The Sermon on the Mount · Matthew 6:16-18

Fasting: Wash Your Face and Seek Your Father

Matthew 5 to 7 · Jesus’ greatest sermon, the manifesto of the kingdom

Jesus assumes His followers will fast, and teaches them to do it for God rather than for show. Do not make your fasting obvious with a gloomy face, as the hypocrites do to be admired. Instead wash your face and carry on normally, so that your fasting is seen only by your Father, who sees in secret and rewards what is done for Him alone.

Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.Matthew 6:16-18 (KJV)

What Jesus said

When ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to fast. Verily, Jesus says, they have their reward, the notice they were fishing for and nothing else. Their fasting has become a costume worn for an audience.

But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret. Notice the little word when. Jesus does not say if you fast but when, taking for granted that self-denial before God has a place in the life of His followers. He only insists it be directed to the right audience.

What it meant then, and what it means now

Fasting was a familiar practice, tied to mourning, repentance, and seeking God. But like giving and praying, it could be corrupted into a display of piety, a way to be admired as spiritual. Jesus strips away the theater and returns fasting to its purpose: turning from lesser hungers to seek the Lord.

Many today have lost the practice entirely, so Jesus' quiet assumption that His people will fast is itself a challenge. To fast is to say with the body that we hunger for God more than for bread, to create space to pray and to loosen the grip of our appetites. The warning against showiness only matters because the practice itself is meant to continue.

How it goes to the heart

Fasting is one of the most private of disciplines, which makes it a searching test of motive. The moment we want people to know we are fasting, we have swapped God for an audience and traded the eternal reward for a passing compliment. Jesus asks us to keep it hidden precisely to keep it honest.

Done rightly, fasting exposes what rules us. When the comfort of food is removed, our impatience, our cravings, and our dependence on small pleasures come to the surface, and we can bring them to God. It is not a way to earn His favor but a way to seek His face with our whole selves, body included.

How it has been misapplied, and rightly applied

Fasting has been misused as spiritual showmanship, a badge of superior devotion, and as a way of trying to twist God's arm, as though hunger could obligate Him to act. Both miss Jesus' point entirely. He roots fasting in a hidden relationship with the Father, not in leverage over God or status among people.

Rightly applied, fasting is a quiet, glad turning to God. It should be kept private, joined to prayer, and free of any pretense. It is not a diet for the soul's vanity but an appetite redirected, a way of declaring that God Himself is the food our hearts most need.

A closer look at the words

The small word when carries a great deal. Jesus does not say if ye fast but when ye fast, quietly assuming that self-denial before God will have a place in the life of His followers, just as giving and prayer do. Fasting is not an oddity for the especially spiritual but a normal instrument of devotion, tied in Scripture to mourning, repentance, and seeking the Lord.

The hypocrites, He says, disfigure their faces, neglecting their appearance so that everyone can see how spiritual they are. Their fasting has become a costume worn for an audience, and the notice they crave is the only reward they will receive. The discipline meant to turn the heart toward God has been turned into a performance for people.

Jesus’ remedy is almost playful: wash your face, tidy your hair, and carry on as if nothing were different, so that your fasting is seen only by your Father. What is done for the eyes of God alone keeps its power, because it keeps its true aim, the seeking of God rather than the admiration of the crowd.

Living this today

Many believers today have simply lost the practice, so Jesus’ quiet assumption that His people fast is itself a gentle challenge. To fast is to say with the body what the heart means, that we hunger for God more than for bread, and to clear space to pray and to loosen the grip of our appetites on us.

When food is set aside, what really rules us tends to surface: our impatience, our cravings, our dependence on small comforts. That is not failure but the very point, for now those things can be brought to God rather than merely indulged. Fasting is less about proving something and more about exposing and reordering the heart.

Two cautions keep it healthy. First, keep it hidden, joined to prayer and free of any hint of display, for the moment we want to be seen fasting we have traded God for an audience. Second, fast not to earn God’s favor or to twist His arm, but as those already loved, seeking more of the One who has given us Himself.

It helps to begin small and to pair fasting with prayer rather than treating it as an endurance test. A single skipped meal given to seeking God, or a day set apart from some ordinary comfort, can open the heart in ways a full and busy life rarely does. The aim is never to punish the body or to earn a hearing, but to clear a space, letting hunger become a prompt that turns us, again and again through the day, toward the God who satisfies the deepest hunger of all. Practiced this way, fasting is not a burden but a quiet gift, putting into the body what the soul already longs to say.

How it points to Christ

Jesus fasted forty days in the wilderness, and there, hungry and tested, He answered the tempter with the words that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. He lived the hunger for God that fasting is meant to express, and He did it in our place.

He is also the bread of life, the one for whom every fast finally longs. We deny ourselves lesser food to feast on Him. And because He has already won the Father's reward and shares it with us, we fast not to earn God's love but as those already loved, seeking more of the One who has given us Himself.

A note for every tradition: the Sermon on the Mount is honored across the whole church as the heart of Jesus’ teaching. This is faithful, mainstream exposition, holding the hard sayings with both honesty and grace. Above all it points to Christ, who alone lived this sermon perfectly and gives grace to all who follow Him.

Continue in the sermon: The Lord's Prayer in the sermon · Treasure in heaven · The Beatitudes · The whole Sermon on the Mount