Meditationen am Gnadenstuhl: Wednesday Easter V - Luke 35-53
Wednesday Easter V
Daily Lectionary Readings: Leviticus 23:23-44; Luke 12:35-53; (Smalcald Articles: 3/3:1-18)
Luke 12:35-53
[35] “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, [36] and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. [37] Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. [38] If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! [39] But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. [40] You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
[41] Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?” [42] And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? [43] Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. [44] Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. [45] But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, [46] the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. [47] And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. [48] But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.
[49] “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! [50] I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! [51] Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. [52] For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. [53] They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” (ESV)
Are you an excessive worrier? Perhaps you unconsciously think that you can prevent bad things from happening if you worry enough. But the fact is, worrying can affect the body in ways that may surprise you.1 Jesus tells us: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.”2 We can all agree with that! It is not only Jesus who tells us not to worry so much. Almost every field of health care tells us about the danger of being too anxious about everything. Adverse health effects abound: Panic attacks, a sense of doom, headaches, depression, irritability, breathing problems, a pounding heart, loss of libido, upset stomach, extreme fatigue, high blood pressure, and muscular aches and other pains.3 Worldwide the economy loses over one trillion dollars a year from untreated anxiety!4 That’s trillion with a “T” and is equivalent to 50 million man-years of work!
We become anxious about many things. What is the number one source of anxiety in the world today? Yes, money! We worry about paying our bills. We worry that we'll have enough money to retire. We worry that our children will be able to make it on their own. We're anxious about the government. We're anxious when people aren't anxious about the things we think are worth worrying about, like the environment and things like that. And we're anxious about the present evil age, the headlines filled with death and suffering.
“After an elderly couple in Washington state was found dead in an apparent murder-suicide, investigators said they found notes suggesting the pair was struggling to pay medical bills.’”5
We may not be worried about food and clothes – though some of us are. Health care certainly is a concern for everyone. And we can’t help but wonder where the next tragic headline is going to come from. Where is the next violent attack going to be? How close to home is it going to strike?
We know that it is worthless to be so worried all the time. “And which of you,” Jesus continues, “by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?”6 Everything we read and hear points to precisely the opposite. All this stress just makes our lives shorter. And the Bible tells us, “do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them.”7 As if we did not have enough to be anxious about, our anxiety is a form of idolatry, a sin against the first commandment! That makes us even more stressed! When we worry constantly, we are not trusting God above all things. We lift ourselves up higher than God, believing that we can somehow control our future through our anxiety. Even though we all agree on all of these points, it still does not prevent us from worrying. And thus, our anxiety increases. What are we to do?
Jesus shows us the care God has for all creatures, from the most insignificant all the way up to human beings: “Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!”8
Our Father in heaven provides for the birds and the flowers. We are much more valuable than they, we are told. If God takes care of even the littlest creatures and plants in nature, surely He will take care of us even more so, we whom He set above all other things He created.
Even in this sinful, evil world, creation confesses God’s faithfulness. The birds don’t worry about their food supply—they simply go out and eat. Flowers are not anxious about how they appear—their beauty praises their creator.
Jesus is drawing our attention to birds and flowers to illustrate how we are to let God be God. To show us how to trust God to be God. To believe that everything will work out according to God's design. Our money worries may make life hard, but they will not destroy our souls. What we desire for our children may not turn out according to our will for them but rather according to God's will. We might not be the picture of perfect health, but God continues to care for us.
In spite of all this, we will continue to stress out and be anxious. Jesus is teaching us that the real reason for our anxiety is that we are seeking out the wrong things. Our worry proves our misdirected energy. We look for our peace of mind everywhere else but the one place we ought: “For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.”9 God is not above our worries, and He does not ignore our concerns. He knows you need them before you do! All that anxiety is a call to turn to God. Yet even when we pray, we become anxious. We worry about God answering. That’s a continued lack of trust.
He calls us to repentance for our mistrust and seeking answers elsewhere. Sinners we continue to be, however, and admitting that we are not trusting in God does not cure our worrying. Our anxiety remains.
God broke into this stress-filled world for you. It is God entering into the place of your worry. Jesus went without food for forty days and had no place to call His home. Jesus lived with all the reasons for worry, but He lived perfectly worry-free for you.
The source of peace ultimately had nothing to eat, He thirsted on the cross. He was stripped of His clothing so that He was not like the flowers but had “no beauty that we should desire Him.”10 When Jesus had everything taken from Him, including His life upon the cross, He gave you everything.
The one real and genuine reason not to worry is that “it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Fear not, little flock. The kingdom of heaven is ours not because we are anxious, but because Jesus died and rose for you. The kingdom is ours even though we are stressed and fearful, because of His grace. The kingdom of God will ease our fears and banish our anxiety because it changes our priorities to faith and trust.
When we in repentance name our anxiety what it is, idolatry, we will receive absolution from God. We will be forgiven for our money worries, our anxiety over family, our lack of trust in God to provide what’s best. The greatest anxiety of all, the burden of our sin, is lifted.
Look at all the things God did not provide for the flowers and birds: You He feeds with His body and blood for the forgiveness of all of your sins and the strengthening of your faith. You He clothes with His own righteousness and You are glorious in His eyes. You He calls “my child” and gives you the inheritance of His glorious riches in the saints. And you He gives the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, to live in your body making it a temple of the Lord.11 “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”12
We will continue to lose heart and lack in trust of God. The evil that surrounds us will continue to cause anxiety, and the headlines will continue to bombard us with hatred, terror, and senseless death. Jesus is coming again, and how we want that to be very soon! But He is coming back! When He does, by God’s grace, we will be ready to enter into the kingdom without end, completely worry-free. The hope in that promise will change our outlook on this fallen world. We know this sinful place all too well, and we know ourselves. While we will always have things that cause us anxiety, and we cannot stop it, the kingdom is ours. Jesus is the King who takes away your worries. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”13 Amen.
1https://www.webmd.com/balance/guide/how-worrying-affects-your-body#1
2Luke 12:22-23 (ESV).
3https://www.healthline.com/health/anxiety/effects-on-body#1
4https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/apr/12/50-million-years-work-lost-anxiety-depression-world-health-organisation-who
5https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/09/us/elderly-couple-murder-suicide-washington-trnd/index.html
6Luke 12:25 (ESV).
7Luke 12:29-30 (ESV).
8Luke 12:24-28 (ESV).
9Luke 12:30-31 (ESV).
10Isaiah 53:2 (ESV).
11This beautiful list comes from Pastor Paul Nielsen at http://lcrwtvl.org/2016/08/pentecost-12-dont-worry-luke-1222-34-8716/.
12Romans 8:32 (ESV).
13Psalm 23:4-6 (ESV).