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Giving to the Needy
1"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before
men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from
your Father in heaven.
2"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be
honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward
in full. 3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand
know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be
in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will
reward you.
Prayer
5"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they
love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners
to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their
reward in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close the
door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who
sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray,
do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be
heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your
Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread.
12Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.' 14For if you forgive men when
they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not
forgive your sins.
Fasting
16"When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do,
for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell
you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 17But when
you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18so that it
will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your
Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in
secret, will reward you.
Explanation: Showing Righteousness to God Alone
(6:1-18)
Jesus begins this section of his teaching with a thesis statement
summarizing his point: Do your righteousness for God to see you,
not others (6:1). Jesus then illustrates his point with the examples
of secret charity (vv. 2-4), prayer (vv. 5-15) and fasting (vv.
16-18). The middle section on prayer is the longest (following accepted
practices of arrangement in his day, Matthew may have inserted the
Lord's Prayer from a different context; compare Lk 11:1-4).Righteousness
When Only God Sees (6:1)
Several observations concerning 6:1, the thesis statement for this
section, are appropriate before we approach the following paragraphs
of the passage in more detail.
First, we must impress God alone. In all three examples Jesus warns
his followers not to be like the hypocrites (6:2, 5, 16; also 15:7;
22:18; 23:13-29; 24:51). This term originally designated actors
in the theater, though both Greek and Jewish texts had long before
come to apply it figuratively.
One of human religion's greatest temptations is to act piously to
elicit the praise of others. A secret atheist could practice religion
in that form without the slightest element of faith (compare 23:5).
Such temptations were part and parcel of ancient religion; for instance,
when some first-century Jewish leaders called a fast for unrighteous
reasons, others feared not to observe it, lest anyone question their
piety (Jos. Life 290-91). Yet the same temptation is no less real
today. Jesus reminds us that true piety means impressing God alone-living
our lives in the recognition that God knows every thought and deed,
and it is his approval alone that matters. Matthew again praises
the meek, whose only hope is in God, not in others' opinions of
them. Those of us who are "religious professionals," making
our living from public ministry, should take special heed: if we
value the approval or pay of our congregations more than what God
has called us to do, we will have no reward left when we stand before
him.
Second, Jesus' warning does not preclude public acts of righteousness.
Public righteousness, even when carried out in the knowledge that
such acts will draw attention, is not wrong so long as we seek to
be seen for God's glory rather than our own (5:16). This text warns
us, however, how easy it is to justify our own desire to impress
others as "being a light." We should do everything for
God (Rom 14:6-8; 1 Cor 10:31; Col 3:17); the repentant person who
lives in view of the coming kingdom (4:17) is concerned more with
God's evaluation than with that of others. Many people practice
religion without paying attention to God, and this warns us to search
our motives.
Third, Jesus demands practice, not just theory. Jesus' Jewish contemporaries
agreed with most of what he was teaching here (ARN 28A; 40A; 46,
129B). Thus Jesus is not satisfied that we claim to agree with his
ethics; he wants us to live accordingly.
Fourth, Jesus' three examples are random, so secrecy must apply
to all acts of righteousness. Judaism often listed righteous works,
sometimes in sets of threes (Jesus' list here resembles Tobit 12:8),
but such lists were never more than random examples. We must thus
apply Jesus' principle to all our acts of righteousness.
Fifth, Jesus promises eternal reward for those who seek to please
God rather than mortals. Jesus concludes his warnings with another
graphic image: businessmen regularly wrote the phrase received their
reward in full (see 6:2, 5, 16) on receipts to indicate that no
further payment was required (Deissmann 1978:110). Jesus is saying
that those who give charity to be admired by others, or pray and
fast to people rather than to God, already have what they wanted:
others' approval. They will not be rewarded again for their deeds
on the day of judgment.Finally, Jesus defines true religion differently
from the way many Christians do. If it is possible to pray, fast
and give alms extensively and yet do it from wrong motives, we must
reevaluate our religious values. Most people I know who pray four
hours a day have a very close walk with God. But I know others whose
calling may allow them only an hour a day of concerted prayer, yet
their walk is probably just as close to God, since they are living
according to his will. We should pray, fast and serve the needy
because we love God-not in order to convince anyone, including ourselves,
that we do.
Doing Charity Secretly (6:2-4)
This paragraph assumes that disciples give to the poor (compare
6:19-24 at greater length); what it evaluates is how we give to
the poor.
Jesus again employs hyperbole in his descriptions (as in 5:19, 29-30),
thereby adding graphic force to his warnings. Although some scholars
have argued that people actually blew trumpets during giving in
the synagogues, Jesus probably simply uses rhetorical exaggeration
to reinforce his point, as when picturing the Pharisees who swallow
a camel whole but strain out a mere gnat (23:24). Jesus adds to
this stark image still another: we should be so secretive in giving
that we should not let our left hand know what our right hand is
doing (6:3; 1 Cor 4:3-5). He challenges us about the danger of public
piety with such forceful language precisely "because our assurance
that such hypocrisy is no great problem with us is a major part
of the problem" (Tannehill 1975:85).
Jesus emphasizes future reward for those who forgo present honor.
He promises something better than a charitable deduction on one's
income tax, nice as that may be (vv. 1, 2, 4). Many of his contemporaries
believed that charity delivers the giver from death and stores up
treasure in heaven (Tobit 4:10; 12:8; 14:10; t. Pe'a 4:21; Pes.
Rab. 25:2); Jesus likewise emphasizes heavenly reward for serving
those truly in need (6:19-21). In contrast to nineteenth-century
evangelicalism, much of today's church is divided between those
who emphasize personal intimacy with God in prayer and those who
emphasize justice for the true poor (see Sider 1993). Like the prophets
of old, however, Jesus demanded both (6:2-13; Mk 12:40); he also
recognized that without keeping God himself in view, we can pervert
either form of piety.
We should care for the poor. The phrase when you give to the needy
implies the expectation, standard in Judaism, that one would care
for the needs of the poor (Tobit 4:7), just as the phrase when you
pray (6:5) takes for granted that the hearer will pray (m. 'Abot
2:10). Jesus' Jewish contemporaries emphasized that one must give
charity from the right kind of heart (m. 'Abot 5:13) and sometimes
objected to ostentation in charity (Test. Job 9:7-8; m. Seqalim
5:6).
If more of us Christians feared God, this realization would scare
some sense into us. We like to think that Jesus was condemning the
"legalistic" religion of Judaism, but we are wrong. Jesus
was not condemning an officially legalistic religion, but the ostentatious
practice of those whose religion taught purity of heart. In other
words, on many points the Pharisees believed the same things we
do, the same things Jesus was teaching. When we parade up to the
altar to give our money (in some churches) or make sure the ushers
see us contribute a significant offering when they pass the plate
(in other churches), our hearts stand condemned regardless of our
doctrine. True religion demands sufficient faith to settle for God's
approval, to do what pleases him no matter what others may think.Fasting
Secretly (6:16-18)
In this case (as opposed to generally) the hypocrites who disfigure
[literally, ruin!] their faces may well evoke the original sense
of "hypocrites" as actors in the theater, who typically
wore large theatrical masks. Fasting typically accompanied grief,
often the sorrow of penitence (Neh 1:4-7; 9:1-2; Zech 7:5; Sirach
31:26; Judith 4:9-13). Yet as Joel put it, the true penitent must
rend his or her heart and not merely garments (2:13); Isaiah declared
that the true fast was to act for justice (Is 58:6-10). Fasting
is a time of drawing close to God by demonstrating our commitment
to him. Normally coupled with prayer in the New Testament (Acts
9:9; 13:2-3; 14:23; compare Ezra 8:23; Neh 1:4), biblical fasting
is not asceticism for asceticism's sake (Col 2:18-23). Many Pharisees
may have fasted twice a week as a mark of piety (Lk 18:12; b. Ta`anit
12a); but I fear that some early Christians missed the point of
this passage when they insisted that believers should not fast on
Mondays and Thursdays like the "hypocrites," but rather
on Wednesdays and Fridays (Did. 8:1).
Under normal circumstances people trimmed beards or changed clothes
before appearing in public, as well as anointing themselves. (Palestinian
Jews used oil to clean and anoint their skin, especially on their
heads; t. Sebi`it 6:9; ARN 3A, probably to lubricate dry scalps.)
Because penitent fasting included afflicting oneself (Lev 23:32),
for most Jewish people the most extreme fasts meant not only abstaining
from food but also practicing other forms of self-abasement like
not shaving, washing one's clothes, anointing or having intercourse
(m. Ta`anit 1:6; 4:7; Yoma 8:1). Jesus is so concerned with keeping
one's righteousness private that he prohibits customary features
of what his contemporaries considered a strict fast.
It may be difficult for a member of a family to get around explaining
why he or she is not sharing a meal, but in normal circumstances
we may wish to observe Jesus' warning as literally as possible to
guard our own motives before God. If we want our credit with God,
we need to be satisfied that he alone knows, for we can trust that
his reward will be more than adequate.
Treasures in Heaven
19"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where
moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But
store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust
do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For
where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good,
your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eyes are bad,
your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within
you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
24"No one can serve two masters. 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 both God and Money.
Explanation: Do Not Value Possessions (6:19-34)
Jesus exhorts us not to value possessions enough to seek them (6:19-24),
quite in contrast to today's prosperity preachers and most of Western
society. Yet he also exhorts us not to value possessions enough
to worry about them (vv. 25-34), a fault shared by most believers
who rightly reject the prosperity teaching. Jesus' words strike
at the core of human selfishness, challenging both the well-to-do
who have possessions to guard and the poor who wish they could acquire
them. His words are so uncomfortable that even those of us who say
we love him and fight to defend Scripture's authority find ourselves
looking for ways around what he says.Do Not Value Possessions Enough
to Seek Them (6:19-24)
So prominent in Jesus' parables and wisdom sayings is his emphasis
on utter faith in God and relinquishment of possessions that Geza
Vermes (1993:148) considers this a central element in Jesus' teaching.
Paul S. Minear declared that it was no wonder those with vested
interests hated Jesus: "So insidious was [his] attack upon
earthly treasures that he became, according to Kierkegaard, a `far
more terrible robber' than those who assault travelers along a highway.
Jesus assaulted the whole human race at the point where that race
is most sensitive: its desire for security and superiority"
(Minear 1954:133).
We like to point out Jesus' rhetorical overstatement in this passage
while ignoring why he used it to secure our attention. Most Christians
disagree with what the prosperity preachers say over the radio and
television, but the main difference between us and them in practice
is often that they provide a theological justification for their
materialism, where we do not.
Seek Treasure in Heaven (6:19-21)
Jesus teaches that if we really trust God, we will act as if treasure
in heaven is what matters (compare 1 Tim 6:8-10). Although Jesus
illustrates his point here with images about treasure in heaven
shared by many of his contemporaries (such as Sirach 29:10-11; 4
Ezra 7:77; 2 Baruch 14:12), only the most radical sages of antiquity
shared Jesus' view that earthly possessions were essentially worthless.
Yet for Jesus the treasure is not merely in heaven (Mt 19:21); it
represents the kingdom of heaven (13:44). Idolaters who value Mammon
too highly to abandon it for what Jesus values will have no place
in his kingdom (19:21-30; compare Lk 14:33).
Some other countercultural sages in antiquity also advocated lack
of attachment to material possessions (Epict. Disc. 1.18.15-16).
Unlike some philosophers, however, Jesus is not against possessions
because he supposes them to be evil (compare Lucr. Nat. 5.1105-42;
Sen. Dial. 5.33.1); the issue is not that possessions themselves
are bad but that a higher priority demands our resources. If we
value what our Lord values rather than what our society values,
he demands that we meet the basic needs of people lacking adequate
resources before we seek to accumulate possessions beyond our basic
needs (19:21; compare Lk 3:11; 12:33-34).Someone will object that
we have to stop sacrificing at some point because we will never
finish meeting all this world's needs (Mt 26:11). But could not
the abundance of this world's needs represent a call to keep sacrificing?
Do we use the behavior of many of our fellow Christians to justify
reinterpreting Jesus' explicit call to value what he cares about
more highly than possessions? Many professing Christians before
Luther were wrong about justification by faith; is it possible that
most Western Christians today wrongly miss Jesus' explicit teaching
about sacrifice?
One researcher suggests that professed followers of Christ take
in 68 percent of the world's income, yet only 3 percent of that
goes to the church and a tiny percentage to world missions. Perhaps
if more Westerners lived even briefly among the desperately hungry
or developed friendships with people from lands where laborers for
the gospel are few, our priorities would change. Meanwhile Jesus,
who already sees the needs of all people, summons us to value what
matters to him-if not yet out of love for them, then out of love
for our Lord who loves them.
Can we claim not to love wealth more than our brothers and sisters
in Christ when we see them hurting and do not sacrifice what should
matter to us less than their need? While many of us pursue status
symbols that television suggests are "necessities," evangelical
ministries to the poor claim that forty thousand people die of starvation
and malnutrition daily. That means roughly twenty-seven a minute,
twenty of whom are children under five years old. (This represents
a loss of life roughly equivalent to the first atom bomb being dropped
again-every three days.) Wherever possible, people should earn their
own wages and not become dependent on charity. But children under
five cannot "pull themselves up by their bootstraps,"
nor can our brothers and sisters in drought- and famine-stricken
areas. Those who say, "For the sake of everyone it is better
to let the weak die off," are social Darwinists, not Christians;
Christians are called to serve the weak.
The world's need is overwhelming, but if as individuals we calculate
what resources we do not need and contribute them to ministries
like World Vision and Food for the Hungry, we can at least do our
part to make a difference in the world, trusting that God will raise
up others to join us. One wonders, too, what a witness it would
be among the world's poor who are not Christians if they saw that
wealthier Christians cared more about the poor than about their
own affluence.
Materialism Blinds People to God's Truth
(6:22-23)
If we justify valuing material possessions because "everyone
does it" or "other people do it more," our self-justification
will blind us to the truth of our disobedience and affect our whole
relationship with God. Jesus' illustration about the "single"
(NIV good) eye and the evil eye would immediately make sense to
his hearers: a "good" eye was literally a healthy eye,
but figuratively also an eye that looked on others generously (Sirach
32:8). In the Greek text of the Gospels, Jesus literally calls the
eye a "single" eye, which is a wordplay: the Greek version
of the Hebrew Bible also uses this word for "single" to
translate the Hebrew term for "perfect"-thus "single-minded"
devotion to God, with one's heart set on God alone. An "evil
eye," conversely, was a stingy, jealous or greedy eye; yet
it also signifies here a bad eye (Mt 6:23), one that cannot see
properly. Jesus uses the "single" eye as a transition
to his next point, for the "single" eye is literally undivided,
having the whole picture: thus one is not divided between two masters,
as the text goes on to explain (v. 24).
Many leaders in past revival movements have warned that Christians
ought not to pray for revival if they want to hold on to their money,
because we cannot have both. For John Wesley, defying material prosperity
was part of holiness, separation to God away from the things the
world valued (Jennings 1990:157-79). He warned that riches would
increase believers' conformity to the world and attacked those who
preached in favor of the accumulation of wealth (Jennings 1990:36,
98-102). He felt that Acts 2 was for today-including the part about
sharing possessions (2:44-45; Jennings 1990:111-16). He chose to
live as simply as possible so as to give all else to the poor, and
called on his followers to do the same (Jennings 1990:119-23; Sider
1990:152). In contrast to most contemporary Western Christians,
Wesley felt that "stewardship means giving to the poor. . .
. We give to God not by giving to the church, but by giving to the
poor" (Jennings 1990:105). If one did not give all one could,
Wesley taught, one was in disobedience to Jesus' teaching and would
end up in hell (Jennings 1990:133).
Noting that the church has adequate funds to evangelize the world
if we would choose to do so, nineteenth-century evangelist Charles
G. Finney warned that God requires us to surrender to him the ownership
of everything, so that we never again consider it as our own; we
must do with it only what he would do (Finney 1869:353-54). Finney
further exhorted that "young converts should be taught that
they have renounced the ownership of all their possessions, and
of themselves, or if they have not done this they are not Christians"
(ibid., p. 127).
Years ago I eagerly read Ron Sider's Rich Christians in an Age of
Hunger (rev. 1990) after I heard Gordon Fee state that every American
Christian should read it. While I cannot evaluate Sider's macroeconomic
proposals (for important proposals in this area see also National
Conference of Catholic Bishops 1986), I appreciate his emphasis
on the Bible's commitment to serving the poor. Yet some critics
wrongly criticized Sider's motives as Marxist (he is not a Marxist).
Some consider Wesley and Finney, who preached more strongly than
Sider, legalists. When Jesus, John the Baptist or James (Lk 3:10-11;
14:33; Jas 2:14-16) preaches far more strongly than Sider, Wesley
or Finney, we call it hyperbole. I fear that many of us hear what
we want because we have vested interests to guard-interests many
Christians value more than they value the agendas of God's kingdom.
Our eyes are not "single."
We Must Love Either God or Money (6:24)
One must serve someone, but a person whose service is divided will
love one master and hate the other. Masters only rarely owned a
slave jointly (for example, m. `Eduyyot 1:13; Gittin 4:5), but when
they did, the slave naturally preferred one master to the other.
Jesus warns us that we must choose: if we work for possessions,
we will end up hating God; if we work for God, we will end up hating
possessions. (Hate may mean by comparison of one's love for something
else-10:37 par. Lk 14:26.)
"Mammon," translated Money in the NIV, was a common Aramaic
term for money or property (Flusser 1988:153), but its contrast
with God as an object of service here suggests that it has been
deified as well as personified (compare Sirach 34:7). Early Christians
extended the principle of not serving two masters to avoiding theaters
(where other humans were routinely slaughtered for public entertainment,
perhaps akin to some movies today; Tert. Spect. 26) and to gaining
the world and thereby forfeiting one's soul (2 Clement 6). But Jesus
here applies the principle to one of the greatest temptations: the
idolatry of materialism (compare possibly Col 3:5).
Unfortunately, covetousness (materialism) has achieved nearly cultic
status as a traditional American value (with some other Western
cultures not far behind), under such euphemisms as "the good
life" and "getting ahead." As Craig Blomberg (1992:124)
laments, "Many perceptive observers have sensed that the greatest
danger to Western Christianity is not, as is sometimes alleged,
prevailing ideologies such as Marxism, Islam, the New Age movement
or humanism but rather the all-pervasive materialism of our affluent
culture." Reminding us that the New Testament summons churches
in one part of the world to look out for the needs of the church
elsewhere (2 Cor 8:13-15), Blomberg further reminds us that because
"over 50 percent of all believers now live in the Two-Thirds
World . . . a huge challenge to First-World Christianity emerges.
Without a doubt, most individual and church budgets need drastic
realignment" (1992:126-27). Unlike the rich man in Luke 16:19-31,
however, few suburban First World Christians could go to hell for
allowing a man to starve at our doorstep: those who are starving
rarely are able to get near our doorstep.
North American Christians can pour nearly a billion dollars a year
into new church construction. Church buildings are helpful tools
in our culture, but the Bible does not require them-and the Bible
does expressly command serving the poor. How many churches pour
equivalent resources into church-sponsored homeless shelters and
other means of service (and witness) to the needy of our communities?
The streets of our most affluent Western cities host hundreds of
thousands of homeless people, many of them children. Many young
people sell their bodies on those streets to get a place to sleep
at night, and mere sermons against prostitution are not going to
do anything about it.
Church buildings are important in our present culture, but the early
church did live without them for its first three centuries, and
in a time of persecution we would be obliged to do the same. The
early church therefore had funds for other purposes: second-century
pagans continually noted Christians' charity toward both Christian
and non-Christian poor. Church buildings are valuable, but when
they take precedence over caring for the poor or evangelism, our
priorities appear to focus more on our comfort than on the world's
need-as if we desire padded pews more than new brothers and sisters
filling the kingdom. Have we altogether forgotten the spiritual
passion of the early church and nineteenth-century evangelicalism?
Jesus in this passage uses graphic imagery about idolatry not to
force us into legalism but to prevent us from rationalizing away
his point. First World Protestants are quick to judge Christians
in other parts of the world who venerate their ancestors or worship
the saints. When symbols of respect become objects of worship, our
concerns are surely justified. But in condemning such practices
we may be sporting a "plank" in our own eye (7:3), for
those concerned with wealth become as sterile in their Christianity
as those who forget their faith or fall away under persecution (13:19-22).
Most of us respond to Jesus' devaluation of possessions in one of
two ways: (1) we retort that there is nothing wrong with making
money, or (2) we claim we do not love wealth, we just accumulate
it. The first response is tangential: the issue is never how much
money we make (as long as it is made honestly, the more the better),
but what we do with what we make. The second response is simply
dishonest, like the man immersed in television six hours every evening
who says that it does not really interest or affect him. If we are
seeking and accumulating wealth for ourselves, then we do love it.
Do Not Worry
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 important than food, and the body more important than
clothes? 26Look 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? 27Who of you by worrying
can add a single hour to his life?
28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of
the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that
not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
30If 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, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What
shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'
32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father
knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do
not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Explanation: Do Not Value Possessions Enough to Worry
About Them (6:25-34
Jesus' message here picks up his earlier discussion of secret charity
(6:1-4). If many prosperity preachers err in urging Christians to
seek material gain (see vv. 19-24), many of us err by doubting God's
power to provide. Yet in this passage while Jesus emphasizes God's
power, he also stresses that God guarantees only what we need. If
God sustains life and protects our bodies, will we complain if he
does it differently from the ways our culture values (v. 25)? If
he feeds us like the birds (v. 26; compare 1 Kings 17:6) or clothes
us like the flowers (v. 28), he will have provided us more than
what our culture values, not less (v. 29). Yet if God provides for
birds and flowers, he will also provide for us (v. 30).
God promises the basics. This theme is important to the passage
(vv. 25-26, 28-30). Jesus twice uses a standard type of Jewish argument
traditionally called qal wahomer-"how much more?" (vv.
26, 30). If God cares for birds and for perishable flowers, how
much more for his own beloved children (compare vv. 8, 32)!
We generally expect biologists today to examine and classify data
without making many ethical or theological pronouncements. But ancient
naturalists were sometimes also sages who regarded all God's creation
as a legitimate field for inquiry. Wisdom sayings often addressed
nature (for example, 1 Kings 4:33; Ahiqar column 6; Sirach 43:33).
Jesus draws a lesson from God's care for birds and flowers (Mt 6:26,
30). Some other Jewish teachers also recognized that God provides
for creatures (compare Ps 104:24-27) and that people are worth much
more than birds (compare m. Qiddusin 4:14). Jesus, who regards God's
original creation purpose as still valid (Mt 19:4-6), believes that
the God who cares for unemployed animals will care still more for
his children, regardless of their economic situation.
People in Jesus' day considered their cloaks essential, and the
law in fact took this for granted (Ex 22:26-27; Guelich 1982:339).
Paul (less given to hyperbole than his Palestinian Master) declares
that Christians need nothing more than food and clothing (1 Tim
6:8). But Jesus declares that God can provide for us adequately
even if we lack clothing (Mt 6:25)! He then goes on to assure us
that God will supply covering for our bodies, pointing to the splendor
of the fields, whose vegetation is nevertheless used as fuel for
baking bread. Solomon's splendor had become proverbial (for example,
CIJ 2:83, 837; m. Baba Mesi`a 7:1), but it remained minuscule compared
to the splendor of God's creation (compare Ps 8:1-9). In the end,
wealth does not matter, but God will supply what we genuinely need.Jesus
again shames his hearers by reminding them that even Gentiles seek
material things. Pagans seek (NIV run after) their own needs (Mt
6:31-32; compare Ep. Arist. 140-41); God's children should seek
instead God's agendas, assured that God will also care for them
in the process (6:33). Even in Jesus' model prayer, disciples seek
God's kingdom first (vv. 9-10). Faith is not an intricate ritual
to get what we want for ourselves; faith is obeying God's will with
the assurance that he will ultimately fulfill for us what is in
our best interests. That kind of faith grows only in the context
of an intimate relationship of love between the heavenly Father
and his children.
Some people today associate faith with being able to obtain possessions
from God, but Jesus did not even associate it with seeking basic
needs from God. Pagans seek those things, he warned (v. 32; compare
5:47; 6:7); we should seek instead God's kingdom and his righteous
will (6:33). It is when his people care for others in need among
them that God supplies the needs of his people as a whole, perhaps
because then he can best trust them to use his gifts righteously
(Deut 15:1-11; Blomberg 1992:126). In our lifelong plans and each
day as we decide what to do with our life and resources, we have
fresh opportunities to prove to God our love for him-or our lack
of it.
Anxiety does no good. Jesus highlights this theme in Matthew 6:26,
34. Anxiety will not add even the smallest unit of time to one's
life. Not only is it true that we cannot extend our life by worrying,
but daily experience in our comparatively fast-paced culture confirms
the wisdom of an earlier Jewish sage, who observed that worry and
a troubled heart actually shorten life (Sirach 30:19-24). If much
study is wearying to the flesh (Eccl 12:12-undoubtedly many a scholar's
favorite verse), worry about wealth also banishes sleep and destroys
the flesh (Sirach 34:1).
Unlike some ancient philosophers, Jesus never condemns people for
recognizing their basic needs; their Father knows they need food
and clothing. Yet he calls them to depend on God for their daily
sustenance. Those who can trust their heavenly Father to care for
them (as most first-century Jewish children could depend on their
earthly fathers) need not be anxious concerning clothes or food.
Jesus paints his point in graphic word pictures. Like a typical
sage, he finally notes that one has enough to worry about for the
day without adding tomorrow's worries (Mt 6:34; compare Prov 27:1).
Employing the typical rhetorical technique of personification (Kennedy
1984:60), Jesus further admonishes his hearers to let tomorrow worry
about itself. Yet when Jesus forbids us to worry about tomorrow,
this does not mean that concerns will never press upon us. It means
instead that we should express dependence on God in each of these
concerns. We should pray for our genuine needs (v. 11), provided
we pray for God's kingdom most of all (vv. 9-10; most of Paul's
"concerns" fit this category: 2 Cor 11:28; 1 Thess 3:1-5).
The part of the future we must concern ourselves with and work toward
is what he has revealed to us and called us to do (compare Mt 10:5-25).
