While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’  So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. (Acts 13:2-3)

In Greek, the verb ‘to fast’ is νηστεύω nesteuo from ne,implying negation, and ἐσθίω esthio ‘to eat’, thus nesteuo is literally ‘to not eat’.  But in the context of the Bible, this is abstinence not starvation.  Thus, a Biblical definition of a fast is to refuse food in order to better focus on God – or put in the negative, and especially in a modern context, fasting without prayer is merely dieting.

In Scripture, fasting is often associated with making important decisions, as above, in the commissioning of Paul and Barnabas.

When Mordecai challenges Esther to intercede for her people, the Jews of the Babylonian exile, she replies:

‘Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.’ (Esther 4:16)

But for the Jews, fasting became a routine and a public display, which Jesus comments on in The Sermon on the Mount:

‘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. 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…’ (Matt 6:16-17)

In this and preceding verses, Jesus considers three pillars of worship in turn;  alms-giving, prayer and fasting; and in all three cases, he highlights that the adulation gained through eye-catching and dramatic spectacle will be the only reward. Hypocrisy does not fool God.

Here Jesus points to the attitude of the alms-giver, supplicant or faster.  God can judge motive and will do so, and if the motive is the regard of men and women, God will neither accept the act of worship nor reward it.

In Jesus’ day then, fasting was a common act of dedication, and it was one of accusations against Jesus that he did not fast but instead feasted:

(The teachers of the Law) said to him, ‘John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.’ (Luke 5:33)

The accusation is clear then, Jesus’ disciples were not behaving as piously as John’s and those of the Pharisees. While there was little mutual regard, it appeared the even the teachers of the Law acknowledged that John the Baptist’s disciples were renowned for fasting.

Now John despised the Pharisees and their false religion, condemning them unequivocally:

‘You brood of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the coming  wrath?  Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.  And do not think you can say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father.” I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.  The axe has been laid to the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire…’ (Matthew 3:7-10)

Clearly on this basis, John considered himself holier than the Pharisees; and no more so in his acts of ritual purity.  For John even questioned Jesus’ veracity, and this after Jesus launched his Galilean ministry in which Jesus associated and ate with sinners.

When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to ask him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’      (Matthew 11:2-3)

Austerity is associated with John; but ascetism, a devotional practice that ranges at one extreme to living simply and to the other mortification and mutilation of the flesh, is no less questionable from a Godly perspective than ostentation.  If, for the teachers of the Law fasting was a hollow performance, would John and his disciples’ self-imposed suffering be any less vacuous?  Any acts of self-improvement will become works-righteousness, if God is constrained to honour them.  Once more, the sense of piety will be the sole reward.  As Paul reminds us, such things are religious:

Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: ‘Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!’?  These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.  Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.  (Colossians 2:20-23)

Paul is saying that harsh treatment of the body is self-indulgent and worse, it is sheer foolishness.  Contrast Jesus’ call to self-denial:

‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it…’ (Matthew 16:24-25)

Here there is an object to self-denial, Jesus; if you lose your life for Jesus, God will recognise the sacrifice.  Suffering is then not for suffering sake, but Jesus’ sake.  God instituted sacrifice to be the rendering of something of value to gain something of greater value.  So Jesus is not being nihilistic.  He expects us to value our lives and, by inference, respect our bodies.  Jesus is not encouraging acts of self-immolation.  Holiness comes from him, as he imputes his righteousness, by grace through faith; not as the result of our work, but his.

The breaking of our will and its greatest cheerleader, pride, is Jesus’ focus.  Leaving aside the circumstance of mental illness that distorts judgment, the man who commits suicide does not seek death, rather he rejects life on the terms that are offered.  When Judas committed suicide, it was an act of remorse, but not of repentance.  It was his pride that cause him not to seek God’s forgiveness; he still could bring himself to accept Jesus on God’s terms, only his own – contrast this, with the remorseful andrepentant Peter.

The Pharisees added to the weight of religious observance.  Fasting was a requirement under the Law of Moses on one day only – the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur, and even that depends on the interpretation of the Hebrew, here in a literal translation:

And on the tenth of this seventh month a holy convocation ye have, and ye have humbled your souls; ye do no work…(Numbers 29:7 YLT)

In Hebrew, the literal sense of עָנָה anah is that you will ‘afflict’, ‘humble or accuse oneself’; atonement then is a bringing oneself before God, recalling, reflecting upon and confessing to God the failings of the year; however, rather quickly it seems to have evolved  from a denial of self in a spiritual sense to bodily denial.  From inward examination to an outward trial/punishment, so by the time of Jeremiah Yom Kippur as the ‘day of fasting’ (Jeremiah 16:6).

This suggests that denial of food with all its attendant discomfort was preferable to bringing oneself before God for spiritual examination – and understandably so, for submitting to God’s judgment can be nothing other than the greatest discomfort.  Pride again is the greatest casualty to such a process.

Self-interest is therefore not in, or of itself, ungodly. Indeed, the basis of the Gospel is that out of a spirit of self-interest all can choose to believe in and follow Jesus. Fasting as an act of self-denial that is done to honour God and as a private act of worship combined with prayer is therefore not prohibited but nor is it required; however, shriving oneself in order to approach God is.  Paul points to the practise of love-feasts, quite the opposite of fasting:

…when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers…(for) whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.  Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves… (1 Corinthians 11:20-21 & 27-29)

This was once more about attitude and condition of hearts; the examination required is atonement and it is a obligatory prelude to sharing the offering of Christ. It is with the same poignancy of the cross, Jesus instituted the ordination of last supper as a feast, whilst denying himself in the process:

I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.’  (Matthew 26:29)

Some Old Testament commandments are re-stated by Jesus but fasting is not one, nor is observance of the Day of Atonement; however, all have the freedom to eat or refrain from eating as their conscience directs; and, if any wish to fast, Paul cautions that none should judge others for any observance, sacrifice or offering:

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.  (Colossians 2:16)