasons. Fasting always seems to have a religious connection throughout the Bible. People fasted to mourn a tragedy, to plead to God for forgiveness, and to reach out for God's help. Fasting was always tied to praying in order to emphasize the feelings of dire need. It is a way of saying, "How could I eat when this is going on in my life?" So is that how the Jews are fasting?
What Are They Doing Wrong?
Jesus looks at their fasting critically. He says that they are fasting with faces that are "disfigured," meaning that they are making sure everyone knows how difficult it is for them to go without food. Food is good and it has been given so that we could enjoy it with thanksgiving to God. If we are honest, going without food is not something that we would enjoy. We love our food. Maybe we would sympathize with someone who says that it is difficult and even painful to go without food. We might think that they are just being open and transparent. But Jesus says that they are motivated by that sympathy and by the approval of men. They just wanted to be considered righteous. They aren't really fasting with a desire to grow closer to God or to lay their need before God. The Jews have made fasting a religious ritual that gives them good standing in the community. They fast because that is what righteous people always do, and they want to be recognized as an extremely righteous person so that they can have power and influence.
Throughout history, God has always been offended by this type of religious piety. In Isaiah 58, God says, "They seek me daily and delight to know my ways as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God." The Jews are seeking God as though they are righteous. When we see the Jews in the Old Testament, it is essential to remember that they were extremely religious people. They were focused on being religious and doing all kinds of spiritual things. They say, "Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?" But God says, "Behold, in the day you fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers." The same idea is given in Zechariah 7-8, where God says, "Is it for me that you fast?" He would rather they love justice and show mercy than fast because their fasting is all about their own self-righteousness. God is not interested in having religious people who do all kinds of zealous works for him while rebelling against his commands to love their neighbor.
Jesus says that those who are fasting for other people to see them fast will receive all of their reward in the form of praise from men. Isn't that sad? How many of us would actually fast knowing that the whole benefit is making people think we are righteous? Don't we feel bad for those who are giving up delicious food? God doesn't even notice that sacrifice when it is homemade ice cream.
Fast In Secret
Jesus tells those who would fast to do so without letting people see their fasting. They are to get up as they would any other day, wash their faces, and fix their hair so that no one could tell that they are fasting. The goal is to hide their fasting from people and let the fasting be something that is done entirely for God. If they are willing to fast for God only, then God will see their fasting and reward them. He wants his people to sacrifice for him and not for some other benefit. Fasting is supposed to be a supplement to prayer anyway. We aren't supposed to make religious acts serve our physical desires.
How Does This Apply To Us?
Do We Need To Fast?
Well, how does this apply to us? Does Jesus want us to stop eating one day a week? After all, he says, "When you fast." We do see Christians fasting on specific occasions in the New Testament, but fasting is never ritualized because fasting is something that is done on special occasions. It wasn't commanded like singing, praying, and giving as a regular part of worship. Fasting seems to be an appropriate response to certain extreme situations in life. We may fast when we lose someone we love, when we have empathy for someone else, when we feel intense remorse about our sins, or when we are praying for God's help in making a big decision. We see this throughout the New and Old Testaments on occasion. So we don't want to ritualize fasting as the Jews did, nor do we wish to altogether reject it as something that provides no benefit. Jesus says that God rewards fasting in secret, so we believe it.
A Deeper Issue
There is a deeper issue here than fasting. These first 18 verses of Chapter 6 have been speaking to a more significant issue of religious hypocrisy. People are giving, praying, and fasting to be seen by people as righteous. In all three sections, he is warning against following the path of the "hypocrites." Fasting is an extreme external religious act that shows the magnitude of their hypocrisy. I would like for us to take a second to evaluate our external religious activities. Why are we doing the religious acts we are doing? Why are we coming to church services? Why do we visit the sick, teach the lost, or work on the building? We sacrifice our time and effort to do good things, but why are we doing them? Is it so that other people will think we are in good shape spiritually? Many churches have become clubs where people gather to satisfy that craving for community and approval. Are we here because we want to fit in? Are we worshipping God to convince people that we are righteous?
These are all hard questions to answer, but whatever we sacrifice to the Lord needs to be evaluated. Do we have selfish motives? Are we doing these things to be seen by men as righteous? In this section, Jesus shows us that we can be extremely religious and zealous people who do NOTHING out of love for God. That should shock us as we see God looking at our hearts instead of outward appearances. Maybe we started out doing good works for God, but how easy is it to continue those works for man? If we aren't careful, we can be doing the same things that the hypocrites were doing in Jesus' day. We may seem zealous on the outside as we do all of these religious activities, but inside there is no love for God or desire to glorify him. We may just want people to see our good works and glorify us.
Jesus encourages us to think soberly about why we are doing what we are doing. Robotically coming to church and being marked as righteous by men is not enough. Nor is it enough to lead the song service perfectly, prepare the best Lord's supper bread, teach the best Bible classes, or give a fantastic prayer. God does not care about us doing our best when our motives are corrupted. If we are the best person at work and we bring up scriptures to teach the lost about Jesus, but we are focused on how people at church will think of us when we baptize someone into Christ we missed the boat. All of that work is for nothing because we are seeking the praise of men. Jesus' words here sound a lot like the apostle Paul's in 1 Cor 13, "If we do many mighty works, but we don't have love, it profits us nothing."
The Solution Is The Same
The crazy thing about this is that the world around us can see it better than we can. They condemn all church members of hypocrisy. They believe we are just putting on a show. They think we are just actors portraying ourselves as righteous people while actually being evil and selfish like them. Most people, in general, are hypocritical. But we need to fight against these tendencies and become genuine in our devotion to God.
Maybe you are hearing all of this and realizing that your motives have been off all along. You have only ever come to church because someone else wanted you to be here. You have only ever worked in the church because that is what righteous people always do, and you want to be seen as righteous. Maybe the only work you have done is seen by others. Now we see that all of that effort was wasted. You could have been enjoying yourself instead of helping those sick people. What should we do now? Should we stop working? Is the solution to hypocrisy to stop trying to be something we are not? That is what Satan would tell us. But Jesus tells us that the best thing we could do for ourselves is become what we are not. We need to submit our lives to God. He wants us to do those external works with pure motives and also start becoming righteous in secret.
We need to love God for God and not for men. We want to be so in love with God that our external works reveal that love. So we do outward works like going to church and visiting the sick for God, and we don't care who sees us. Whenever we see a need, we must become people who fill that need without sounding a trumpet, making it obvious, or disfiguring our faces. The Lord's church is ultimately a group of secret volunteers who love God and want to show that love without looking for the approval of men.
Conclusion
When we stop to think about it, seeking praise from men never satisfies us. It is never really enough. The reward is so small and so temporary that we wonder if it was worth the effort. The truth is that tomorrow, it will not matter how people thought about us today. We will need more approval and more applause to feel good about ourselves. That hunger will never be satisfied by men, and if we make one mistake along the way, that house that we built on sand will crumble. But Jesus wants us to find satisfaction in knowing that God sees everything we do. If we give, pray, or fast in secret, he wants to reward us. He is patiently working with us to glorify his name. He wants to form us into lights for the world to see his glory.
Fasting is supposed to represent our hunger for God. Instead, it represented the Jew's hunger for men's approval. Our goal is to escape the hypocritical tendencies inside of us all. It may be that by focusing on God and trying to do his will, we receive praise from men. But we must control our hearts, stop being so revealing about our good works, and long for the praise, glory, and honor that God wants to give to those who love his approval. Jesus wants us to have faith that God will reward us for all of the work we do, so long as we do it for him and not for man.