Jesus speaks very clearly in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7)…if I’m honest He’s too clear. There are no confusing parables here. No strange metaphors. No hidden meaning. Perhaps he is most clear in chapter 6:25-34.
Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear” Isn’t there more to life than food and more to the body than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky: They do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you more valuable than they are? And which of you by worrying can add even one hour to his life? Why do you worry about clothing? Think about how the flowers of the field grow; they do not work or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these! And if this is how God clothes the wild grass, which is here today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, won’t he clothe you even more, you people of little faith? So then, don’t worry saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the unconverted pursue these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But above all pursue his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.
It’s clear that Jesus has built into His teaching two primary presuppositions. He is building off an assumption that his listeners are willing to acknowledge two things:
- There are two realities to this world – a physical & a spiritual
- There is a God that loves me
If you take away these two assumptions then Jesus’ teaching goes from being extremely convicting to extremely useless. Even Jesus acknowledges this in vs. 32 (“for the unconverted pursue these things [food, clothing & drink]…”). In thinking about these verses it occurred to me that I spend more emotional equity than I care to admit fighting to believe these two things are true. I mean, I can articulate the Biblical truths behind each of these assumptions (Matthew 18:1-3; John 14:2-3; Ephesians 6:12 & Romans 5:8, John 3:16; John 15:9 and I think I can say with some level of integrity that I intellectually concede their reality. Mixed in with this head knowledge is the reality of how often my life looks “other” than these truths.
If my heart was utterly convinced that there really is a spiritual realm (presupposition #1) and that it far outweighed the physical realm in terms of its longevity & priority then I gotta believe I would spend less time asking the questions “What will we eat? What will we drink? What will be wear for clothing” (v. 31) and more time asking “What can I do today in this temporal physical realm that will make the biggest impact in the eternal spiritual realm?”
Similarly, if my heart was utterly convinced that God loves me (presupposition #2) then I gotta believe I would spend less time asking the question “Am I not more valuable than the birds?” (v.26) Help me out here but when we find ourselves frustrated/discouraged/angry with our circumstances aren’t we really asking the questions “Does God really love me?” or “Does He really care about me?” The Bible has made it pretty clear that the greatest, most complete & truest example of God’s love for us is found in the death of Jesus. Isn’t that precisely what Paul states that “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). And so, if I reflect on my circumstances and find a heart of anger/thanklessness/resentfulness then isn’t that the same thing as saying “I’m not entirely sure God loves me because if He did my circumstances would be different.” And isn’t that basically the same thing that the prosperity gospel preachers shout out on T.V., that is your circumstance dictate whether you are in right relationship to God? And isn’t that the exact opposite of what the Bible teaches about our circumstances?
