The Savior and Fasting

At one point in His ministry, the Savior was asked this question by the former disciples of John: “Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?”  Jesus answered them, “Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast” (Matt. 9:14-15).  I’m always been a bit confused by this scripture, for His reply would seem to validate their assertion that His disciples didn’t fast, and yet other scriptures clearly show that Christ taught them to fast.  For example, later when a man brought his child to Jesus and told Him that His disciples couldn’t heal his son, Jesus healed Him and then explained to His disciples that they lacked faith and that “this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting” (Matt. 17:21).  So clearly the disciples of Jesus did fast.  Jesus Himself fasted “forty days and forty nights” when He was starting His ministry, and when He gave the Sermon on the Mount He taught the people how to fast  (Matt. 4:2, 6:16-18).  So what did He mean in His response to the disciples of John? 

                Perhaps what Jesus was saying was that His disciples would not participate in the pharisaic fasting which made sure that their “devotion” was seen of men.  We know that some of the Jews would fast to be seen of men: “For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast.”  The kind of fasting that Jesus taught His disciples to participate in was such that outside observers wouldn’t know that they were fasting.  Perhaps the disciples of John who asked Him this question recognized that Jesus and His disciples did not participate in the sanctimonious, mournful fasting of the Pharisees, but how would they know if the disciples of Jesus really fasted?  Fasting is not meant to be a public display but an act of private devotion that is rewarded by Him who “seeth in secret” but rewards openly (Matt. 6:4).  Christ wasn’t about to respond by trying to improve their opinion of His spirituality; He could have responded by telling them how He had fasted for forty days, but then that would go against the very principle that fasting is meant to be personal  between an individual and God.  The Savior watched a publican who went to the temple to pray and said, “I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that possess” but the Lord provided no commendation for the man.  Instead he praised the one who so humble that he prayed for mercy in perfect humility (Luke 18:12).  Again, I think we have this theme that fasting for praise does very little for our spirituality, for “they have their reward” (Matt. 6:2).  Jesus’s response did not say that His disciples did not fast but that they did not mourn; so perhaps He was simply saying that they would not “mourn” like the Pharisees did when they fasted, but that when Jesus was gone they would surely mourn. 

                Whatever the pattern of actual fasting the disciples of Jesus had during His ministry, the point for us is clear: we should fast and we should not fast to be seen of men.  Perhaps our mantra should be to fast such that others could likewise ask us why we don’t fast, for we only fast in secret.