Matthew 6:25-34. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on March 24, 2024.
We continue looking at our relationship with things and asking how they can cause us to be hypocritical. In the previous sections, Jesus has focused on wealth and its tendency to become our master. However, most of the people in the crowd are not wealthy and do not entertain any ideas of becoming wealthy. Today’s passage speaks to that large percentage of people who live at a level of survival. They live from day to day, week to week, and their whole life is focused on the things that are necessary to keep living.
It is also important to understand that Jesus is using language that will remind them of the wilderness wanderings of Israel when they came out of Egypt. There, God helped them to survive with food, water, and clothes that didn’t wear out.
Let’s look at our passage.
The backdrop of Israel in the wilderness reminds us that God took care of them even though they were in a place of scarcity. In His love, God wants us to understand that it is not His intention to live in worry about food, water, shelter and clothing.
Of course, in our luxury, we can be confused on what is necessary and what is simply a desire or a want. Even in a necessary category such as food, we can long for a particular kind of food, or a level of cuisine that is higher. It is important for us to understand that our Creator is also our heavenly Father. He knows that we are mortal beings that need food. However, He also knows that we do not “need” expensive food every day. I don’t believe that this means He is opposed to the desires we have that go beyond necessities. Yet, He never made us to be slaves to our desires, nor fearful of our necessities. He has designed the world to care for such needs, and His supervision ensures that we will find what we need.
In the midst of our worrying, God wants us to know that we don’t have to do it. We can choose to stop worrying. In fact, Jesus commands his followers, “Do not worry…”
Jesus is talking about a stressful anxiety about these things and not simply planning for them. He is not commanding us never to think about these things. This word has the idea of being internally divided, or fractured, over various concerns. Worrying about things is a type of bad stress that actually affects our health and life span negatively, but more on that later.
The average person in the crowd that day most likely stressed about food, clothing, and not being killed by the Romans. Jesus focuses on food and drink (water) as necessary for life, and clothing as necessary for our bodies. He could have added oxygen or other things, but these work best because they will remind the people of the wilderness wanderings of Israel.
God provided food (bread and meat) and water in the desert. They may have gone some days here and there without, but in the end, God always made sure they had these things.
The Bible also tells us that their clothing and sandals did not wear out during the 40 years they were in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 8:4; 29:5). It was His supernatural provision just as much as the manna, flocks of quail, and water coming out of a rock upon the strike of the staff of Moses. However, the clothing would also have the connotation of the Garden of Eden. The environment of the earth was not hostile in the beginning. Also, the earth was not a morally hostile environment either (sin and sinners). Clothing becomes a protectant against exposure to the elements and exposure to those who may be stirred up by nakedness and thereby led into sin.
You will also notice that this section is filled with questions. You could say that at the heart of worry is our unanswered questions, or questions that we have for which we do not like God’s answers. We are questioned by Jesus (by God) five times versus the three questions that we often wrestle with and laid out in verse 31.
Here is the tie to hypocrisy. Fearful questioning of God and the world around us can lead us to playing the hypocrite.. We may go through religious rituals that declare God’s provision and greatness, and yet, we do not actually trust Him.
Jesus asks the question, “Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” Of course, it is! God’s purpose for humanity is higher than simply eating food and wearing clothes. In fact, food, drink and clothing are symbols for the higher spiritual things that God wants to accomplish in our life. The manna in the wilderness hints at a supernatural bread from heaven that we need. We are told in the New Testament that this bread from heaven is Jesus himself. The work that Jesus did in a human body was as necessary for us as natural bread is for our body’s survival.
We are also told that Jesus is the source of the water of life. It is the Words that Jesus spoke to us, and the Holy Spirit that He has poured out upon us. Jesus is the source of water, the rock in the wilderness that has been struck so that the waters of life would pour out to us.
Finally, the righteousness of Christ is presented as a white robe that we can wear. Our righteousness is not pure white. Our robes are speckled with sin. However, our faith in Jesus gives us a new robe of his righteousness that we can put on. By faith, the Holy Spirit helps us to obey Jesus and go to war against sin our life. Thus, we are enabled to walk out the righteousness of Christ even as we wear his robe. This clothing will never wear out.
All of this is important to understand. Yet, Jesus is telling us to stop worrying about the natural necessities of our life. I can say that I believe, but then go on not to trust Him fully through worrying, complaining, and not having the relationship with God that I should, or even could.
To illustrate the illogical nature of worrying about these things, Jesus gives three illustrations of God supplying for His lesser creatures. The first is about birds.
Birds do not sow seeds, water them, reap them and then store the seed in barns. These are the kinds of things that God has given humans the wisdom and ability to do. Thus, birds are in an even more precarious place than humans. They are at the mercy of God’s provision even more than we are. There are some animals that will cache food (squirrels), or store it as fat for winter (bears etc.), but don’t miss the point. The emphasis is on the situation of the birds. A bird has to forage and find food each day. They have to wake up each day and go about looking for what God will provide. Jesus actually says, “Your heavenly Father feeds them.” Think about what that looks like. The birds do not see a man with a grey beard floating down from the sky with a bag of bird seed. God’s provision operates at a far grander and foundational level than that. Because birds are not human, they will not spend time fretting over whether they will find enough seed each day. Neither should we think that they exercise great faith in God. They are simply an illustration to us that we don’t have to fret.
Thus, Jesus gives his second question. “Are you not of more value than they?” The answer is “Yes, yes you are!” This does not mean birds have no value, but that the value placed upon them within God’s purposes is much lower than that placed upon us as humans. We are His imagers upon this earth. This means that He will even more make sure we are taken care of. Surely your Creator has thought about your need and made provisions. Yes, you will have to get up each day and work at bringing it in. You will need to use your mind, and prayerfully ask God’s help. But, you can trust Him. Thus, our deepest question is simply this. Can I trust God? God is your God. He cares for you. Don’t think of Him as the pastor’s God, or the prophet’s God, like Saul did with Samuel in 1 Samuel 15:15, 21. He is your God, and He cares about you more than the birds.
The second illustration is about length (verse 27). It is simply laid out in the third question that Jesus asks us. “Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?” This translation (NKJV) relates the issue of length (1 cubit is about 18”) to stature. However, the word primarily has a meaning of life. It is more likely that the length here is a picture of lengthening one’s life in the sense of adding a step to your journey. This fits the passage better than the concept of height, which is a secondary meaning of this word anyway. No one can add a step (minute, hour, day, etc.) to their life by worrying. The truth is that worrying will only lower our life. Studies have shown that heavy anxiety can affect our immune system, our emotional well-being, and thereby our physical well-being.
One particular study tracked a large number of people from teens to ninety-year-olds. They were able to follow them over the course of twelve years while tracking their anxiety levels. At the end of the 12 years, they determined that a person with high anxiety was 2 times more likely not to be alive than those who did not have high anxiety. It simply does you no good to worry and fret about something you cannot control, and it generally does bad things.
Why not make your default position trust in God’s purpose and loving care for you? We will live exactly as long as God has enabled us to live, and I can be good with that. Even if I were to die in my childhood, the resurrection and the age to come cause this time of our lives to pale in comparison. Then, we will have bodies that are not dying, weak, and impacted by disease. We will be immortal. This life is actually just the proving grounds for our place in the life to come.
The third illustration (verse 28) is about flowers. His fourth question is this. “Why do you worry about clothing?” He tells us that lilies do not toil nor spin. These verbs have to do with making clothes. They don’t work hard amassing the raw materials of clothing, neither do they spin that raw material into threads that can be worked in a loom into the material for making clothes. This may seem like a silly statement, but notice that Jesus has increased the dependency by moving from an animal to a form of vegetation. Birds can forage around, but flowers simply are what they are. They draw nutrients from the soil and their DNA code expresses that in a particular form. They are in an even more precarious situation than birds. However, Jesus tells them that not even King Solomon was dressed, arrayed, in as much glory as they. Remember that Solomon was extremely rich and would have the finest clothes that money could buy.
These simple flowers that grow up, bloom and then die, have a beauty that outshines our clothing. If you think that Jesus is stretching the concept of clothing here, then think of it this way. I spoke of clothing earlier in the sense of protection from the elements. However, we generally fret and are anxious over how nice those clothes look. Thus, clothes become a big part of a person’s identity, whether a rich nobleman or a peasant. Jesus tells us that God has given flowers a visual glory to which our humanness doesn’t compare.
Yet, there is a beauty in our nature as humans. I am not just talking about a beautiful person in the prime of their life. There is a different kind of beauty that is displayed in the whole range of our look from newborn to senior. There is also a beauty that is displayed in our male and female similarities and differences.
We can spend too much time trying to mimic the glory of a flower and forget that God’s different glory for us can be enough. It should not be lost on us that Jesus emphasizes that the flowers which have a greater glory also have a much shorter life-span. What glory are you going for? The Bible says that the righteous will shine like the stars in the resurrection (Daniel 12:3).
The fifth and final question is this. “Will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” Of course, this is our true problem. Faith and worry are inversely proportional. That means, when faith goes up, worry goes down. It is impossible to quit worrying without putting faith in something. Some may not worry because they have faith in their own ability. The believer knows that they have ability, but even greater than that, they also know that they have a heavenly Father who is caring for them. We really do not have an excuse for worrying.
This is exactly the problem that is expressed by Israel back in the wilderness. They perished because of their unbelief, lack of faith in God. What is even sadder is the fact that they had a tremendous amount of amazing evidence that God could and would take care of them. Don’t be the kind of person who blames their lack of faith on God’s lack of giving us evidence. Unbelief actually blinds you to all the evidence. So, listen to Jesus and start trusting God and stop worrying. It just isn’t the logical and righteous thing to do.
It is clear from the creation account that man is not only the apex of God’s creation, but that His purpose for us is for us to image Him to the earth and to the heavens. Birds have their part in the purpose of God (i.e., one of those is to be an illustration to us humans). But, our purpose is much more important to God.
In verse 30, Jesus tells us to stop questioning ourselves out of trusting God. “What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear?” These are real questions that we may not have the answers to. However, our lack of an answer is not a reason for unbelief, and not trusting God. The Red Sea was not a reason for Israel to stop trusting God. That is precisely when trust becomes the most critical thing. It really doesn’t matter if a kid doesn’t know what they are going to eat for dinner. What matters is that they have a loving parent who is taking care of those things for them. Your worrying won’t fix any of your problems, but God can and will when we trust Him.
This leads to his first conclusion in verse 31. He reminds them that this is how the Gentiles act (i.e., the nations). They clamor and desperately seek for these kinds of things. However, Israel was the people of God. They had a heavenly Father Who had pledged Himself to caring for them. Of course, there was a time when all the sons of Noah (all of humanity) were God’s people and cared for by Him. However, the rebellion at the Tower of Babel brought judgment upon them. On top of the confusion of languages and scattering across the earth, these nations doubled down on rebellion by throwing off the truth of their error. They connected to fallen spirits who taught them all manner of false religion for the ulterior motives of those fallen spirits.
Jesus would go on to pay the price for the sins of the nations so that they too could come near to God. However, don’t miss the power of the point. Don’t act like a rebellious orphan who has no loving Father. We shouldn’t fault a lost person who worries. That is simply their situation. However, it is a strange thing for a child of God to walk in worry and complaining. Stop it!
The second conclusion is put in a positive form and is clearly the most important of the three. Seek first the Kingdom of God, and He will take care of these natural needs. The life of the nations was all focused on these lower, lesser, things of life. We could categorize them as concerns of the flesh. God’s people on the other hand are to seek His kingdom and his righteousness. These two themes have been presented throughout the sermon on the mount. Our higher purpose is to work with God in order to bring His will and rule to the earth. If we will do that, then He will take care of the lower needs. This doesn’t mean we don’t work, buy food, prepare meals, make clothing, etc. It does mean that we don’t worry about those things. Instead, we will trust in His care.
We should even note that we can do these lesser things for God’s higher purposes. We pray for food so that we can be strengthen to accomplish His greater purpose of the Kingdom. In this way, even things like food, water and clothing can become holy. I am not consumed with wanting designer clothes so that others will think I am great. Instead, we will use clothing as a means of bringing in God’s Kingdom, whether in how we dress or in blessing others with their necessary clothing. Lesser things can be done for higher purposes, which elevates them in the end.
This highlights the need for faith in our lives, not just faith for salvation, but also for living itself. For a kid, becoming an adult is a scary thing. A teenage boy can be intimidated by becoming a man, getting a job, paying for his own place, his own insurance, etc. On top of this, he can really be intimidated by marrying a woman and raising a family. No one ever approaches that with every single question answered about the future. However, God has fitted us for becoming adults in many ways, and a critical part of that is having faith. We don’t have to have all the answers. We just have to have a reasonable hope that we can do it and it will be good. In God, we always have a reason for hope and faith in our future. I mentioned a young man, but we could also picture a teenage girl. How intimidating is it to become a woman, marry a man, become pregnant, birth and raise a baby? In and of themselves, these can be scary things. God has not only fitted you to be able to do these things, but He also pledges to be with us and help us in them. We can walk forward with faith and trust in Him.
The final conclusion is given in verse 34. We are told to stop worrying about tomorrow and just face the difficulties of today. Of course, as I said before, he is not talking about the thinking we do in order to plan for tomorrow. This is our tendency to worry about the things that we think will happen or could happen tomorrow.
Today has enough evil of its own, whether we know what it will be or not. Of course, you will want to trust God and ask His help as you face them. You will also want to trust that He is working to help you with it as well. It may take time for God’s answer to materialize, but it will.
We also have to be careful that our planning is not a means of ensuring that we never have to trust God. Our best plans are still the plans of frail humans. We can’t control everything through sheer planning. Even our plans have to be put in God’s hands. We don’t have to trust Him, but we can. We are privileged to have a heavenly Father who cares for us. If your plan has no room for God in it, then you are not aiming high enough.
This life is a journey in which the Lord walks with you. Don’t walk it as if He is not with you. Instead, make your trusting in Him a critical part of your plan. Anything short of this will lead religious people to be hypocrites. We will give lip service to trusting and loving God, but we will doubt His love and care, becoming mere posers, actors. May God save us from such an empty life!