https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2058%3A1-9&version=NLT
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%205%3A13-20&version=NLT
Introduction – Salt, Light, and a People Who Shine
We will start by defining our terms. Fasting is the act of giving up something you would normally do, such as eating or drinking, for a set time, with an end in mind. The example most familiar to us has to do with fasting before a medical procedure. Usually the orders are, no eating or drinking after midnight, with the idea that you can break fast after the procedure is over.
Our word breakfast assumes you have not eaten since your evening meal and that after sleeping, you break fast. In Judaism and Christianity, fasting has long been considered one of the fundamental spiritual practices all Jews and Christians will participate in. In Matthew six, Jesus names fasting, along with prayer and almsgiving as three practices so fundamental to our faith, that all of his followers will practice them.
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus says something astonishing:
“You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world.”
He does not say, “try to be.” Nor does he say, “someday you’ll become.”
He says, “You are salt. You are light.”
Salt preserves what is good. Light reveals what is true.
And Jesus says that his people are meant to make the world taste better and to help the world see more clearly. But Jesus also connects this identity to a certain way of life; a righteousness shaped by God’s own heart.
And that’s exactly what Isaiah 58 addresses. Isaiah lived in a very religious time.
God’s people were worshiping, praying, even fasting, but something was missing.
They were doing spiritual practices without experiencing spiritual transformation.
Isaiah says, “You are fasting, but look at how you treat people. Where is the justice? Where is the mercy? Where is the compassion?”
It’s the same question Jesus asks in Matthew 5:
Where is your salt? Where is your shine? The prophet Isaiah tell us what God wants.
1. What God Wants: A Fast that Reflects His Own Heart
Isaiah 58:1–9
In Isaiah 58, God tells Israel:
“You’re going through the motions…
but you’re missing the point.” You have fasted to be noticed, but you compassion is missing.
So God describes a true fast. When you enact a Biblical fast, you will:
- Loosen the chains of injustice
- Share bread with the hungry
- Shelter the poor
- Clothe the naked
- Care for your own family
And then comes the promise. When you fast in this way:
“Then your light will break forth like the dawn.”
(Isaiah 58:8)
If you want to shine, love like God loves. If you want to be salt and light, start by practicing God’s compassion. So, let’s talk about…
2. What Fasting Really Is (and What It Isn’t)
We are two weeks away from the beginning of Lent, the season that prepares us for Easter.Lent is forty days of repentance, reflection, and preparation for celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus.
Usually, during Lent, Christians fast, often, by giving up something for the season.
But fasting is one of the most misunderstood spiritual practices, so I want to be clear:
Fasting is not a hunger strike we undertaken to get God’s attention.
Fasting is a discipline we do to learn how to give our attention to God.
We don’t fast to impress God. We fast to make space for God.
Jesus says in Matthew 6, “When you fast, don’t make a show of it.” Isaiah 58 says, “Let your fast become justice, mercy, and love.” 1 Corinthians 2 reminds us that the Christian life is not about human effort but about learning to depend on the Spirit’s power. This means fasting is more about clearing space for the Spirit than proving our willpower.
Paul writes:
When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan. For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God.
Yet when I am among mature believers, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world or to the rulers of this world, who are soon forgotten. No, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God—his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began. But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord. That is what the Scriptures mean when they say,
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard,
and no mind has imagined
what God has prepared
for those who love him.”
But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given.
So now, I want to focus on…
3. What Fasting Does in Us
When we fast from food, from media, from habits that distract us, fasting trains us in at least three ways:
1. It develops focus:
We quiet the noise so we can hear God more clearly. Max Picard once said, “If I were a physician and were asked to prescribe a remedy for the evils of the modern world, I would prescribe silence.” Blaise Pascal said, “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Peter Kreeft added, “Though we badly need stillness and quiet, we do everything in our power to avoid it, because we are deeply afraid of the two people we may encounter in the stillness: ourselves and God. So afraid are we to meet either, that will do anything to avoid the silence where they can be found.”
2. It teaches spirituality dependence.
Each hunger pang becomes a prayer: “Lord, I need You more than I need what I’m giving up.”
3. It teaches compassion.
Fasting awakens empathy for those who go without by necessity, because of poverty. Fasting moves us toward mercy, which is the very heart of Isaiah 58.
Now, I want to provide some examples of what it looks like to fast, by showing you people who have done it, or done something very much like fasting.
4: Examples:
Tom Brady’s Focused Life
You don’t have to be a football fan to know the name Tom Brady.One of the things that set him apart wasn’t just talent, but discipline. He gave up sugar, white flour, junk food, most dairy, caffeine, and alcohol during the season. He avoided certain foods because he believed they caused inflammation.
He followed a strict diet of vegetables, fish, lean meats, and constant hydration. And he kept a strict bedtime: lights out at 8:30 p.m. No late-night TV. No endless scrolling. Why?
He gave up all of this, because he believed greatness required focus and sacrifice.
He once said: “Success isn’t just about what you do. It’s about what you’re willing to give up.”
That’s a picture of fasting. We give up lesser things, to make room in our lives for greater things.
Marie Curie
Marie Curie stirred vats of ore by hand in a drafty shed, sacrificing comfort and safety for the good of humanity. Her work changed the world, because she believed truth was worth the cost. Is there anything important enough to you to pay a high cost?
Ludwig van Beethoven
Here is what I love about Beethoven. He wrote some of his greatest symphonies after he had become completely deaf, refusing to quit even when his world fell silent. He sacrificed ease for beauty, and the world still knows his music.
People sacrifice all the time when its about purpose, passion, excellence. So giving something up for God is not strange, its the supreme act of worship, when purpose, passion and excellence motivate us.
Now, let me share a simple example from our own faith tradition:
5. Teaching Moment – The Wesleyan Fast
John Wesley and the early Methodists fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays, skipping breakfast and lunch on those days, breaking fast at dinner. They used the morning and early afternoon to pray, read Scripture, and serve others.
This simple pattern of fasting wasn’t about earning God’s love.It was about removing clutter so grace could work more freely in their lives. It was a way of saying: “Lord, I want to hunger more for You.”
Finally, let’s put this into practice.
6. Putting Isaiah 58 into Practice – Our Congregational Fast
Isaiah says the kind of fast God desires is one that blesses others,
a fast that becomes an expression of mercy. So this year, we want to practice Isaiah’s kind of fast together as a church. So, we invite you to consider giving something up for Lent.
If you choose to give something up for Lent that costs money, such as coffee, sodas, fast food, desserts, subscriptions, online shopping, we invite you to take the money you save and set it aside.
Then, on Easter, we will bring that offering together as a church and donate it to Life Choices Crisis Pregnancy Center, to help young women in crisis and to support vulnerable families.
In this way, our fast becomes more than a private discipline; it becomes an act of mercy. Our self-denial becomes someone else’s hope. Our spiritual practice becomes a blessing to someone in need.
This Lent, let your fast shine. Let your sacrifice lift a life. Let your obedience be someone’s answered prayer.
One more aside…
7. A Note About Sundays – Little Easters
Lent last for forty days. But, if you start counting from Ash Wednesday to Easter, you will come up with more than 40 days. Do you know why? Because every Sunday is a little Easter. And, on Easter we celebrate, not fast. So, even during Lent, every Sunday is a mini-Easter.
That’s why Sundays aren’t counted among the forty days. We fast during the week; we celebrate on the Lord’s Day. Our journey starts with repentance, but the destination is resurrection.
So, I would like to end with this invitation:
8. The Lenten Invitation
“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ: the early Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church that before the Easter celebration there should be a forty-day season of spiritual preparation.
I invite you, in the name of the Church, to observe a holy Lent: by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s Holy Word.
To make a right beginning of repentance…”