Why the Fear? The Unknown (Matthew 6:25-34)

Introduction

Ten years after the end of World War 2, the greatest generation was busy building the biggest economic engine this world has ever seen. Scientific discovery was king. Television was taking off. We began dreaming of sending someone to the moon. But then Russia got "the bomb". This put the entire country on edge.

Into this cocktail of industry and anxiety in 1955 arrived what came to be known as the "Happy Pill". The Miltown Pill was considered the miracle cure for anxiety. It was America's first Wonder Drug, the first psychopharmological blockbuster. Though it was a prescription drug, Hollywood's biggest stars not only swore by Miltown, but made it a party staple. Miltown was marketed to housewives, and what had been a novel pill for Hollywood became a multi-million dollar business in just two years.

Now, we’re spending billions. Tranquilizers have been mainstreamed. This is the age of the tranquilizer. Up to one third of all the billions we spend on drugs are spent on anxiety drugs. We are still an anxious people. We spend billions on chemistry to take the edge off, and billions more on talk therapy. Therapy for anxious children, harried housewives, workaholic businessmen, millennials and Gen-Z trying to get ahead, and then COVID and its aftermath.

This doesn’t mean we are happy. From Elvis Presley to Heath Ledger, our culture 's dependence on the Happy Pill has been anything but happy. This isn't to say none of this has helped anybody. Many have been helped by these medicines. But this morning, we are going to consider a passage in which anxiety itself is in the crosshairs. One of the underlying presumptions of our tranquilizer society is that anxiety is normal. No one stops to consider whether or not anxiety itself is an issue to be critiqued.

One other thought, too. We also cannot say that naivety is the answer for our anxiety. “Don't worry, be happy” is also a quick fix that does not deal with the underlying cause of anxiety. There is no cure in sticking our heads in the sand and pretending that whatever it is that is causing our anxiety doesn't exist or is simply a figment of our wild imaginations. Being happy is itself a quick fix that doesn't deal with the root issue.

But this isn't about throwing our pills away. Please listen to me. Our passage today does not address the use of pills or therapy groups as a response to the problem of anxiety and fear. In fact, medication and therapy can be helpful. But make no mistake, the primary subject matter of our passage this morning is "anxiety".

The Good News of the Kingdom: Wherever Jesus Is

Matthew 6, the passage we just read, is the largest passage dealing with anxiety in the Bible. And the reason we’re looking at this passage in our series, “Why the Fear?” is because the underlying issue for anxiety is fear.

Matthew 6 is part of what we call the Sermon on the Mount. The reason it is called that is because it is a sermon that was preached by Jesus to a crowd that had gathered at a mountain. Jesus had begun to preach and teach the good news of the kingdom, and crowds began to follow him. The Good News of the Kingdom is that Jesus has come to save his people from their sins. And in doing so, he is gathering those who make up his kingdom of people. Wherever Jesus is, that’s where God’s kingdom is at.

They follow him to this mountain and he sits down, assuming the position of a king dispensing wisdom to his subjects, a rabbi dispensing instruction to his disciples. And they all sit around him, receiving from him what he has to say.

Don’t worry

And along the way, Jesus addresses anxiety. Six times, Jesus mentions worry and three times he says “Don’t worry”. Don’t worry about your provisions, don’t worry about your health, don’t worry about worry. And it’s all summed up with this:

Matthew 6:25 “Don’t worry about your life.”

Don’t worry about your life. Your heavenly father makes sure the birds are fed and the fields are clothed in grass.

We’re not ready for this kind of thinking. We’re ready to cancel Jesus. What aboutism will destroy this. What he says about anxiety dies the death of a thousand qualifications. Yes, but. What about? Yes, but aren't we supposed to work hard to support ourselves? Yes, but didn't I see some dead birds on highway 100 yesterday? Yes, but aren’t we wired to worry?

How are we supposed to think about anxiety? Are we, just like the rest of our culture, supposed to just cope or does God have something bigger in mind when it comes to our anxiety? Is worry a spiritual issue or a physical issue? Does worry simply involve chemicals or is there a spiritual component to it? Is it normal or is it part of our fallen condition?

5 Probing Questions

These questions are not answered here. Instead, Jesus is asking the questions. In fact there are five questions here in these verses:

Isn’t life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Aren’t you worth more than birds?

Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying?

Why do you worry about clothes?

If that’s how God clothes the grass, won’t he do much more for you?

Jesus is always asking questions. And the reason he asked questions is because he is always after our hearts. He wants us to see what’s going on inside. He wants us to stop and think. He wants us to look in the mirror. He's always after the hearts of those who are listening in his audience. Jesus ask probing questions because he wants us to answer for ourselves.

He’s asking questions about birds and flowers and grass. Like a heart surgeon, these questions penetrate into the deepest parts of our soul. These are beyond rhetorical. Given he has said, “don’t be anxious”, these are questions that bring into question the very idea of anxiety. Anxiety is part of the lie that we’ve bought into. Life is more valuable than food. We are more valuable than the birds. We cannot add a single hour to our lives. God will clothe us. But those facts go missing when we begin to worry.

Why? Because we are pursuing treasure on earth. We want the stuff. And when the stuff and money is at risk, we worry. When anything on earth, whether it’s money or health or kids or job or house or prestige or popularity is being pursued, anxiety isn’t far behind. And it isn’t far behind because we have forgotten what really matters in life. Ouch. These questions are devastating because these questions can be asked in any given anxiety moment.

And the question in the middle of these is the swing point. It relates to the summary statement which begins this passage, don’t be anxious about your life.

Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying?

It’s almost tongue and cheek. The most obvious question, but hardest to answer is.. no one. We spend time, and energy, and billions of dollars trying to erase anxiety brought on by things outside of our control. What’s going to happen with the economy? Why isn’t our culture’s morality more in line with our own? Who’s going to be the next president? Even that, regardless of our single vote, is out of our control. So why the fear? Why the anxiety?

Can any of you through worry actually stop the gossip being spread about you right now? Can worry actually make your children obey? Does worry stop the onslaught of the aging process? Can worry stop people from talking about you? Do you get the point?

We worry about what we cannot control, and it is killing us. We don't control how long we're going to live, we don't control the next breath, we don’t control the next heartbeat, we don't control the next day, we don't control the next year. We don’t control what happens to our reputation. We don’t control what people think of us. If my heart stopped right now, if my brain snapped a blood vessel, there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s not my call. So.. why the fear?

Your Father Loves You

Once Jesus has penetrated with the probing questions that reach down into our hearts, He’s going to do two things to re-orient our hearts that are being paralyzed by worry. The first is that He’s going to tell us the truth. After all those probing questions simply expose the lie. We worry because we tell ourselves that we can control whatever it is that causes worry. We believe it to be true. We act like it is. When we realize we can’t, we worry instead.

Jesus could tell us to stop trying to control everything. Stop trying to “add one moment to our life span”. Stop acting as if things and stuff are more important than they really are. But Jesus doesn’t. Instead, Jesus tells us the truth a different way. Instead of telling us to stop.. giving us another command, He shows us the Father:

Your heavenly Father feeds the birds.

Not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like grass, birds, and flowers.

Your heavenly Father knows that you need "all these things”.

The Father knows. The Father cares. The Father provides. The Father loves you. You’re not in control. The Father is. He is good. He is gracious. And he knows us better than we know ourselves.

The unknown scares us. But we are loved by the Only One who knows the unknown. We worry and we are fearful because we don’t really believe our Father is good and gracious. We don’t really believe that He has us.

What is it that beats back worry and anxiety when it attacks? What is it that holds our fear and anxiety at bay? It is a gracious and good Father who not only loves us but gives us all that we ever need in Christ. Anything short of hell is grace, and He gives us grace over and over and over and over, if only we are willing to see it and believe it.

Pursue the Gospel

And that brings us to the second way that Jesus re-orients our hearts away from fear and anxiety. Jesus points us to the Gospel, away from worry.

There are two commands in this passage. The first is don’t worry. The second is seek.

Don’t worry. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

This is the answer to anxiety in a nutshell. Seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness. God’s kingdom is wherever Jesus is. Jesus’ reign over His people in His place. That’s our identity. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection have made us His kingdom people. He is the king and reigns over His kingdom… His realm is His people and His place is wherever the Word is preached and the Sacraments provided.

The Lord’s Prayer gives fear to The Father

That pursuit of the Gospel in His Word and the Sacraments where the community is gathered is at the heart of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6. It’s not an accident that what Jesus says about anxiety and fear immediately follows the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6. The Lord’s Prayer has to do with all of our lives. We pray for Christ’s kingdom to come. We pray for His daily provisions. We pray that he will reconcile relationships. But most of all… we’re making Our Father the object of our faith and trust. Prayer tells me where my heart is going. Prayer is aimed at the object of our faith.

Prayer is a built-in habit that is meant to channel our fear to the Father. We pray to God the Father because he's the one in whom we have faith. We are saying in prayer that we know God is in control when we are not. We trust the Father as a good and gracious father, so he's the object of our faith. We pray to Jesus because he's the object of our faith. We place our trust in him. He's the one that is going to give us the good things of the Father because it's in Jesus that we have all these things. There is nothing we lack in our salvation from sin and death and the devil.

So, the one sitting there on the mountain with those who would eventually become the church, delivering the Sermon on the Mount, is the object of our prayer because he's the object of our faith. He's the one that is able to give us the good and gracious gifts of the Father.

Why the Fear? You have Jesus!

Some of you had a hard time coming here this morning. Anxiety has a grip on you. Fear is your constant companion. There are reasons why we don't want to get out of bed. There are conversations we don't want to have, there are people we don't want to face, there are things we don't want to hear, there are bills we don't want to pay, there are people we don't want to meet with, there are situations we'd rather not be part of, there is conflict that we want to avoid, and there are things we'd rather forget. There are rooms that we don't want to be in because the tension with some person is so thick we could cut it with a butter knife. There are deadlines looming that we don't want to meet or know how to meet, we'd rather they go away. We worry about how we look. We worry we can't lose weight. We worry that our parenting doesn’t measure up.

But there is hope in seeking Jesus and the Gospel. And what Jesus wants you to lay hold of in this moment is that you have a heavenly Father who loves you. He dearly loves you. He loves you more than the grass, the flowers, and the birds… anything else in all Creation. He sent Jesus to bring His kingdom of salvation and forgiveness to earth for you. Seek first Jesus and what He has done for you in His life, death, and resurrection.

Don’t worry. Don’t worry about what you don’t know. Instead, pursue Jesus. You want help for that anxiety, that fear? Then make sure you are in those places where Jesus’ kingdom is. Where the Word is. Where He people are.

Seek first the Gospel. Lay hold of your identity in Jesus and what He has done for you. That’s the antidote for the anxiety that Jesus is talking about. Christ’s kingdom is right here, right now. His mission to save you and keep you is right here. He exercises his reign as you hear His Word and believe it.

The Table

Christ rules and reigns here at the Table. You don’t have to know the future. You don’t have to know all those things you think you need to know for your anxiety. Your fear finds freedom right here. This is where Jesus has you. This is where Jesus promises to meet you. This is His reminder that He is ruling and reigning and you are always safe with him.