Matthew 6:24-34
LCMS International Center Chapel
Matins, September 9, 2016
In the beginning, “What shall we eat?” was a question answered by God: “All these trees are food for you.” “What shall we wear?” was a question unconsidered. For the man and his wife were naked and without shame. They had nothing to hide, from each other or God; no impure thought or desire entered their minds. Clothes protect us from cold and frost, sun and wind, the teeth and venom of insects and animals. But our first parents had no need for such protection. They played as children, without care, without anxiety.
Then they set aside the Word of God, and the questions, “What shall we eat?” and “What shall we drink?” and “What shall we wear?” became all-consuming. Anxieties about the most basic things in life undergird all our other worries, from the great waves buffeting the church to the troubles our children face. Uncertain that God cares or hears, we are held in bondage by our fears.
Bo Giertz said: “No man can avoid anxieties. It is a matter of knowing how to manage them.” That sounds like a peaceful life is just a matter of the right technique.
You can find some relief in what you do: meditation or medication, exercise and proper rest. But the fundamental human anxieties revealed by those questions, “What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear?” still remain. They deal with death – keeping yourself alive through food and money. And they deal with shame – covering yourself in the hour of accusation. And underlying death and shame is the sin that drives it all, not just this or that sin, but the cosmic sin of a world curved in on itself and rejecting her creator.
Our age believes itself dwelling in an ungoverned cosmos, without meaning or morals. That’s the deeper anxiety which the philosophy masquerading as science has unleashed upon the modern world.
Today the Lord Jesus calls you back to this truth: You prodigals have a Father, who longs for your return home. The crippling anxiety of the prodigal becomes a gift driving him back home, to the Father who loves him still.
That’s what Giertz was getting at when he said, “No man can avoid anxieties. It is a matter of knowing how to manage them.” He continues:
If we try to have God alongside of all else, then we become captive to our anxieties. We cannot have God simply as some extra aid that sometimes will break in and put things in order as for instance when our health fails or our affairs are tangled up.
Managing our anxieties means handing them over to the Manager, the One who invites us to cast all our cares upon Him, for He cares for us.
Near the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord demands absolute obedience: “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” He exposes our hypocrisy. Have you gazed lustfully at a woman? You are the adulterer. God sees. He knows. Have you said in your heart, “He is a fool” – perhaps already this morning in your first meeting? You are the hypocrite, judged by your own words. Your righteousness is not enough. “You must be perfect,” concludes the Lord.
But then Jesus couples “Be not anxious,” with this extraordinary word: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” This seeking means abandoning trust in yourself, in your righteousness. His righteousness is a gift, the gift of Jesus Himself. His righteousness is your justification, His passion is your perfection.
Now the Lord JESUS says to you, “All those things that cause you anxiety, stemming from your sin? Behold, I have taken away your sin. All that makes you worry, the things of death? Behold, I have died your death. Those dark deeds you worry will be exposed? Behold, I clothe you with My righteousness.”
“Therefore do not worry about what you will eat,” says your Lord; “for I feed you with the finest of wheat. Do not worry about what you will drink,” says your Lord, “for I give you wine and milk without money and without price. And do not worry about what you will wear, for I have worn your flesh and taken it into death. You will wear My flesh in the resurrection. You shall not die but live, and rejoice in what I have made.”
Therefore do not worry! +INJ+