Matthew 6:25-34
Anxiety asks questions that we can’t answer in an effort to diminish the truth we are confident in. As we have been studying, Jesus’ approach to dealing with anxiety is to expose it for what it is and who it comes from. He doesn’t do this by answering its questions though. For so many of us answers would be so much easier, at least that is what we believe. We say things like if we knew what was coming we would be able to prepare for it; if we could just have an explanation then we would be able to move on or move forward or trust more or have more faith because at least we would understand. Jesus’ approach to dealing with our anxiety is not to prepare us for what lies ahead but instead to firmly entrench us in the relationship that is born out of everlasting love and established by grace through faith. Anxiety presses us for answers to the questions of what’s going to happen in the future and why things have happened in the past and Jesus seeks to calm us by asking our anxiety questions that reveal that our relationship with God as our Father may not give us all of our answers but it holds us in the midst of all of our questions. Jesus’ first question, “Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” Led us to realize and trust in the fact that we have a heavenly Father that shepherds us with protection and provision. Jesus told us to “look at the birds” which was a reminder that if God cares for them He will care for us. I believe Jesus’point was the birds are taken care of by God, He is their Creator but He is your Father, if He values the birds, how much more does He value you? That is, in fact, Jesus’ second question, “Are you not of more value than they?” Let’s recall, anxiety attacks two things, God’s character, which Jesus defends by revealing Him as our heavenly Father, and our value, which Jesus reveals simply by asking a question that is turned into a statement with its obvious answer,“Are you not of more value than the birds?” The answer is a resounding, “Yes you are!” even better, “Yes, I am! God values me!” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote“When you see yourself as His child, then you will know that God will inevitably care for you.” Anxiety questions our value by questioning God’s care; in fact it has flipped it upside down. Anxiety has said look at your life and if you see God’s care then you must have value and then it has perverted what the care of God for us should be, trying to get us to live selfishly and immaturely as if we tell God, the Father and the Shepherd how He is supposed to love and care for us. Jesus is now turning things right side up again and showing us that we begin with the truth that God, our Father and Shepherd loves us and cares for us and so we don’t judge His care by our circumstances, we endure, overcome and even thrive in our circumstances because we are confident that we have God’s care. Again, as Dr. Lloyd-Jones said, when we see ourselves as His children, we know, we trust, we are confident in His care; anxiety wants us to question God’s care because ultimately it wants us to question our place as His children. God’s character as our Father and our value as His children lead us to today’s question for anxiety, “Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?” This question needs to be peeled like an onion because it has many layers but as we begin I will share that this question reveals the nature of our greatest fear and what the Bible calls our “last enemy”. All anxiety points to one thing; it attempts to create one main fear and then once it has created it anxiety attempts to bind us with that fear for every moment of our lives. Jesus’ third question very simply addresses the fear of death.