We’ve reached the third and final installment of my grad school research paper on Matthew 6:25—33, also known as the “anxiety passage” of the Sermon on the Mount. Here’s a refresher on what these verses say:
25“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
In case you missed them, start with parts one and two here:
At the crux of my research is this question: Is it really sinful to have worries or anxiety? I think on a purely knowledge-driven level, most of us would say no, of course not.
But on the deeper heart-level, the space where many of us experience our spirituality, it’s not so easy. Many of us were raised in a faith where prosperity gospel reigns. We’ve been steeped in the message that if you have fears about money or having the basics taken care of, it’s because you’re not working hard enough—and it’s also because there must be some underlying sin that’s stopping God from blessing you.
It’s nonsense and malarky. But it’s embedded itself in the hearts of many. Friends, this is not an easy lie to dig out. Hence why I spent my first semester of grad school holding it up to the light. Here’s what I’ve learned.
How to Have Living Faith
Researcher Sakari Häkkinen interviewed both Christian and non-Christian residents of a poor village in Tanzania to hear their reactions to these words in Matthew 6:25–34. Everyone with whom she spoke “strongly denied” knowing anyone who did not worry about tomorrow. Despite this common ground, responses to the passage were sharply divided. Some took the verses to mean that they could stop working and Jesus would take care of them. Others suggested that following his advice would be foolish.1
These varied responses from people for whom poverty is a daily reality is cause for a reevaluation of what the words of Jesus mean for Christians, especially for those who live with material abundance. Do we believe that Jesus is telling us that the villagers of Kinywang’anga, Tanzania, do not have enough faith? Do we believe that these people are sinful for worrying about how to provide for their families?
As Dietrich Bonhoeffer puts it, “We have here either a crushing burden, which holds out no hope for the poor and wretched, or else it is the quintessence of the gospel, which brings the promise of freedom and perfect joy.”2
This passage is not a finger-wagging admonishment to have more faith. It’s a call for Christians of all economic statuses to engage in an active faith.
Andrie du Toit expresses this well: “We get from Matthew the impression that his audience had to be strongly reminded of the necessity to live their faith.”3 As with Matthew’s community (comprised of Jewish Christians), this message is just as applicable to today’s Christians as it was to those in the first century.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the
“drama of hunger in the world calls Christians who pray sincerely to exercise responsibility toward their brethren, both in personal responsibility and in their solidarity with the human family.”4
The Catechism continues by relating the “don’t worry” passage to the beatitudes that Jesus preached earlier in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:3–11). It states that our call is to share both material and spiritual wealth “so that the abundance of some may remedy the need of others.”5
The New Collegeville Bible Commentary recommends neither passivity (failing to work under the assumption that God will provide) nor a judgment of faith of those living in poverty. It states that all must “cooperate with God in providing for others (6:1–4) [and] in supplying their daily bread (6:11).”6
Thus the Christian ethic Matthew described to his Jewish Christian readers encourages modern-day Christians to partner with God to live out the commands presented throughout the Sermon on the Mount. To suggest that we are solely responsible for our own well-being, an “every man for himself” mindset, is to ignore the grace that is inherent in the Christian faith.
Eerdman’s Dictionary of the Bible says that the “unadulterated will of God” is lived now in order to be “lived when the kingdom comes in its fullness.”7 The sermon represents the melding of God’s kingdom come to earth, lived out by God’s people as they bring their faith to life. We are called to do this by being the hands and feet of Jesus, providing food, drink, and clothing for the poor out of the abundance that God has given us.
An Uncomfortable Call for the Western Church
Since writing this more than a year ago, I’ve spent a lot of time in contemplation, reflecting on who I know God to be through my own personal experience. What I wrote here is an interpretation of the Sermon of the Mount that I’ve never heard in my life. Not in Sunday sermons. Not in Catholic elementary school or Lutheran high school or even in the Christian college where I was required to earn a Bible certificate alongside my English degree.
That’s not to say that those pastors or church leaders were wrong or intentionally deceptive. I think they were uncomfortable.
Much of the Western church, especially leaders or those who have become wealthy through evangelization, tend to get squirmy about this. Sharing wealth—actual money as well as other provisions, opportunities, privileges, status, and so on—with those who have less than we do. Partnering with God to make life on earth as close to heaven as possible (as opposed to throwing our hands in the air and saying, “Earth will never be heaven, so why bother?”).
It sounds a lot like equality.
This isn’t the way Western Christianity likes to operate. But like it or not, it’s what we’re called to do. So where does that leave us, in a culture that’s built on a foundation of capitalism and consumerism and bootstraps and Mammon worship?
The specifics of an active faith are different for each of us. Allow me to wrap up all this theology with a little spirituality.
An Examen for an Active Faith
Begin with your eyes closed, palms open, feet grounded. Take five slow, deep breaths. Invite God to meet you in this space. Give yourself the time you need; do not rush.
Ignatian Imaginative Prayer
Read and reflect on Matthew 6:25-34. (Better yet, listen to an audio version of the passage with your eyes closed.) Place yourself in the narrative. Imagine that you are in the crowd in Galilee. What are the sights, smells, and sounds that surround you? How do you feel as you hear Jesus’s words? What words stand out to you? How does your body feel?
Hold your questions and answers, your excitement and your discomfort, in your heart as you converse with the Holy Spirit about what you’re experiencing.
Examen
Invite the Holy Spirit to make you aware of any situations or memories that would be helpful to you. Think about the last 24 hours as you reflect on these questions. If that time frame feels too narrow, you can expand it.
Whom did I encounter who has less than I do? (Money, time, knowledge, basic needs, privilege, opportunity, etc.)
In what ways did I give freely out of the abundance I’ve been given?
In what ways did I fall prey to idolatry by relying on myself or on Mammon?
In what ways did I live an active faith toward those around me?
Invite God to show you where you are being called to live your faith. Practice noticing ways that the Holy Spirit speaks to you throughout your days. Make space for daily reflection this week, and if it’s helpful to you, write down any thoughts, ideas, or promptings that you believe to be from God.
Go forth and live an active faith, friends.
And now, a vulnerable ask from me to you. God speaks to me often through the writing of others. I believe I have a call to write here at this tiny Substack as a small way to pay it forward. If you’ve grown in faith, been challenged, or felt seen and known because of something I’ve written, I would be so grateful if you would share my work with a friend. Thank you!
Sakari Häkkinen, “Do Not Worry in Kinywang’anga: Reading Matthew 6:25–34 in a Tanzanian Village,” Hervormde Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 67, no. 1 (June 2011): 5. https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v67i1.840.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, (New York: Macmillan, 1959), 181.
Andrie B. du Toit, “Revisiting the Sermon on the Mount: Some Major Issues,” Neotestamentica 50, no. 3 (Special Edition 2016): 65.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, (New York: Doubleday, 1995), 746.
Ibid., 746.
Barbara E. Reid, “The Gospel of Matthew.” In The New Collegeville Bible Commentary: New Testament, (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2009), 44.
Dale C. Allison, Jr., “The Sermon on the Mount/Plain,” in Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, ed. David Noel Freedman (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2019), 2359.