In Matthew 6:19-24 Jesus warned us about the problem of materialism. Now in 6:25-34, He turns to its twin malady of worry. Jesus knew that a materialistic focus leads to anxiety regardless of whether one is rich or poor. Three times in this passage, the Lord tells us not to worry: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life" [v. 25]. "So do not worry ... " [v. 31]. "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow" [v34]. Here our Lord powerfully and memorably gives us His counsel regarding anxiety. It was needed then, and it is even more needed today.
Anxiety is the universal disease of our age. Businessmen torment themselves with imagined scenarios of what could take place if X does so and so and Y counters. Mothers worry over the future of their children until it is their very future that is in question. Students worry over examinations and future interviews and dates and graduate school and money. Kierkegaard said it well: "No Grand Inquisitor has in readiness such terrible tortures as anxiety." Today people consume tranquilizers, antidepressants and sleeping pills by the truckload and are running to counselors by the millions. If Christ's counsel was ever needed, it is sorely needed now.
On the other hand, I do not believe Christ's intent here is to foster in us a detached "who cares" attitude. There is a type of beneficial concern that all healthy Christians should have. For example, Luther says that we should all be anxious about the spiritual well-being of others and points to Paul as the example in 2 Corinthians 11:28, 29: "Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?"
We are also to be concerned about the state of our souls and incessant temptations we have to sin [see Psalms 38 and 51]. And there is the care and concern that is inherent in any serious work for God. We are to think, plan and anticipate any pitfalls [see Luke 14:28-32]. Some concern is good, but Jesus is counseling us here against worry that is self-centered and has at its root a lack of trust in God. No good architect does a good job of building a skyscraper without sometimes waking up at night and double-checking his calculations, the quality of his materials and the soundness of his design. No great athlete performs to his or her best without some concern about his or her training regimen. These distinctions can sometimes be rather subtle. A pastor may be honestly concerned about his sermon -- that it be true to the text, practical, spoken in the power of the Holy Spirit and in love. Or he may simply be worried about his reputation. The first is healthy and godly, the second is not.
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?" [v. 25]
Jesus' words here grab our attention because He cites the world's trinity of cares -- what we eat, drink and wear. One glance at the TV or current magazine rack and we can see just how on target Jesus was. Self indulgence is what our culture is all about, and that is why there is so much anxiety. Such narcissism is obviously unhealthy, being built on a false reductionist view of humanity -- the belief that we are just bodies that need to be fed, watered, clothed, housed and sexed.
Jesus did not teach us to despise the pleasures of life, but He did say by implication that if we see life in this reductionist manner, we are bound to have anxiety. And truthfully, this is where most Christians' anxieties come from. We say that our values are above the world's, but, in fact, we often believe ourselves that there is little more to life than what we eat, drink, wear, drive, live in or who we have sex with. Jesus' words in v. 25 are very convicting. They not only give us the diagnosis of our anxiety, but they also contain a subtle a fortiori argument when He says, "Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?" Since life itself comes from God, why should we worry or fret about His giving us the food an drink necessary for life? He will not go halfway. He gives us life, and He will maintain it for as long as He wills.
Next Jesus gives us three illustrations [vv. 26-30] of His care from the animate and inanimate worlds. These illustrations reinforce what He has already said. The first has to do with food and the example of the birds: "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" [v. 26]. There are millions and millions of birds, and by and large they are healthy and happy. None of them apparently suffer from hypertension nor stress-related diseases, and certainly none of them are worrying. God takes care of them though, unlike us, they do not sow or reap. And God will take care of us too. This is the obvious meaning.
But what Jesus did not mean needs to be said too. He was not calling us to laziness or indolence. Birds themselves instinctively make provision for the future. In fact, some argue that no creatures work harder than the birds! Neither does the example of the birds teach us that if we trust God, every day will be smooth sailing. Sparrows sometimes starve, sometimes they are eaten by predators, and certainly they all die in a short span. The specific application is this: the birds demonstrate God's care for the lower creation and thus we who are a much higher creation can be assured of His great care.
Said the robin to the sparrow:
"I should really like to know
Why these anxious human beings
Rush about and worry so."
Said the sparrow to the robin:
"Friend, I think that it must be
That they have no heavenly Father,
Such as cares for you and me."
-- John Stott
Moreover, our anxiety will not lengthen our lives. Verse 27 says, "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" Worry about these minor things of life will neither add to the quality of our lives nor will it lengthen our life spans. In fact, anxiety not only inhibits our ability to enjoy the things of life -- it also shortens our time to enjoy them.
How, then, as God's children should we live? Jesus gives His famous answer in v. 33: "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Seeking His kingdom primarily means trying to spread the reign of Christ through the spread of the gospel. It involves a profound poverty of spirit. Seeking His righteousness involves making His righteousness attractive in all areas of life -- personal, family, material, international. The Lord tells us that the one who does this is approved: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for the will be filled" [Matthew 5:6]. Matthew 6:33 marvelously encompasses our evangelistic and social responsibilities, which we are to carry out with fervor one day at a time. "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own" [v. 34].
"Tomorrow," the future, will have trouble. It is unavoidable. No Christian should ever be caught in the "then syndrome" as in "then things are going to be trouble free." Examples would include "When I get married, then I'll be beyond trouble" or "When I have children, then ... " or "If I can just get this promotion, then ... " It is futile to try to live a problem-free life. We can spend all our time and energy fortifying the castle of our lives, but there will always be a place that goes unguarded. Tomorrow will have its challenges and trials, no matter how hard we try to prevent them.
Yet we are not to worry about tomorrow. Worry will not destroy tomorrow's trials, but it will sabotage our strength. George Macdonald put it this way: "No man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when tomorrow's burden is added to the burden of today, that the weight is more than a man can bear." Worrying does not enable us to escape evil. It make us unfit to cope with it. The truth is, we always have the strength to bear the trouble when it comes. But we do not have the strength to bear worrying about it. If we add tomorrow's troubles to today's troubles, we give ourselves an impossible burden.
The anxious heart receives all kinds of blows through anticipatory anxiety that will never happen. Some of us have suffered much more in this world than has ever actually happened to us. We fear everything because everything is possible. Such a heart possesses nothing, though it may have all. It's only real possessions are its fears.
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