Jesus on Fasting, pt. 1

We've just finished the month of Ramadan, the month of fasting for Muslims (interested? see those posts).  But it did make me wonder - what did Jesus say about fasting?  Not all that much, it turns out.  Of course, whatever Jesus says is of utmost importance, so 'not much' doesn't mean 'unimportant'.  In fact, they are very important.  The first isn't what Jesus says about fasting, but an example of Jesus fasting - which is just as important.

Matthew 4:1-4  (in Arabic) ¹Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ²After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. ³The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

 ⁴Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

Observations:  There are lots of things we could say about this story, such as, this story is not about fasting (its about Jesus' temptation).  But lets focus on the fasting aspect: 

• Jesus fasted.  For 40 days and nights.  In the desert.  Uff.  That's big stuff.
• Jesus (and all men) live by the words that come from God.  I suspect that this has lost some of its umph.  People talk about how someone "lives and breathes football" or "lives and breathes" for shopping.  But Jesus is making a direct connection - we must have food to live.  We must have God to live. 
• Jesus quotes scripture.  When Jesus says "it is written", he is quoting the Bible, specifically Deuteronomy 8:3 (in Arabic)

What we learn:  this is somewhat a recap from the previous, but its good to consolidate:

• Jesus fasted, therefore, we should fast (this becomes more clear later on). 
• Jesus teaches us that we must have the word of God to live.  I think that we learn that from fasting.  When we are fasting, we are not sustained by food, and we remember we need God. 
• Jesus teaches us to quote God's word when we are tempted.