Matthew 6:25-34 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
God’s Zoo Summer Worship Series Sunday, August 15, 2021 “Birds of the Air”
Several months ago, I paid a visit to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. And one of the most fascinating things I saw there was inside the hummingbird exhibit. I watched a hummingbird building a nest. The bird went from the nest to a mesh container where he was grabbing something and flying it back to the nest to continue working. The bird was working carefully and consistently. We watched it fly back and forth several times. A bit later, we learned that the material inside that mesh container was dog hair, collected by several of the Desert Museum’s employees. And the employee we learned this from mentioned that they thought they were making the hummingbirds lazy by providing all this material that they loved to build nests with so that they didn’t really need to forage the way wild birds would. I will tell you, though, that hummingbird didn’t look lazy to me. It kept working. As long as we watched, it flew back and forth, little by little adding to the nest and caring for his family. I don’t think laziness was an issue. Laziness was certainly not the issue when Jesus talked about birds in our Gospel, either. We discussed laziness last week when we talked about ants. God warns against the dangers of laziness. His apostle taught the people to work and commanded that anyone who wasn’t willing to work should not eat. God certainly does not expect people to sit around and do nothing with the expectation that everything that they need will simply fall into their laps. But he also doesn’t want us to get so caught up in the work of providing and the work of earning and the work of finding our food and clothing that we forget where our blessings come from or worry about whether we will have enough. So, as a part of his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talks to us about the animal of the week this week: the birds of the air. The birds provide an example for us. It is not that they are lazy, not at all. But they certainly don’t work in the exact same way people do. They don’t have barns. They don’t plant and harvest crops. They don’t work out budget spreadsheets or long-term projections. They go about their business, and they find what they need because God provides it for them. And one more thing that they certainly do not do: they do not worry. And that’s how they serve as an example for us. Jesus says, “For this reason 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 clothing?” And understand how Jesus is driving this point home: God has given you life. He has made your body. He has given you these bigger things, doesn’t it stand to reason that he will give you the smaller things like food and clothing as well? It does stand to reason. More importantly, it is God’s promise. Many times over God promises to care for our needs, to feed us and clothe us. But he does not promise that he will give us everything that we might possibly want. He doesn’t promise to make us rich or wealthy or to give us the biggest house or the fanciest car. In fact, God warns against putting our trust in earthly things like those instead of on him. Jesus in the verse just before our reading today told the people, “You cannot serve both God and Mammon” (Matthew 6:24). And then he said, “For this reason I tell you.” Jesus knew that if people truly trust God to take care of them, they won’t worry. He says, “Don’t trust money, don’t trust wealth, don’t trust physical and material things. Trust God, and don’t worry.” And yet, we do worry, don’t we? Far too often we are worried about clothing or food. We’re worried about all sorts of physical issues, all sorts of earthly matters, all sorts of possibilities and potentials. And why is that? Because we don’t trust God the way that we should. We have a sinful nature that refuses to listen to his promises. We so easily get fixated on the things that we can see and measure and monitor, like our finances and our bank accounts, and all our other “stuff.” We don’t stop and think about how God takes care of even the birds of the air and how he will no doubt take care of us. What Jesus tells us is even more encouraging and even more comforting than that. He doesn’t say, “God takes care of the birds and he will take care of you.” He doesn’t equate us with the birds of the air. He says, “Look at
the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?” Are you not worth much more than they? The answer is clear. It is there in the way that Jesus words the question: You are worth more than the birds of the air to God, aren’t you? The answer is a resounding yes! We are worth much more to God than the birds of the air that he cares for so completely. God made people, not birds, the crown of his creation. He gave people, not birds, souls and an intimate relationship with him. He made people, not birds in his own image, the echoes of which we still see today in our ability to reason and plan and reflect in a self-aware manner. And God demonstrated just how much he loves people by coming to save us. The Creator stooped to become a part of his created world. The Son of God humbled himself to be found in the same form and facing the same challenges as the sinful human beings that have inhabited this world since the fall into sin. The one who pointed to the birds to encourage others to trust God and not worry never worried. He trusted God completely and perfectly for his entire earthly life. And then he died to take away your sins and mine, your worries and mine. He gives us the gift of eternal life—so we don’t have anything to worry about. That’s why the Lord can say through his apostle in Philippians 4: “Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6). Do not worry. Pray to God. Thank God. Trust God. And Jesus reminds us again that this truth, the truth of his kingdom, the truth of our salvation, is the most important truth. Jesus tells us that our relationship with God ought to be the most important relationship in our lives, not our relationship with food or clothing. Seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness. Don’t focus first on those things that are so easy to see and so obvious. And that is not to say that the things of this world don’t matter, of course they do, God gave them to us. But what matters more, what matters most, is the kingdom of God. It is his righteousness. It is the forgiveness of sins that comes to us through faith in Jesus our Savior. That means gathering around God’s Word in Scripture rather than around the sensational headlines of the evening news. It means coming regularly to the Lord’s table and meditating on the gift of our baptism instead of focusing on politics or fallible medical opinions. The gospel—Word and sacrament—builds us up to trust in God more fully and to worry less about whether he will keep his promises, because we know he will. Jesus reminds us also that worrying will never do us any good. How will we change anything by our worry? How will we make a difference by being frightened? We cannot add an inch to our height or a day to our lives by worrying about anything. Each day has enough troubles of its own. Each day brings new challenges and new opportunities for us to trust the goodness and grace of our God. Listen to Jesus. Take to heart his sermon. Pay attention to the birds of the air. They are not lazy. But they do not worry. They do not sow or harvest. They do not build barns to store food. But God feeds them day after day after day. Pay attention to the birds and remember that God loves you more. He will take care of you through this life and into eternal life. You have no reason to worry. The Text: Matthew 6:25–34 (EHV) 25“For this reason 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 clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? 27“Which
of you can add a single moment to his lifespan by worrying? 28Why do you worry about clothing? Consider how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin, 29but I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not clothe you even more, you of little faith? 31“So
do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32For the unbelievers chase after all these things. Certainly your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”