(Matt Koerber)
Matthew 6:19-7:6 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
7 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
6 “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.
—————
When we first put the reading program together, we had three separate units for this section. Treasure, anxiety, and judging we given their own treatment. However, in order to make this merely a 70-day reading program some things needed to be combined. In hindsight, I’m really glad that it worked out this way. The textual link between these ideas is not as clear as in some sections, but I believe that holding these things together can help us to see important truths around the topic of anxiety.
I will begin by addressing anxiety as the starting point. It is helpful to remember that first century people struggled with anxiety too. It is not just a feature of our modern world. Jesus gave voice to some of the concerns that people may have had in this regard. He anticipated people worrying about, “‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’” (v.6:31) The solution to these concerns is to trust that God is your Heavenly Father, that he knows your needs, he loves you, and he is able to care for you. Trust displaces worry.
This is not an easy transition to make. Our modern world offers us insulation from fears about starvation and deprivation. But it bombards us with concerns and our isolated lives offer few remedies for the onslaught of worries. I have struggled with some acute anxiety in my own life and sometimes it feels really hard to line our feelings up with these beliefs. We need the support of God’s people as we struggle with intense feelings. Many have found that the practice of sharing our concerns and asking for prayer can have a tremendous impact on our experiential feelings of peace.
This passage also includes two other insights. The first is the connection between treasure and anxiety. The text, itself, indicates that these passages are interrelated. An the end of his discussion about what we treasure, Jesus says, “Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life…” (v.6:25) We can see that the observations about treasure and the call to make God our chief treasure leads directly to the discussion about anxiety. It is connected with the word “therefore.” It also finds resonance with the later command to “seek first the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you” (v.6:33) Jesus seems to be saying, if you make God your primary treasure, all other things will fall into place.
Holding these ideas together can give us insights around our own experiences of anxiety. It is helpful to ask, Does my anxiety point to a misplaced treasure? In other words, our anxiety can reveal that I am treasuring the wrong thing. The response to treasuring the wrong thing is… repentance. This is important, but should be handled delicately. When we feel overcome by anxiety, repentance is often the last thing we think of. But it is a powerful tool that can be effective in these situations. Anxiety turns our thoughts inward and we are further tempted to feel powerless in the face of worry. Repentance initially feels threatening as if it is too heavy for us to consider. But, the Bible speaks of repentance as being “unto life” (Acts 11:18.) To repent is to acknowledge that we are wrong, and turn back to God, seeking his help to walk differently as we go forward. Repentance leans into God strength, as we honestly address our own weakness. Not only does this cut to the heart of the issue, but it also allows us to take responsibility and not be inactive in the face of anxiety. As I said above, this is delicate, so telling our anxious friends to repent requires tact, patience, and a great deal of wisdom. At the very least, we probably should not start there, lest we miss the mark and grind them down.
The second observation flows from the connection between anxiety and judging. Notice that Jesus is not ruling out judging all together. We can’t go through life without making judgments, and in some situations we are called to judge people. For example, a “judge” must judge people in their legal affairs. What Jesus shows us is that there is a connection between how we judge others and how we are judged ourselves. “For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.” (v.7:2) Furthermore, the end result of taking the log out of your own eye is to enable you to see your brother clearly and help him with his problem. This requires you to make judgments relative to your brother. Jesus is pointing out that we are all tempted to judge others harshly, but assume the best for our own behavior. What we don’t realize is that there is a connection between our judgments of others and how we are judged. This may point to a cosmic connection. If we have really understood the mercy of God, how could we treat people unmercifully? Jesus illustrates this exact point in a later parable (Matt 18:21ff.) But there are other dimensions to this. Some of this happens at a very human level. It is my experience that people who are prone to making harsh judgments often feel very sensitive to the judgments of others. To put it simply, if I walk through life looking at others with a critical eye, I am likely to live under an enormous burden of trying to live up to these censorious judgments. Is it possible that feelings of anxiety indicate that I am judging other people too harshly?
Sometimes anxiety is a sign that reveals the treasure of our heart and the judging tendencies of our eye. Thank God for the gift of repentance unto life, and the free grace of Jesus that covers our sins!