"Fasting"

 

Matthew 4:1-11

February 22, 2026

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ²He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. ³The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” ⁴But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” ⁵Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, ⁶saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” ⁷Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” ⁸Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; ⁹and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” ¹⁰Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” ¹¹Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

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            Fasting is a spiritual practice found many places in the Bible but not in very much favor in our own day.  Richard Foster writes about fasting as one of many aids to prayer (although it can also be a distraction in some circumstances).  He also warns that it is not for everyone, either physically or psychologically.  (For my part I would mention that I knew someone who misused the practice as a cover for anorexia.)  Nevertheless, Jesus himself fasted and taught his disciples about fasting, and we have the witness of the gospels that he began his public ministry only after a prolonged time of prayer and fasting during which he confronted the temptations of the devil.

            Foster says,

“More than any other single Discipline, fasting reveals the things that control us. …We cover up what is inside us with food and other good things, but in fasting these things surface. …How easily we begin to allow nonessentials to take precedence in our lives.  How quickly we crave things we do not need until we are enslaved by them. …Our human cravings and desires are like a river that tends to overflow its banks; fasting helps keep them in their proper channel.”[1]

I would add that although fasting generally refers to abstinence from food for a short period (usually a day, and not skipping water during that time), people may also fast from things like speech or screentime or caffeine or alcohol.  The other thing is that fasting differs from dieting because it is meant to focus on God, not on physical appearance.

            That said, Jesus’ time in the desert was time where he faced down and overcame temptation to turn his attention away from God and toward himself.  The first temptation was to turn stones into bread, when the whole point of what he was there for was to do without.  In fact, it wasn’t simply that he had left the settled area for the desert but that he had left heaven itself to come to this world for the sake of humanity.  Jesus, as Paul would later say,

“though he was in the form of God,

did not count equality with God

as something to be exploited,

but emptied himself.” [Philippians 2:6]

 

Jesus’ time of fasting in the desert was a time of preparation for enduring the cross.  The temptation to use his power to spare himself from hunger was the same temptation to spare himself from suffering that would be placed before him, right up to the end.  Again and again Jesus must have prayed (as he did in Gethsemane)

“My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.” [Matthew 27:39]

Right up to the moment when he was dying on the cross, the voice of the tempter echoed in the people mocking him:

“If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” [Matthew 27:40]

and

“He saved others; he cannot save himself.  He is the King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him.” [Matthew 27:42]

The temptation to turn his back on God’s will, to save himself instead of others, would never fully disappear, but he never gave in. 

We are unlike him in that.  We do give in.  But not always and not inevitably.  One thing that Jesus’ temptation teaches us is that the voice of the tempter is subtle and if that voice came to Jesus, it will surely come to us.  Don’t take what is offered at face value.  Treat it like an online ad – which (if you think about it) is meant to entice you into buying or buying into something. If an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  Use your common sense and trust what God may be saying to you quietly or maybe loudly.

Then whenever, as sometimes does happen, temptation announces itself without any disguise, don’t be afraid to answer it as bluntly as Jesus did.

“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” [Matthew 4:6]

His answer,

“Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test’” [Matthew 4:7]

could easily have also been, “Why exactly would I want to do that?” or, “Do you really think I’m that stupid?”  The same goes for bowing down to the devil in return for the world.  (There’s a whole sermon series in that discussion.)

            In whatever way we learn to understand our own selves and our own concerns into perspective, whatever way we come to see the world in a much larger perspective than we become used to, there is a greater sense that it is all God’s.  Peter Marty recently wrote a column where he says,

“To be spiritually alive involves placing our dependence on God, not just rolling in the ocean of the self. It’s exalting others, not celebrating personal grandeur. It’s enjoying a life that pulsates with the whole human family breathing through us in all kinds of ways.”[2]

Or, as Jesus put it:

“Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”  [Matthew 16:25]

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[1] Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1978), 48-49.

[2] Peter Marty, “Morality Requires Other People” in The Christian Century (vol.143 no. 3: March, 2026), 3.