Title: True Fasting
True Fasting (Matthew 6:16-18) - Lecture 9
Jesus is rebuking the Pharisees for wrong fasting by talking about wrong fasting and right fasting. When the Pharisees fasted, they wanted others to know that they were fasting. This is because the neighbors could know that their faith was good. So they didn't wash their face when they fasted, and they messed up their hair and purposely looked haggard. Perhaps when people saw that image and praised them for their faith, that praise was their strength in fasting. Jesus rebukes this fast.
There are many stories of fasting in the Bible. I have fasted personally, and in some cases have fasted nationally. And these fasts were the fasts we did when we discovered something was wrong in our relationship with God. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai to receive the word of God, he saw the Israelites worshiping idols, broke the stone tablets, and went up to Mount Sinai to receive the word again. He fasted for 4 days. In Deuteronomy 9, we can see that Moses fasted for 40 days and prayed for the forgiveness of the sins of the Israelites when he went up to Mount Sinai. And in many places we see defeat in war or fasting as an expression of repentance. What these fasts were saying was that something was going wrong with our relationship with God. This is the meaning of fasting. Fasting is when our relationship with God is not normal and is going wrong, consider it important and fix it right away.
God wants us to establish His will on this earth through our believers. However, if we are not able to establish the will of God on earth, we are clearly doing something wrong. Whoever knows this is to fast. So is the church. The church must gather in the love of God. However, if the church is filled with hatred and competition instead of God's love, and is constantly showing its human side, it is to fast. But fasting itself is by no means important. Not eating is not fasting. This is what the prophet Isaiah said: Isaiah 58:6,7 says, "Is not the fast of my joy to loose the bonds of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, to break every yoke? Is it not that you bring the poor into your house, and when you see the naked you clothe yourself, and that you do not hide yourself from your own flesh?” The prophet Isaiah is not referring to fasting as simply not eating, but is speaking of fasting as an act of love toward one's neighbor.
Ultimately, fasting is about finding out what is wrong with your relationship with God. Humans are always sensitive to the issue of eating and living. Because of problems with one's own body, the relationship with God is going wrong. When you know that, you are to fast. The reason is that we cut off our interest in our own body because we do not eat food. Also, fasting is to learn that I live by God and not by the food of the world. And that fasting is soon manifested in action, which is sharing with neighbors. When a person only cares about their own body and values only their own body, there is no heart to share with others. However, the more you give up hope on the earth, the more you can move on to a life of sharing with your neighbors. This is true fasting.
God's will is for a believer to show God's love in the world and establish God's will. The attitude of fasting is to confess that you are a sinner while repenting of yourself for not being able to show love because of your greed for your body and to establish God's will. is. That's why Jesus said don't try to be seen by others when you fast. Because the act of fasting is not what makes us believers. A believer is a person who always finds mistakes in their relationship with God and corrects them. If you blame yourself for not living according to God's will because your heart is willing, but your body is weak, repenting is fasting. And fasting is gradually changing into a life of love and sharing. Therefore, if fasting is done to show off to others, to receive certain powers, or to solve one's own difficult problems, it has nothing to do with Jesus.
In Matthew 9:15, when John's disciples rebuked Jesus' disciples for not fasting on the day they fasted, Jesus said, "Can the wedding guests grieve while they are with the groom? But the day will come when the bridegroom will be taken away. Then I will fast."