Fasting (Matthew 6:16-18)
Have you noticed how some things just go together. Let’s play a game:
•	Bread and.. cheese
•	Bacon and.. eggs
•	Ant and.. Dec
•	West Ham and.. glory
•	spaghetti and… bolognaise
Prayer and.. fasting.
Now, prayer, we know a thing or two about. We focused on that last week. Jesus said, ‘When you pray…’
But fasting? What’s that all about?
At one level, it’s what we all do routinely. Chances are, this morning, when y0u work up, you broke your fast when you ate your break-fast – breakfast – it’s where the word comes from.
But true fasting, Biblical fasting, is a spiritual discipline, like praying, giving, meditation…
It’s intentionally and temporarily putting something aside something you normally rely upon in order to focus on something higher. 
Fasting is not simply going without.
When you go down with the dreaded Novirus and you ‘empty yourself of all but love’ and so don’t eat for a few days, that’s not fasting. For you Gen X Radio 2 listeners, that’s serious emptyin’ (with no G!)
When you’re so engrossed in what you’re doing, that you forget to eat… that’s not fasting.
And if you skip a meal or two because you’re trying to lose weight, that’s also not fasting either. At least, not the spiritual disciple of fasting.
So-called fasting has become more mainstream today, as a health-drive. Then, it’s about detox, emptying the body of toxins, training the body and mind to adapt to a different rhythm, often so as to become a different shape. If that’s your experience of fasting, there’s so much more to it. Listen in. 
Jesus could speak with real authority about fasting. Just before He began His public ministry, He spent an extended time in solitude in the wilderness, during which he prayed and fasted. It was then than He went through an intense experience of temptation. We can read this in Matthew 4 and think, poor Jesus, how tough must that have been. But the intensity of that experience set Jesus up for all that was to come. It wasn’t so much what he was missing, as what He was gaining, through that time of prayer and fasting.
So, the spiritual discipline of fasting is not just about what’s denied, it’s also about what’s received
The spiritual discipline of fasting can strengthen our inner life, build up our spiritual “muscles”, as we shift attention away from “stuff” or “self” back on to God.
Not all fasting is good. 
Some fast because they have a distorted low self-worth.
Others are drawn to fasting because they have a distorted image of God. For them, He’s aloof, distant, even unmoved. They fast to get God’s attention. Their fasting is like a religious ‘hunger strike’. They think, This’ll make God notice me. Maybe they think, if I punish myself enough, that will eventually impress God and He’ll think I have earnt His favour. That is religious clap-trap. It’s so far from what the Bible teaches. God is gracious, compassionate, love.  It’s not that we first loved God, but that He first loved us. It’s never about how holy WE are, it’s always about how holy GOD is. So, don’t fast to get God’s attention. You’ve already got it. Totally. Fasting isn’t about changing God; it’s about changing us.
So, when you fast…
Like Ant with Dec, Fasting goes with praying. Fasting without prayer is just denial. Use the time you would have spent doing whatever it is you’re fasting from, to intentionally focus on God. Spend that extra time in solitude, meditation, worship, and prayer. Then, it’s as if even the odd stomach rumble becomes a prayer, your spirit crying out to God’s Spirit. Fasting is all about intentionally bringing our focus back on to God. So pray when you fast.
Fasting also goes with feasting. Some church traditions have both feast days and fast days. They have much to teach us. If you can’t feast, then don’t fast.  The Pharisees, the so-called religious elite, were known for their fasting.  Luke 18:12 tells us that some Pharisees fasted twice a week – Mondays and Thursdays. TBH, they made a meal of it. (Do you see what I did there?) They would dust their faces to make themselves look gaunt.  They were supposed to be fasting for God, but really, they were fasting to make themselves appear ‘super spiritual’ to others.  Their reward, what they got out of it, was the affirmation of others. 
Jesus called them out: “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.”
Fasting should always only be for an audience of One.
Maybe, their distorted, negative view of God was what led the Pharisees to have such a negative, distorted view of others – and ultimately of themselves.  They were forever trying to compensate for how bad they felt about themselves, so they became unhealthily competitive with others. Jesus said, “Don’t look sombre as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting.” That word ‘disfigure’ in Greek is ‘aphanizo’; literally ‘to make disappear’ – make invisible, cease to exist. Don’t fast to make yourself disappear – physically or figuratively.
Their denial of food became a means to feel better about themselves. Maybe I’m OK after all because I’m doing a better job of denying myself then they are.
No wonder the Pharisees were so shocked to see Jesus’ disciples feasting, not fasting. Of course, Jesus had said, when you fast, don’t make a meal of it, act ‘normal’, even take extra care to look good, because, remember, it’s for an audience of One. So, if it looked to the Pharisees like the disciple weren’t fasting, that didn’t mean they weren’t. They might simply have doing what Jesus said
But, yes, the disciples did know how to feast. They got that from Jesus. Jesus who, at the wedding feast, had turned water into 800-900 bottles of fine wine! So much of Jesus’ ministry happened around the dinner table, sharing food and hospitality. We’ll re-play one of those meals in a few moments when we come to share Communion together.
In Matthew 9, Jesus tells us not to confuse a wedding with a funeral. It wouldn’t play well if you go to a wedding all dressed in black, sobbing with grief through the service… No, a wedding is the time for celebration, joy, Dad Dancing, and feasting.  Yes, as with all of us, there will inevitably come a time when those getting married will eventually die. And, yes, then there will be a funeral.  Jesus says, don’t confuse weddings and funerals. Don’t just focus on one, not the other. All in their right time and place. So, its feasting and fasting. Both/ and, nor either/or. 
Maybe, today, you need to learn how to feast. I don’t mean simply to routinely, persistently over-consume. That’s gluttony. But, instead, to learn how to receive God’s lavish abundance. Grace. To learn to live with joy – as a gift from God. After all, Jesus said, I have come that you may have life – and life in all it’s fulness. Feasting and fasting. If you are naturally drawn to one, maybe it’s time to embrace the other.
Fasting goes with justice. The Pharisees fasted, even John the Baptist’s crew fasted. Plenty of the Old Testament heroes of the faith fasted. We too can fast. And yet it’s still possible to miss the point.
The Prophet Isaiah in Chapter 58 said, don’t fast to make God follow your plans. And, if He doesn’t do as you ask or say, don’t get moody. Don’t fast and yet carry on with your selfish ways. Just because you fast, don’t think it’s OK to exploit your workers, or fall out with each other, or get all pointy finger… 
Instead, God bluntly says:
“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? 8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness[a] will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. 9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.”
So, coming on to land, fasting is an important spiritual discipline. Fasting is not for you if you’re pregnant, on medication, have a complicated relationship with food… If that’s you. fast from something else. TV, social media, caffeine…
When you fast, remember it’s always for an audience of One. God. It’s not about how it makes God feel, it’s not even about how it makes you feel.
•	Going without, in order to see more of God
•	It’s filling the time void with more time to pray
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DannyBrierley@ChesterRoadBaptist.org.uk