Worry as a Godless Way of Life

Introduction

Two weeks ago, we began thinking about the topic of stress, anxiety, or worry.

We saw in Martha, in Lk. 10:38-42 an example of worry.

We see in Lk. 12:22 and Lk. 12:25 a threefold repetition of the verb, worry.

μεριμνάω: (derivative of μέριμνα ‘worry,’ 25.224) to have an anxious concern, based on apprehension about possible danger or misfortune—‘to be worried about, to be anxious about.

Today, we will focus more narrowly on Jesus’ teaching in this context, and we should notice, in the end, two things:

Jesus concludes the first phase with a statement of certainty (Lk. 12:32).

Jesus wants his disciples to understand the Father to be caring without us devoting ourselves to getting him to care (Lk. 12:30).

For Jesus, “worry” is not a momentary anxiety that a person may feel, it is a way of life that demonstrates a low view of God’s character.

He is concerned with the misconception that life about securing basic necessities over everything else. In this view, even God takes second place to those concerns.

He is also concerned with the misconception that our spiritual purpose is to worship God to ensure he will provide our basic necessities for us.

Worship gets us on God’s good side.

Lk. 12:30.

Disciples of Jesus are able to live with certainty because we know God is loving and trustworthy.

Worry as a Powerless Approach to Life

Jesus seems to approach “worry” as a worldview or way of life.

Lk. 12:25 seems to make this clear.

In light of the imperative in Lk. 12:24, see also Lk. 12:27, Jesus considers the assumptions which underly worry as an approach to living as thoughtless or lacking in consideration about God.

Jesus explains that a human life, divided into “soul” or “life” and “the body” is something greater, i.e. more, than food and clothing.

The assumption seems to be that a person has to take care of themselves, and this is the highest priority in life.

No one else is going to care for you so you have to care for yourself.

Not even God cares enough about you to see to your basic necessities.

The “consider” imperative challenges the listener to contemplate that such a view of God’s callousness is in defiance of the evidence.

Jesus especially drives the point home that “worry” is a powerless and pointless worldview in Lk. 12:25-26.

Worry does not enable us to do even the thing we orient it toward.

Worrying about survival or security does not prolong life.

Being Jesus’ disciple, then, brings us into a worldview that enables us to see that life has a higher priority than survival.

Worry as a Lack of Trust in God

Jesus calls upon his audience to consider wild flowers (Lk. 12:27).

They don’t exhaust themselves.

They don’t spin fibers together to make cloth so they can then make clothing for themselves.

God clothes what amounts to grass in the field with great beauty.

ὀλιγόπιστος, ον: pertaining to having relatively little faith—‘of little faith, of insufficient faith.

In both Lk. 12:24 and now Lk. 12:28, Jesus has couched basic human concerns around a deficiency in understanding the person of God.

True Discipleship Defined

Following Jesus is not another means to the same ends, namely, of securing from God our basic necessities for survival.

μετεωρίζομαι meteōrizomai be anxious, worry. In the NT only in Luke 12:29 (pass.). The LXX understands the vb. and its derivatives in the sense of “raise on high” or “be arrogant” (Ps 130:1; 2 Macc 7:34). The meaning “be anxious; worry” is seldom found (Pap. Oxy. no. 1679, ll. 16f.; Josephus Ant. xvi.135).

We have a different understanding of God and of our need to follow him.

We seek the kingdom of God for itself with our needs for survival being a secondary concern.

This is the meaning of Lk. 12:31 where “ταῦτα προστεθήσεται ὑμῖν,” refers to an ancillary benefit of having the proper focus.

Jesus frames the perspective of the believer as one not of fear but of certainty in the world.

God finds pleasure in giving us the kingdom.

Following Jesus leads to a different way of life, one of certainty rooted in knowing God is loving and trustworthy.