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In Luke 12:22-25 you will read some very familiar phrases. Phrases like 'do not be anxious for your life', 'consider the ravens', 'consider the lilies', 'seek the kingdom and these things shall be added unto you', where your treasure is there your heart will be'. This text is an almost direct parallel to another passage starting in Matt.6:19 to the end of the chapter. What makes this text so fascinating to me is a statement repeated by Jesus three times: v.22 "Do not be anxious', v.29 'Do not keep worrying', and v.32 'Do not be afraid." So we could title this text worry-free living or Anxiety-free living or Stress-free living. In fact, on other occasions, at least 12 times, Jesus said don't worry or don't be anxious. We all know the world is stressed out. We all know that people are anxious, that people worry, that some people even have panic attacks. I can understand why that is especially true for unbelievers. After all, in addition to the fears that are associated with the coronavirus, it must be frightening to be dangling in this inexplicable universe and feel alone and not be able to figure out why you are here and where you are going.
I understand why people take drugs and get drunk and go on eating binges or shopping binges and wild adventures in an attempt to fill your mind or dull your mind to the realities of life and the hereafter. We live in an anxiety-filled culture and that is somewhat surprising when you consider that our culture is the most indulged, the most lavished, the most comfortable society in the world. We have the most but are also the most angst-ridden, the most anxious, the most stressed, the most panicked culture of all. We have also built massive medical programs that exist to do nothing but help people with stress. No worry goes unnamed. No worry goes undefined. No worry goes un-cataloged, no worry goes undiagnosed, and no worry goes un-medicated. They just go unrelieved. People live with worry. People live with stress. People live with anxiety. It is so common that we don't talk about eliminating it; the term is to 'manage' it.
You can take a course, buy a book, listen to a lecture, or buy a tape on stress management. Television is inundated with vignettes on how to deal with existing stress. Go on long walks, practice deep breathing, squeeze a ball, or exercise. Isn't that the goal of society, how to minimize or maintain or manage stress and worry and anxiety. Mental Health programs and interventions in our society costs us about $42 billion per year and touches the lives of about 20 million Americans. We even give anxiety disorders names that overlap and intermingle with other disorders. We have general AD or general anxiety disorder. We have obsessive compulsive disorder which means you do weird things like walk around the house looking for dust, or pull your hair out, or rub your nose, or some other inexplicable compulsive kind of behavior. We have panic disorder which is when you go into a high level of panic, rapid heart palpitations, extreme fear and there is no real circumstantial reason for it. There is post-traumatic stress, where you experience some level of panic after having gone through a traumatic event. There is social anxiety disorder which you would never get if you didn't have to be around people. Then there are specific phobias related to rats or snakes, or storms or heights.
My wife used to scan people in a magnate that has a larger opening because they are claustrophobic, that is they panic when confined to an enclosed small area. The medical field and pharmaceutical firms make a lot of money dealing with stress and worry because 50% of Americans experience some type of psychiatric anxiety disorder. One website on anxiety stated, "The goal of any treatment is to make anxiety a manageable part of daily existence." The best the world can offer you is to manage your anxiety. But Jesus offers a way to eliminate it.
We all experience some anxiety and it is a built in emotion that can enable us to perform at higher levels but when it becomes an obstacle to performance Jesus says you can eliminate it. v.22 can be translated "Stop being anxious", v.29 can be translated 'Stop worrying", and v.32 can be translated "Stop being afraid." The world will offer you cognitive behavior therapy or drugs to help you manage excessive anxiety, Jesus says I can stop it, I can eliminate it. Wouldn't you agree that even excessive worry can be a pretty deadly thing? I read that "A dense fog covering seven city blocks, 100 feet deep is composed of less than 1 glass of water divided into 60,000 drops but it can cripple an entire community." That's what can happen with worry. The word worry comes from an old German word meaning to choke or strangle. It's talking about mental strangulation through fear and anxiety and stress and worry. Now, there are only two realms in which you can worry. You can worry about the physical world, or you can worry about the spiritual world. You can worry about what is material or you can worry about what is immaterial. You can worry about what is heavenly or you can worry about what is earthly. But those two realms are what Jesus tells us not to worry about. In v.22 don't worry about what you eat or what you wear. In v.32 don't worry about the spiritual because God has chosen to give you the kingdom.
So Christians are left with nothing to worry about, nothing to be anxious about, nothing to be stressed about, and nothing to panic about. I am not saying I never worry or I never get stressed, or I never panic. And I, like you, usually do so over something I have no control over. When I was building my own home I worried if the front yard was going to wash away before the grass grew, I worried what the electric bill was going to be. With the advent of the virus I worried if my wife would catch the virus because she worked in an essential occupation. I worried about how my retirement portfolio was doing. I worried how it would affect church finances. But once again they are all things I cannot control. So I hope, like me, you confess that you too worry. But would you also agree with me that it is a sin? If Jesus says stop it and we keep doing it then it is a sin, right? Why do we worry? Why do we stress? Why get all anxious? Why panic?
In our text Jesus gives us some points to show us that worry arises out of a failure to understand something about God. First, Worry is a failure to understand divine priority V.22-23. If you go back to v.13 someone in the crowd interrupted Jesus as he was teaching and asked him to tell his brother to divide the family inheritance with him. And Jesus answers with the parable of the rich man who built bigger barns to keep everything for himself and Jesus told that man, "Tonight, your life will be required of you. Then he added, "So is the man who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God." Then he resumes his teaching but connects the two together in v.22 where he begins with, "For this reason I say to you." What reason? The reason I just illustrated in the parable. You make a choice in life to lay up treasure in heaven and be rich toward God. That's the choice we all have to make because you can't serve two masters, right? So Jesus says you can't save money and build bigger barns to store your stuff and make yourself wealthy while at the same time ignore the poor, ignore the needy, and ignore the true purpose of God.
I know what you may be thinking. If I give too much to God, what about me? What will happen to me? Who will take care of me? I mean, we live in a dog-eat-dog world and if I don't take care of myself, who will? I need to build a bigger barn, stockpile money. I don't want to have to depend on someone else. How does our Lord respond to that kind of thinking? He says, I will take care of you. God is the one who feeds the birds. God is the one who will raise the grass in the field. God is the one who knows what you need. God gave you the kingdom when you came under his care. I Pet. 5:7 says cast all your care to Him, He cares for you. What Jesus is saying is how desperate are you? How much do you want to be in his kingdom? Salvation is for those who are desperate enough to say, "I don't care what it cost me. If you want everything I have, I'll give it. If you want nothing, that's fine too. What's the secret to being able to say that? Trusting God!
Sometimes you have a lot, sometimes you have a little, but you will always have enough. Why, because my God shall supply all your needs. Can you trust God to do that? This is a divine priority. He says do not be anxious for your life. He said it another way in I Tim. 6:8 "With food and covering be content." He is saying don't worry about your life, don't worry about what you are going to eat to support your life. Don't worry about your body, what you're going to put on. For life is more than food and the body than clothing. We exist for a higher purpose than that. We are not animals. We aren't just eating machines. We are not just the ultimate end of the food chain. We are not just the final product of evolution. We are more than eating machines and mannequins. Unfortunately, our culture OD's on restaurants and clothing stores. But God didn't give us life for that. God has a greater purpose for my life than eating and wearing. If I am a child of the king and he gave me life, if he wants me to live, and he does because I am alive, if he brought me into his kingdom, and he did, then he has a purpose for me to fulfill and he will sustain me until that purpose is fulfilled. That is why the Psalmist could say, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." We do not have to build bigger barns to take care of ourselves. Be wise, be faithful, be a good steward, don't be foolish with your money, do some planning for the future, but remember that you are not the one who has obligated yourself to his care, God has. No need to horde to survive the future, you will be sustained by the creator until the purpose for your life ends. We always seem to think we, on our own, can get enough - but what is enough.
I don't know who paid for this research or how it was conducted: A family of four needs 17 rolls of toilet paper to survive for two weeks. So that became a human priority for us at the beginning of the virus. But human priorities are one thing, but do we understand this divine priority? God has called you, regenerated you, put you in his family, gifted you, put you in a place of witness and service and ministry and all he wants you to do is live for his glory and he will take care of your life. Your life is not about food and clothing, it is not about making sure you can survive, that is God's commitment, God's priority. So stop worrying about it.
Secondly, worry fails to understand God's provision v.24. Maybe Jesus picked birds out because there are more birds in Israel than any place else in the world. Birds that migrate out of northern Europe and the Middle East and the east migrate south in the winter and they go through Israel. It's the largest area of bird migration on the planet. I do not know why Jesus picks birds but they are a great illustration of divine provision. If God feeds a bird that lives only a little while and in a very limited way brings him glory, don't you think He's going to take care of making sure you can eat who has the noblest and highest capacity to give him glory? It is an analogy from the lesser to the greater, a common way of Jewish teaching. Watch the birds. They don't reap and sow. They don't have a storeroom or a barn. They are incapable of generating their own food supply. They are totally dependent on God. What is provided by their creator is all they have. They don't have the ingenuity or the capability to produce or manufacture food. All they have is the instinct to pick up what has been provided for them. Now that doesn't mean they don't work. I have birds in my backyard every morning and evening and I have never seen one of them lying on its side taking a nap in front of a television. They are in constant motion. So when we say God provides for us it doesn't mean we don't have to work. He provides the resources for us. He's provided the capability for us to work but if we get into a situation where even our best efforts don't provide enough, God will find a way to take care of us to sustain us. Birds work and we work but it is God who providentially provides. Job 38:41 "Who prepares for the raven its nourishment when it's young cry out to God and wander about without food? The Almighty does." Psalm 104:25-27 "There is a sea great and broad in which are swarms without numbers of animals both small and great. They all wait for thee to give them their food in due season."
Rabbi Simeon writes, "In my life I have never seen a stag as a drier of figs, I've never seen a lion as a porter, I've never seen a fox as a merchant, yet they are all nourished without worry. If they who are created to serve me are nourished, how much more ought I, who am created, to serve my Master to be nourished?' Look at the end of v.24 "How much more valuable you are than the birds?" We don't have to spend our lives worrying about whether we are going to have enough now, whether we are going to have enough when we retire. God promises to sustain you to the end of his purposes. I think most of us worry because we fail to remember we are citizens of heaven.
Thomas Watson said, "This life is like an inn, you spend a couple of nights there, but you never forget where your home is." The Lord's providence in the food supply is staggering. The variety and abundance of food is beyond belief. It is abundant, boundless, self-perpetuating and renewable. There is enough food on this planet to provide every living being with abundance. But what about famine? Famine has nothing to do with the capability of this planet to produce. It has to do with religions where they feed grain to rats and cows. It has to do with social politics and war. It has to do with laziness. The earth is filled with food and God will use it to supply the provisions needed by his faithful people.
Psalm 34:10 "They that seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing." I have given you two powerful arguments to help you to not worry, to not be anxious, to not have fear, to not panic. Life is from God. He gives it. He sustains it. He makes provision for it. For a Christian, worrying is but a sin in that it is a failure to understand God's priority and a failure to understand God's provisions.
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The Rev. Dr. James Barnes is currently the pastor of White Memorial Church in Milroy.