<p>6:17 <em>But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face</em>- Every effort is to be made to conceal our spiritual sacrifices. We are to appear as usual (as in Dan. 10:3). We are to be actors, hypocrites, in a good sense. The Lord is also alluding to how the rabbis forbad &quot;washing and anointing&quot; on the day of atonement, which was a day of fasting. The Lord is teaching open defiance to their hypocrisy.&nbsp;</p>