Mathew 6 – Fasting or Feasting?

Sermon on the Mount by Carl Bloch

Feasting and Fasting, we can consider them as the two ends of the spectrum, they are opposites.   George Herbert wrote a poem called Lent, and the opening line says:

‘Welcome dear feast of Lent’

Not welcome dear fast of lent. Welcome dear feast of lent.  What this line from George Herbert is getting at is that although lent might be a time for fasting for the body, it is also a time of feasting for the soul. What is the purpose of fasting? What is our motivation behind it?

In Judaism at the time of Jesus Mondays and Thursdays were days where you would fast.  These were also market days, and into the towns and especially into Jerusalem, crowded the people from the countryside; the result being that those who were fasting would on those days have a bigger audience to see and admire their piety.  there were many who took deliberate steps to ensure others could not miss the fact that they were fasting. they walked through the streets with hair deliberately unkempt and dishevelled, with clothes deliberately disarrayed. they even went to the length of whitening their faces to accentuate their paleness.  this was no act of humility; it was a deliberate act of spiritual pride.

“When you fast, do not look somber 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.  But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6:16-18)

Jesus condemns these hypocrites and says they have already received all the reward they will get.  Indeed many Rabbis would have condemned them to. There is a great Rabbinic saying one of my favourites which says:  

‘A person will have to give an account on the day of judgement for every good thing which they might have enjoyed, and did not’.

We should not fast just for the sake of fasting, or as a display of our piety to others.

Jesus does not command us to fast neither does he tell say ‘if you fast’.  Jesus says ‘when you fast’. there is an expectation in His words that we will want to fast.  He tells us to go and wash our faces and anoint our heads with oil so that people don’t know we are fasting.  

It is all about priorities, and the central priority is God Himself.  He is our priority, but in our busy lives they can be lots of distractions, and we have other things that become priorities.  Fasting from some of these distractions can help us to put God back at the top of our list.

Fasting then is a private thing between us and God.  Fasting is a feast for the soul, a chance to control our appetite for the world, to stop and focus on God.  To move closer to the heart of God.

Matthew 9 & 10 – Authority over illness

Christ Healing a bleeding woman, as depicted in the Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter.

All the historical evidence points to the fact that Jesus was a remarkable healer.  He healed by spiritual power.  Not by medical intervention.  Soon after the death of Jesus, the first century biographies of Jesus, known as “Gospels”, are unanimous that Jesus was a spiritual healer:

“Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness.” (Matthew 9:35).

The Jewish scholar and historian, Josephus is very clear about this too.  Josephus ben Matthias is the best known ancient Jewish historian. He was born in 37 AD, only a few years after Jesus’ execution.  Josephus was not a Christian.  He was not a follower of Jesus.  But in his books, Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus wrote:

“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure.” (Antiquities, Book 18: 3.3). 

Josephus goes on to add that:

“the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct at this day.”

Jesus also gave his followers the authority to do wonderful works too such as healing:

“Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.” (Matthew 10:1).

So often the onset of an illness has the effect of making us feel helpless and passive. The illness has the authority over us.  Jesus gave his followers the authority over illness.  In the language of Jesus, the word translated as “authority”, is in Hebrew pronounced memshalah.  The so-called Old Testament of the Bible s written in Hebrew.  The Hebrew word, memshalah, is first used in the very first chapter of the Bible.  The subject is the creation of the sun and the moon: “God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night”. (Genesis 1:16).  “To rule over” is the Hebrew memshalah.  Jesus gave his followers the authority to rule over or have dominion over illness just like the Sun has dominion over the day and just like the moon that dominion over the night.

 

Rev Dr Peter Pimentel

Matthew 1 – the genealogy of Jesus

 

Tree of Jesse

 

Over the last few years there has been a growing fascination with our genealogies.  We love to look back at our family histories, create family trees, and search out information about what our ancestors were like.  Last year people even took it to the next level, and one of the best selling Christmas presents was home DNA testing kits.  Which can tell you where in the world your family comes from.  This did cause some issues for some families when the results between family members were not what they should have been!  

Matthew opens with:

‘the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ’ (v1)

which deliberately recalls Gen 5:1:

‘This is the book of the generations of Adam’

Matthew is telling us that the story of Jesus parallels in importance the story of the very first human. Basically, the coming of Jesus is cosmically as big as the creation of humankind!

‘Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah’ (v17)

In the genealogy itself, Matthew is as good as shouting David, David, David. Matthew divides the genealogy up into three groups of 14, and in Hebrew David’s name = 14 (D = 4, v = 6, d = 4). Matthew is saying Jesus is the Davidic Messiah.

Matthew is telling us through the genealogy of Jesus that the coming of Jesus is a cosmic turning point, and that he (Matthew) sees Jesus as the royal Davidic messiah.  For more on this see ‘We have found the Messiah’.