St. Matthew 6:24-34
Dearly beloved, God is continually trying to convince us that we are to let God be God. Again, we hear yet another portion of Christ’s famed “Sermon on the Mount,” today. Three chapters make up this sermon of Jesus. The Lord loves it when His people must sit back and watch what He will do with situations that seem to be too difficult. In the Old Testament, God leads His numerous people out of Egypt with very little and sustains them. They wander in the desert with very little, yet God provides for them. Noah goes into an ark of his of crafting, and eight people in all will be responsible for rebuilding and repopulating the Lord’s creation. God’s hand blesses it. In the New Testament Jesus continues this theme. Jesus says, “Do not worry about your life, what you shall eat or what shall you drink, nor for your body, what you shall put on.” Do not worry about your life! Do not worry about tomorrow! This teaching seems to get lost in mid-air as we amble out of church on a Sunday morning to resume the very things that give us cause for worry. The news media thrives on making people worry. The economy is a constant concern these days. Health and health care is often a variable that causes great angst. Yet, Jesus is telling us not to worry about our lives. The chapter even ends with Jesus saying, “Do not worry about tomorrow....sufficient for the day is its own evil.” Most of us would say that this is impossible. We live in a world that is thinking about the next ten years. Where will I be? How will my retirement look? Will my job be here? Will my kids be OK? Will they go to college? Will they find jobs? Will they be healthy? There is literally no end to the worry that this world causes. But, Jesus says do not worry about your life....“But seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.”.....Some background might do us some good. Jesus preaches this sermon to the disciples who will become the first apostles who preach, teach, and cultivate the church. On one level Jesus knows that these men will have many obstacles that could cause concern. On another level, Jesus is finishing something with these words that was started in the Old Testament. In Leviticus 25, after God gave all the commands to Moses on Mount Sinai, the Lord finishes by telling Moses that every seven years is to be a Sabbath year. This means for one year there was to be no planting and no harvesting. One year was to be a year of rest. During the year of rest, the fields would grow on their own from seeds that had been accidentally dropped or missed from the previous year’s harvest. The people were to eat from the fields the crops that grew naturally without any hand of man to cultivate. This was to continue on in a seven year cycle. The Lord never gives a command without looking for an opportunity to bless His people. God tells Moses, “Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.” The blessing of God was to far outweight what was lacking due to the Sabbath year. Those fields would produce more without man’s hand tilling the ground. Only by the hand of God would they be so blessed and it would be completely without their intervention. This is how God works. The first thought may be trolling around the question of “Could we do this?” If we relied on God to give us all that we need while the land enters its Sabbath rest, would we be OK with it? But there is more to this account. All things go back to Christ. Everything in the Scriptures will ultimately lead us to Jesus. These seven years cycles were to continue until the people of Israel reached year forty-nine, the forty-ninth year to be one of those Sabbath years. The fiftieth year was to be a Jubilee year with much celebration. Slaves would be released. Debts would be erased and it was to begin on the day of atonement, when the sacrifice for the sins of all the people was made. The Jubilee year in the Old Testament following the Sabbath year and commencing on the day of atonement was to lead us to something greater--to Jesus. Those people in the Old Testament must have been in shock when Moses told them what God’s command was. No planting? No harvesting? Leave it all up to God to care for us? Whatever grows in the field on its own is supposed to sustain all these people? It might sound good on paper, Moses, but this is real life. What God tells Moses isn’t any different than what Jesus is telling the disciples. Do not worry about what you will eat or what you will drink or what you will wear. God will provide. When Jesus preaches and teaches, He is always hinting at something deeper and related to the Old Testament....and here it is. Jesus seems to be hinting to us that the true year of Jubilee was coming as He preached the Sermon on the Mount. The time that the slaves were set free, the year that debts were forgiven and debtors released was drawing near. But the slaves and the debtors to be released are of a spiritual kind. The true Jubilee year begins the day of the true atonement....the day Christ dies on the cross. It is at that time that slaves of sin are set free. It is on that day and henceforth that debts caused by sin are forgiven. In addition to this, the harvest shall be plentiful, for the person who looks upon Christ’s limp body on the cross and believes that He is God who died for the sins of the world...that person shall find the abundance of God’s blessings. God will care for you concerning all things. He does even now. God shall give you all that you need for this body and life, for God has given you the greatest blessing of all--everlasting salvation. The kingdom of God has been opened to you. You are His. Your sins are forgiven. You live in the eternal Jubilee year. You live in the time of plenty, for Jesus loves you. Just as God promised to give enough harvest that would last for three years during the Sabbath year, so shall He give to His children the gift of salvation that is far more abundant than we could ever hope for. The riches of heaven abound. In addition, we find that another field is bountiful......the field in which the gospel is sown. The Lord on His own causes growth where and when He pleases and it produces a great harvest, as is seen in the book of Acts. Truly, our Lord looks upon you with favor as He has seen fit to include each and every one of you as those who have sprouted and grown, been nourished and blessed to rest inside the gospel, with the love of Jesus surrounding you. He shall abide with you now and forever. He will care for you in all things, both, for this life and for the life to come in heaven. So, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Christ is our atonement. Christ is our time of Jubilee. You are free. -- Rev. Chad Kendall Trinity Lutheran Church Lowell, Indiana www.trinitylowell.org
