The Red Letters #14
The Red Letters: Diving Deep into the Sermon on the Mount • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 3 viewsNotes
Transcript
Deep Dive
Deep Dive
We are going to continue our deep dive into the Sermon on the Mount this morning. Last week we talked about investing in a life that builds treasures in heaven rather than focusing on building treasures here on earth. This passage we will look at this morning is kind of a continuation of Jesus’ thoughts about the things of this wold.
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
27 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?
28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin,
29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.
30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?
31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’
32 For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
33 But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
(Read from a dollar bill - “In God We Trust”) That’s what it says on my dollar bill - in fact, it’s what is imprinted on every bill or coin in our currency - “In God we trust.” It’s interesting to me that somewhere along the line, 1956 to be exact, congress passed a law that was signed by President Eisenhower that “In God We Trust” would be placed on the dollar bill starting in 1957. That practice was expanded to be included on all of our currency and continues to this day - for now.
I find it interesting that on the very representation of “Mamon” or wealth, we have imprinted “In God We Trust.” It’s the very thing that so many people put their trust in, but it reads “In God We Trust.” Years ago, Bill Clinton reminded us that when it comes to Presidential campaigns “It’s all about the economy.”
Jesus said in
24 “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
M.M. Boulton says: “We cannot, Jesus contends, have it both ways. That is, we cannot at the same time (1) trust ultimately in our own economic striving as the bedrock foundation of our basic well-being and (2) trust ultimately in God as that bedrock foundation. There can be only one ultimate foundation, only one ultimate trust. So we must continually, mindfully choose which of these we take to be the true bedrock of our lives, our own economic self-care or God’s care for us.
[Boulton, M. M. (2010). Homiletical Perspective on Matthew 6:24‒34. In D. L. Bartlett & B. B. Taylor (Eds.), Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year A (Vol. 1, p. 407). Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.]
So is this passage about money again, or is it about worry?
Some years ago, singer Bobby McFerrin encouraged us to adopt a simple philosophy: “Don’t worry, be happy.” It’s the same philosophy that we heard from Pumba & Timone in Disney’s The Lion King:
Hakuna Matata!
What a wonderful phrase
Hakuna Matata!
Ain't no passing craze
It means no worries
For the rest of your days
It's our problem-free philosophy
Hakuna Matata!
Are these relatively recent songs just fun renditions of Jesus’ philosophy here?
That is an oversimplification, of course. Jesus, as usual, offers an alternative. If we are committed solely to obtaining wealth, we will worry: Will we get what we seek? How can we keep what we have? When is enough, enough? These are the questions when we are concerned with material things and fret over them.
Does choosing God, then, guarantee abundance and prosperity? That’s not really what Jesus says here. Does Jesus mean for all of us to be rich? I don’t think so. Does Jesus think there is greater virtue in being poor? Again, I don’t believe that is what He is saying here.
In Matthew 6:24, which we looked at last week, Jesus offers a choice: wealth or God. He says that we cannot have 2 masters, we cannot serve both God and money. Now, He says: Therefore! In other words, based on that principle that we cannot serve both God and money, therefore!
He offers the choice. If we choose wealth as our priority, we can expect great highs and devastating lows. If we choose God, in good times and bad we have no reason to worry. The point is that God will provide for our needs. Barbara J. Essex says in Feasting on the word: “Jesus is not preaching a prosperity gospel here; nor is he preaching a life of passivity, waiting for God’s blessings to shower down.”
Well, it’s 2020, and Few of us are exempt from worry and anxiety. Most live with chronic anxiety, and it leads to all kinds of health problems for us.
We are scared of everything—losing our homes, losing our jobs, not having enough for retirement; caring for our children until they reach adulthood; avoiding danger and terror attacks and Covid 19.
We’re worried that “insert candidate here” will be elected President. In other words, Democrats worry that Trump will get reelected, Republicans worry Biden will get elected.
Those who have little, fret over having adequate shelter, food, and water; finding a decent job; taking care of their families; having enough money to survive. All of us—rich and poor, privileged and exploited—have legitimate reasons to fret and worry, even though we know that worry doesn’t change the realities we face.
Jesus understands this; his call to worry-free living is not based on unrealistic views of the world. He understands how life works, and I don’t think His call here is that we are never to be concerned about anything. I don’t think His philosophy is Hakuna Matata. His words are for those who understand that God will not leave us without resources or support. We can face life with all its uncertainties and contingencies with the assurance that we are not alone—that God hears, sees, and cares about us and our situations. “Don’t worry, be happy,” because God is in control.
[Essex, B. J. (2010). Pastoral Perspective on Matthew 6:24‒34. In D. L. Bartlett & B. B. Taylor (Eds.), Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year A (Vol. 1, p. 408). Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.]
G. Carey says: “If we take this passage as a straightforward logical argument that disciples ought not to worry about their daily needs, perhaps it fails to convince. Anyone can look around the world and see that many people who pursue God’s ways do not receive “all these things” (v. 33). If Jesus means that people who follow his way will have all their needs met, history has proven him wrong.”
[Carey, G. (2010). Exegetical Perspective on Matthew 6:24‒34. In D. L. Bartlett & B. B. Taylor (Eds.), Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year A (Vol. 1, p. 409). Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.]
Here Jesus is not talking about any luxuries like a dream home.
These are basic survival needs; food, water, clothing, shelter, surviving extreme heat or cold. If you don’t have these things you will die!
It is hard for us to imagine what life has been like for most people throughout history, or even most people on earth today. The land we live in is an anomaly; a place that is different from almost any other country or place or time in history.
This is also something that we can say about much of the modern Western Civilization over the past century.
We are incredibly blessed to the point that we rarely have to be concerned with having the basics in life. Even those who have little in our culture have an abundance of things compared to many around the world.
Even those who cannot work are blessed to have welfare to provide for the minimum necessities of life. When Jesus is talking to these people there is no welfare. If you are able to work and refuse to do so, no one will take care of you, not even your family.
There are no food pantries handing out food. There are no soup kitchens.
Work equaled the ability to purchase food. You might receive pay with which you could purchase food or you might receive food as your payment.
You couldn’t sign up for disability or workers compensation or food stamps or welfare or unemployment, or any kind of assistance.
Social security didn’t exist - retirement plans didn’t exist.
When you got too old to work or too injured or too diseased either your family took care of you or else you died!
And yet, Jesus says to these people, “Do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’”. On the surface, it seems like a pretty callous thing to say!
We are so blessed to be able to just turn on a water faucet and have water that we can drink. Yet, in Jesus’ day, fresh water was not easy to find. There were places that there would be springs that would provide pure water, but fresh pure water was difficult to find in that day.
In fact, it is one of the reasons that wine was so important for their culture. A little bit of wine put into some water would purify the water from bacteria and make it drinkable. Most cities would spring up around a well or a small brook or river that may or may not have any water in it.
And yet, Jesus says, “Do not worry, saying … ‘What shall we drink?’”.
Finally Jesus says, “Do not worry, saying … ‘What shall we wear?’”.
Most of us have a closet full of clothes and some stored away that do not work for the season. Many of us have clothes that we hang on to hoping to get back to that size or hoping that maybe it will come back into style some day. If we need clothes, it is a pretty simple process to go to the store or even pick up our computer or phone and go to a website.
And, if you can’t afford Amazon or the Mall or even WalMart, there are always resale shops, where clothing continues to be recycled.
But for the average person in Roman occupied Israel when Jesus was here it was very different. They typically didn’t have a large wardrobe.
Roman soldiers were not poor by the standards of that day and yet they did not throw away Jesus’ bloody garments when they were crucifying Him but they divided them up and cast lots for the seamless one.
So, how can Jesus say, “Do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink’ or ‘What shall we wear?’”
Jesus can say this because He knows that the heavenly Father knows that you need them.
Jesus says, “
32 For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
Your heavenly Father knows that you need food and water and clothing.
Jesus didn’t say that we should not go out to buy food or water or clothing. He is continuing to draw on the comparison that He made earlier - You cannot have two masters. The Gentiles - or unbelievers run after all these things (food, water, clothing as top priority). They have set their minds to seek first wealth, but Jesus says in verse 33 - that it is not these things that should occupy our concerns:
33 But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Is He saying that we should do nothing but pray and read our Bibles and He will drop these things in to us? I mean, if we are to be totally honest about it, there have been Christians who have not had all of the things that they needed. On this day when we are reminded that there are more people who are enslaved today than at any point in history - certainly some of them are Christians, and yet, they do not have some of the basic necessities of life, it is clear that Jesus is not telling us that if we follow Him and seek Him first that we will be healthy, wealthy and wise and all our desires will be fulfilled.
And yet, I have heard this passage referred to in that way.
So, what does it mean to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness?
We as believers are in the kingdom of God. Jesus is King and we are His children, His servants, His friends, His witnesses, His ambassadors, His disciples.
We are to seek the welfare of the kingdom of God above all other priorities. When we seek the welfare of the kingdom of God above all other priorities our priorities take second place to the kingdom priorities.
Along with seeking the welfare of the kingdom of God we are to seek His righteousness.
What does that mean?
To put it simply, it is seeking the will of the Lord and obeying it without question.
When we seek the Lord’s will in everything and obey in the strength of the Lord the results are in His hands … which is why He can say to us, “Do not worry …”
When the Lord says, “do this” we do it in the strength of the Lord and for His kingdom.
When the Lord says, “don’t do that” we don’t out of love-driven obedience and for the sake of His kingdom.
That is His righteousness.
6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
8 It will be a healing for your flesh and a refreshment for your body.