Matthew 6 is a carefully constructed literary unit. Three disciplines, giving, prayer, and fasting, are each addressed in exactly the same pattern: the hypocrite’s corrupt motive, the disciple’s right practice, and a two-sided verdict. By the time Jesus reaches fasting, the third repetition, the principle has been stated twice before. The hammer falls with more force each time. This is not accidental. Jesus is a deliberate teacher, and the repetition signals that the problem he is confronting is deeply rooted in the human heart.
The Greek word translated ‘hypocrite’ is the word for an actor, one whose words and expressions were calculated for effect rather than to convey truth. These are people performing piety. And the performance Jesus describes is vivid: they disfigure their faces. The word for disfigure is a striking one. It means to render invisible, to make unrecognizable. And the stated purpose is ‘to be seen.’ They make their faces invisible in order to be seen. They render themselves unrecognizable in order to be recognized. The paradox is the entire point. Self-concealment has become the most aggressive form of self-promotion.
Commentator Daniel Doriani notes that fasting is the discipline most easily weaponized for appearance precisely because it is difficult and uncommon. When most people are not doing something, and you are, the temptation to make sure others know is intense. The Pharisees in Jesus’s day fasted twice a week (Luke 18:12), far beyond the single annual fast required by the Law (Leviticus 16:29-31). The more visible the discipline, the greater the opportunity for display. And the more display, the further you are from the God the discipline was meant to reach.