Worry and Jesus

Matthew 6:25-34

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? . . . So don’t worry away with your, “What’ll we eat?” or “What’ll we drink” or “What’ll we wear?” For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. Instead, make your top priority God’s kingdom and his way of life, and all these things will be given to you as well. Don’t worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow can worry about itself. One day’s trouble at a time is quite enough (ESV & Tom Wright paraphrase).

Tom Wright, Matthew for Everyone (Vol. 1)

[Jesus’] teaching grew out of his own experience. When he told his followers not to worry about tomorrow, we must assume he led them by example. He wasn’t always looking ahead anxiously, making the present moment count only because of what might comes next. No: he seems to have had the skill of living totally in the present, giving attention totally to the present task, celebrating the goodness of God here and now. If that’s not a recipe for happiness, I don’t know what is (66).

A. Orendorff

Often I approach the words of Scripture as though they were disembodied etchings carved immediately by God’s finger onto tablets of celestial stone. I so easily forget the humanity that also stands behind them. What therefore strikes me about Jesus’ teaching on anxiety is not so much the profound or commanding nature of his words, but the life that was no doubt reflective of them. To live “totally in the present” is indeed a skill both hard-won and easily-lost. Yet in Jesus we are shown a man who had every reason to worry—who lived every breath beneath the impending reality of the cross—and yet tells his followers, just the same, to consider the lilies and examine the birds. I supposing knowing that you’re going to be rejected is a strong incentive to live for today instead of tomorrow. The challenge, then, is of course to go and do likewise. To live, as it were, anticipating the cross, freed from anxiety and wholly given over to God’s kingdom and perfect righteousness.