Biblion Bible Commentary
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When You Fast
Matthew 6:16-18
16 “Moreover when you fast, don’t be like the hypocrites, with sad faces. For they disfigure their faces that they may be seen by men to be fasting. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward. · WEB
The third performance dismantled — and the remedy is to look completely ordinary while doing it.
"Moreover when you fast, don't be like the hypocrites, with sad faces. For they disfigure their faces that they may be seen by men to be fasting" Matthew 6:16.
The assumption behind the paragraph is worth noting first: when you fast, not if. The law required one fast a year, on the Day of Atonement Leviticus 16:29–31, and the practice had multiplied well beyond it — the Pharisee in the parable fasts twice a week Luke 18:12. Jesus neither commands the extra fasting nor forbids it; he assumes his hearers do it and corrects how.
The wordplay in the Greek is sharp: they disfigure their faces so as to be figured — made conspicuous. Unwashed, ash-marked, visibly grim, which is a costume rather than a discipline.
"But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face" Matthew 6:17.
The instruction is not to look miserable but to look normal — oil on the hair and a washed face were ordinary daily grooming, not celebration. A person following this is indistinguishable from someone who has eaten breakfast, which is exactly the point. The fast becomes a transaction between the person and God with no third party informed.
"So that you are not seen by men to be fasting, but by your Father who is in secret" Matthew 6:18.
The three paragraphs of this chapter close the same way, and the pattern is now complete: giving, praying and fasting are the three pillars of Jewish devotion, and each has been taken out of the public register and handed back as something done before God alone. The reward language is identical in each — the applause is a settled account; the Father's response is left undescribed.
What the section as a whole exposes is that the same act can be either worship or performance, and that nothing visible distinguishes them. The difference is the audience the actor has in mind, which no observer can audit and no rule can enforce.
settled What this mark means