Matthew 6:24-34

✠ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

Death always seems to get the last word.  But if death really was ruling and reigning with ultimate power, then there would be no lilies of the field, no colorful birds, nothing beautiful left.  This world would be as barren as a lunar landscape.  However, God did not abandon us when we fell into sin.  In the good that He allows us to experience in this sin-cursed world, we see the signs of His mercy that rescues us from death.  Even though Adam and Eve had betrayed Him, He still loved them.  He walked in the garden after their sin, despite their rebellion and fear.  He came to them in bodily form, foreshadowing that He would take up our form permanently as a real man and pay our price, die our death, that He would stand between us and the devil and perform the duty in which Adam had failed.

So consider the lilies.  They still exist in our broken and fallen world.  They live alongside thorns and thistles that seek to choke them out, with insects, molds, and various diseases, trampled by children and dogs and eaten by deer and rabbits.  Consider the fragility of lilies in this violent world.  And consider also their beauty.

Though it is fleeting, the lilies have a glory from God.  They adorn the earth.  Not everything in this fallen creation is red in tooth and claw.  Not everything is suffering and sorrow.  Consider the lilies.  Consider also chocolate, laughter, music, and good books.  They are signs that God is still at work to free us, to deliver us.

Death does not reign; it is not king.  God walked in the garden with Adam and Eve.  He came where He was needed.  He walked also in the garden of Gethsemane, where He was betrayed again. They came with clubs and swords to take Him away.  They had their way with Him outside the city, in the place of the skull.  He gave Himself over to their evil desires.  Then it was finished.  He was laid to rest, like a kernel of wheat, like the bulb of a lily beneath the ground, in the garden of the dead.  And He rose on Easter morning, sprouting to life unconquerable and immortal, the Victor over death, back out of the grave, undoing what sin had done.  He gave his tomb back, as good as new. Death is not in charge.  The lilies come forth each spring in glory.  Death is dead.  For Jesus lives.

Therefore, since this is so: do not be anxious.  Jesus lives for you.  Jesus loves you.  You may now be suffering many things in this fallen life.  The devil tempts you to waste your energy and effort, to compound your sorrow with worry about various things.  The devil would have you worry about money and how you will pay your bills or how you will retire well.  He would have you be obsessed with fear of viruses and social unrest and political chaos.  He doesn’t want you to focus on the peace you have in Christ; he wants you rather to fret and be afraid of what might happen in this passing and unstable world.  He will fill the broadcast news with tragedies and crimes and disasters. He will fill your social media feed with distortions and propaganda and useless information.  He will try to wear you down, to overwhelm you with sadness, to bury you with the impossibility of it all.

But then Jesus says, “Do not be anxious about your life.”  Doing so only hurts yourself and those whom you love.  Jesus lives.  He will provide.  The lilies do not toil or spin.  The birds do not sow, reap, or gather.  Your Father takes care of them.  Your Father most certainly will take care of you.  He always has taken care of you, not because of your own merits, but because of His Fatherly goodness.  He causes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and He sends rain on the just and the unjust.  

Today certainly has its troubles.  There is no doubt of that.  The call not to worry is not a denial of the very real troubles that exist in your life.  The demands of school and work need to be dealt with.  That family member needs a phone call, your spouse needs an encouraging word.  Your country needs your prayers; your neighborhood needs your involvement.  But those needs are comparatively small,  nothing to be anxious about.  They are well within your talents and gifts.

You have been placed by the Lord precisely where you are. He has made you who you are. He has given you these particular duties, these particular children and spouses and co-workers and friends and even those who are over you in government.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.  Nothing is gained by obsessing about tomorrow or taking on yourself burdens that are not yours to bear, or giving way to envy, bitterness, or fear.  Sufficient for the day is its own troubles.  You are where He has placed you, like a lily in a field.  You simply are given to respond in your particular place, in your stations in life, as you are able.  Do not be anxious about today’s troubles, whether there is hope for our society and culture, whether your children will be OK, whether the climate is growing warmer or colder.  Do what you have been given to do, and ask for forgiveness for your failings. The Lord will provide. He has put you in place on purpose, deliberately, even if you yourself feel unworthy to the task or cannot understand all of His purposes.  Focus on today, not yesterday and not tomorrow.  Rest in the certainty that Jesus lives, that Jesus is providing, and will always provide. The lilies don’t know what they are doing either; they are just being lilies. That is sufficient.

Death does not reign; it is not king.  The lilies prove it.  They are not moved by the troubles of this fallen world.  They belong to the Lord.  He provides according to His promise.  He takes care of them.  And you are worth so much more to Him than they are.  You are worth more than lilies.  If He takes care of them, He will surely take care of you.  So let your heart be at rest. Let go of your anxiety. The Lord has claimed you in the waters of Holy Baptism.  He has sent His Son to die for you.  He is not going to quit on you.  He will provide. You do not need to attain some level of perfection in your life in order to get God to pay attention to you and care for you.  Your Father loved you and chose you as His own even before you were even conceived and born.  He will take care of you as surely as He takes care of the lilies.  In Jesus you are perfect right now.  And in Jesus you will be perfected in the resurrection of your bodies, reflecting the glory of God that is greater than Solomon, greater than the lilies, where there is no more sorrow or pain or death.

The grass of the field is thrown into the oven, the Gospel says.  But out of the oven, after the violence of reaping and thrashing, after the mixing and kneading and resting of the dough, after the refinery of fire, out of the oven comes bread for the day, food for the eater.  The Lord does provide.  He goes where He is needed, even to the hellishness of Calvary, for you.  He stopped death, conquering the grave.  Out of that oven tomb comes the Bread of Life for you, that you might partake of His Body and be one with Him.  He is needed here, by you today.  And so He comes to you.  This Jesus is the Living Bread from heaven, who comes to feed you with Himself, to clothe you with His righteousness, to calm your hearts, to give you peace.  Death does not reign.  Life reigns.  For Jesus lives.

✠ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

(With thanks to the Rev. David Petersen)