"Is Not Life More Than Food And The Body More Than Clothing?” Series

For the last two Sundays we’ve looked at two questions a lawyer asked Jesus: ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’ and ‘And who is my neighbour?’ They’re both really important questions. The two questions are connected. In order to be saved we need to love our neighbour – so we need to know who our neighbour is!

There are many more good questions which people asked Jesus. But we’re now going to move from some questions which PEOPLE asked JESUS to questions JESUS asked PEOPLE.

Of course, when Jesus asked questions, he was speaking with specific people. But most of his questions apply to all of us.

I’m going to start this new series with this question that Jesus asked: “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”

We find the question in Matthew 6:25. Jesus was teaching a crowd on a mountainside. Let’s read the passage it comes in. [Read Matthew 6:25-34.]

What is Jesus talking about here? The word ‘anxious’ comes six times. Jesus is talking about anxiety.

This section on anxiety is Jesus’ longest teaching on a human emotion. The fact that Jesus spent so much time talking about anxiety means that anxiety must have been a big issue in Jesus’ day. It’s also a big issue today.

I’d like to give you some brief information about anxiety in the UK.

This slide provides some information from 2013. It shows that there were 8 million diagnosed cases of anxiety that year.

This slide provides some information from 2020. University College London studied reports from nearly 800 GP surgeries over a 20-year period. It found that there had been a significant increase in the number of cases of anxiety recorded over that period. The rise had been especially rapid since 2008, and younger women were more likely to struggle with anxiety.

This slide contains some information from the Office for National Statistics. That’s the UK’s main statistics organization. The ONS found that in the 2019/2020 reporting year, anxiety was the highest it had ever been. The period this data covered was BEFORE lockdown started. It will be very interesting to see what the statistics show for the past year!

So it’s very evident that anxiety is a really significant issue today. You probably don’t need any convincing!

It will be very interesting to see what Jesus had to say about it!

We can see Jesus’ argument in v.26. His argument is, ‘You don’t need to be anxious because God cares for you.’ But Jesus makes his argument stronger. He says, ‘The birds are fine, aren’t they? God cares for them!’ Then he asks, ‘Aren’t you more valuable than birds?’ It’s a rhetorical question. Of course, people are more valuable than birds. So work it out! It means that you can trust God to care for you.

There’s a very nice little poem called ‘The Robin and the Sparrow’ which I’d like to read to you:

Said the robin to the sparrow,

‘I should really like to know,

Why these anxious human beings

Rush about and worry so.’

Said the sparrow to the robin,

‘Friend I think that it must be,

That they have no heavenly Father,

Such as cares for you and me.’

In the poem the sparrow talked about its heavenly Father. In this passage about anxiety Jesus says ‘your heavenly Father’ twice. He’s reminding us that God is our father! God isn’t some remote being who has no interest in us. If God is our father, then there’s no question that he cares for us.

Jesus repeats his argument in vv.28-30. He says, ‘The lilies of the field have a nice set of clothes, don’t they? So God cares for them!’ Then he asks, ‘If God clothes the grass of the field so well, won’t he clothe you?’ It’s another rhetorical question. People are certainly more valuable than grass. So work it out! It means that we can trust God to care for us.

That is WHAT Jesus is telling is. In a moment I’d like to look at HOW Jesus tells us this, how he makes his argument. But before we do, I’d like to go on two small side-tracks.

First, let’s note that God cares for the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. Later in Matthew Jesus says, ‘Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.’ If God loves and cares for non-human creation so much, then so should we!

Second, let’s note that Jesus expects us to learn things from the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. The world of nature has something to say to us! We’ve just had a series in Jonah. In the last chapter of Jonah, God speaks to Jonah through a gourd, a worm and a very hot wind. God speaks through the natural world. If you don’t know that you might miss what God is saying to you.