(This post is an adaptation of this sermon.)
#1: See How Jesus Makes Fun of Worry
The way Jesus preaches about worry is mostly by making fun of it.
“Which of you,” He asks, “by being anxious can add an hour to your life?” Literally, “which of you by worry can add a cubit to your age?”
Jesus asks, did you ever see a tall, healthy-looking person, and say, “Wow, they must worry a lot!” Or did you ever see an old person, maybe they were sick, and then they got better, and think, “See what can happen if you worry a bit more?” No. We know that worrying doesn’t actually help anything, but still, we do it.
In fact, Jesus says, “Look, you don’t need me to preach to you. If you want to know that worry is a bad idea, you just have to listen to the preaching of the birds, and the preaching of the grass. Do the birds worry? No. But look, they have food to eat. Does the grass worry? No. But look, it is clothed with splendor.”
“If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today, and is thrown in the oven, how much more will He clothe you,” and He makes fun of us a bit more, “how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith?” “O little-faithers!” It’s one word in Greek, and it’s a funny word. “Faith-babies. Tiny-trusters.” Something like that.
Now, what should we make of this strategy of Jesus, this making fun of us worriers? Well, first, we remember that Jesus was funny. He doesn’t tell a lot of jokes, but He is often saying things that would make us smile, especially when He’s making fun of the Pharisees. They strain out the gnat and drink the fly. They are trying to find the speck in the eye of their neighbor when they have a log sticking out of their own eye. Or think of Jesus telling the parable of the rich man tearing down his barns and building bigger ones when he will die that night.
But, I think the humor here serves a more explicit purpose. Worry and anxiety cause us to take ourselves so seriously, to see things in sure dire and stark terms, and when we are worrying we throw that blanket of concern over everyone around us. And Jesus simply won’t let it happen. He is too free. He has too much faith to worry, or to be dragged into the desperate conversation of worry that we are used to having.
“Jesus, I’m worried about this and that. I’m worried that I’ll get sick and die.” Jesus says, “That’s a good idea. Most people get better when they worry more!” “I’m worried about my kids.” “That’s the best thing to do, to worry about them. When you worry about your kids they turn out better.” “I’m worried about what I will eat, or if I’ll have enough money to survive.” “Good,” says Jesus, “because when you worry it causes the corn to grow in the field and money to show up in the bank. In fact, if you go stand next to an apple tree, and really worry about it, you can see the apples grow bigger.”
And we want to invent things to worry about. There are all sorts of troubles today, and if that’s not enough, we want to add to it and start worrying about tomorrow. “Ooh,” we say with relish, “I’ll bet there are a lot of things I could invent to worry about tomorrow.” And Jesus again makes fun of our worry. “Tomorrow can worry about itself!” He says.
This is what Jesus is getting after, what He wants us worriers to see, is that worry doesn’t make things better. It doesn’t help anything. And we know this if we stop to think about it.
Why, then, do we worry?
#2: Disconnect Worry from Work
I think one of the problems that we have is that worry and work are bound up in our minds, they are connected to one another. If I’m working then I am worrying, and if I’m not worrying, then I’m not working.
Try this. Imagine a guy who doesn’t worry about anything, who is care-free. What is he doing? Is he working? I imagine a guy leaning against a light post chewing on a piece of straw. He hasn’t worked all day.
This is strange to me, how we have bound these two things together: worry and work.
So Jesus says, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” And our gut reaction is, “But Jesus we have to work!”
Right?
Of course, we have to work. Jesus didn’t say we shouldn’t work, He said we shouldn’t worry! But we don’t know the difference; they go together. We think that if we are engaging with this world in a serious manner then we are worrying, anxious, and fretting about things.
The Bible all over the place talks about hard work. Paul says, to give just one example, 1 Timothy 5:9: “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
We want to disconnect these two things in our mind: worry and work. We want to work harder and worry less.
#3: Know that Worry is Idolatry, the Liturgy of Money Worship
But why? What, after all, is the big deal? It might be true that we can’t get taller or richer by worry, but it doesn’t seem like we get shorter and poorer when we worry, does it? Well, maybe. We’ll have to see what the doctors say about anxiety and the heart. It must not be good for us if people are taking medicine for it.
But Jesus sees an even more profound problem with worry; He understands that worry is idolatry. And, even more specifically, worry is the worship of money.
That’s how the text started: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
Money, and the things of this life which money buys, food, clothing, and everything else, are supposed to serve us. And we are to use them to serve and bless our neighbor. But Jesus sees that we are tempted to flip this upside down. We start to serve money and food and things. We dedicate our lives to them. We give them our heart and our attention and our service, we give them our worry, which is fear that corrodes hope, when we should really fear, love, and trust in God above all things.
And, as it turns out, you don’t have to be rich to worship money. The worship of money can be performed at a distance! “If I just had a bit more, then I would be …” You fill in the blank, “happy,” “content,” “generous,” “more attentive to my family,” whatever. “A little bit more,” that’s like the Kyrie and the Glorious in Excelsis of the liturgy of money-worship. And then, when you have a big pile of it, more stuff than you need, worry changes form getting it to keeping it, so someone else doesn’t get it.
Jesus is preaching to us, that this is a ridiculous absurdity, and that this is a dangerous idolatry. In fact, Jesus will give us one more jab, “The Gentiles seek after these things.” It is the Gentile life, the life of those who have no god, to worry about and be obsessed with this earthly life. Worry is what the pagans do, not the children of the heavenly Father.
#4: Know the Alternative to Worry: Thankful and Confident Faith
And then, God be praised, He gives us an alternative. We have a greater treasure, He says. Something more to seek after.
“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” The real treasure in life is not a full bank vault or a full stomach or a mind full of worry, the real treasure is the righteousness of God, the goodness and the holiness of God.
And when Jesus says that we should seek the righteousness of God, He is not giving us something more to worry about! In fact, it is His business to win this righteousness for us. This is what He is doing in His life and most especially in His death, He is arranging for us to have the righteousness of God. And we have it. We have it when our sins are forgiven. We have it when the promise is preached to us. We have it with eh Body and the Blood. We have it by faith, not by works, not even by worry, because Christ has done it for you.
Dear saints, the righteousness of God has sought you and found you. Your sins are forgiven. You are the children of God. Heaven smiles on you. You will pass from death to life. Your life is in the hands of your good and gracious heavenly Father who didn’t even spare His own Son. You have the treasure of the blood of Jesus. You are clothed in the white robes of His righteousness. You are rich and well-provided for in this life and even until the life to come.
So why worry? Your heavenly Father knows what you need. He has given His Son for your forgiveness and salvation. And if you need a piece of bread to eat, I’m sure He can find that for you as well.
