Spirituality of Jesus: When you go without food, wash your face and comb your hair. Matthew 6:17

The Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Saint Matthew is the greatest manual of Christian spirituality. It could be said with security that this speech made by Jesus on a mountain in the region of Galilee is the synthesis and summary of the doctrine of the Kingdom of God, the dominion or government of the divine perfections.
Jesus began this sermon by teaching God's plan with the nine beatitudes, and then the divine master touched on very important topics such as adultery, the law of retaliation, how to pray the Lord's Prayer, and the Golden Rule. And these spiritual teachings make Jesus a true master of wisdom, like his ancestor, the great King Solomon. Following this idea, it could be affirmed that the Sermon on the Mount is more a continuation of sapiential literature, such as Proverbs, Wisdom, or Ecclesiastes, than a continuation of the law of Moses in the Pentateuch.
And a very interesting topic in this discourse is fasting. Jesus touched on this subject to explain that those who want to enter the Kingdom of God should not use spirituality to impress others, as indeed his declared enemies, the Pharisees and Sadducees, did.
And so, when referring to fasting, Jesus taught with wisdom: "When you fast, do not put on a sad face as the hypocrites do. They neglect their appearance so that everyone will see that they are fasting. I assure you, they have already been paid in full. When you go without food, wash your face and comb your hair" Matthew 6:16-17.
For Jesus, faith could not be reduced to a game of masks and appearances, because that is characteristic of falsehood and not of wisdom. For Jesus, true fasting is that which is not noticeable to others. Because God ultimately judges hearts, not appearances.
It is for all these reasons that the doctrine taught by Jesus can be understood as a doctrine of personal improvement and growth, of overcoming human limitations, and of gradual, incremental effort towards that reward which is the spiritual gift of eternal life through the gift of righteousness.
The Sermon on the Mount, along with teachings such as fasting, constitutes the pearl of great price that every Christian should keep in their heart to be worthy of Jesus, with the purpose to be perfect as the Father is perfect.

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