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"Therefore I say to you, do not worry 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? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."
- Matthew 6:25-34
Currently, we are reading through the Sermon on the Mount, chapters 5-7 in Matthew's Gospel. In the previous reading, Jesus taught: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is there your heart will be also. The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."
"Therefore I say to you, do not worry 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? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?" My study bible tells us: "Jesus is warning against anxiety, not against thoughtful planning. Our physical well-being is directly dependent on God, and only indirectly on food, drink and clothing. Anxiety over earthly things demonstrates a lack of faith in God's care."
"So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek." My study bible notes here: "Because the Gentiles served pagan idols, they remained consumed by dependence on earthly things. Those who follow God can be freed from this dependence."
"For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." A note on verse 33 (the first verse here) says: "The kingdom of God is the central theme of Jesus' teaching, and His righteousness is the subject of the Sermon on the Mount. Calling us to be free from anxiety about earthly things, Jesus directs us to look to heaven, secure in the faith that God will provide needed earthly blessings."
Clearly, Jesus asks us to put all things in the hands of God. Not only are we to trust all our worries and anxieties (What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear?) to God, we are to be actively engaged in seeking His kingdom first, and His righteousness, and it is God who will add these things to us. We are not to worry about tomorrow in the sense that the ordinary anxieties that each day brings are simply sufficient trouble! We are not called toward anxieties! I think maybe this is a much more crucial and central teaching than we expect. Those worries and anxieties, it seems to me, also attend to our spiritual stature. Are we to spend all our time worrying and anxious that God doesn't love us? That we haven't done enough? Can we trust to God's mercy and love? Can we really trust the relationship that we have to God, to Christ? I think that these things are crucial in exploring the attitude that God wants us to have in all ways, and they convey just exactly what sort of orientation we are to have in our lives when we feel that we truly are in a relationship -- an intimate relationship -- to God. It is, after all, this God who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Jesus' incarnation invites us into relationship and love, steadfast mercy, as the prophets of old might have said. Jesus lived and lives eternally in the fullness of His glory and presence as one of us. He knows what we go through. He understands a world filled not just with troubles, with imperfections, with afflictions, but also one in which we dwell as those who are in some sense set apart by our love and trust in God, in Christ, so that we are to have a completely different understanding of anxieties than those who do not have this confidence. Today, let us think about what He teaches. Paradoxically, Jesus tells us about our own powerlessness and weakness (Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?), but at the same time, He gives us the confidence of our faith, reminding us as He will later teach in Matthew's Gospel: "With God, all things are possible" (19:26). Let us try to remember that sufficient for the day is its own trouble!
