You are on page 1of 4

Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (1880)

Matthew 6:24-34

"When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack
anything?" They said, "Nothing."
1

What would we say if the Lord asked us this question? Could we joyfully affirm
it? Certainly. Every day God serves us at the table; it has never lacked in the essentials,
and if it was missing, then it was unexpected advice. How could the true and good God
forget his many promises He has given to those who fear and trust Him!
2
But
nevertheless that God has given His own such promises, nevertheless, that we must say
with the disciples: "We have never lacked", our hearts of little faith makes much distress
and concern for us because of going through earthly things. We don't even want to
speak about those people who live without God, about children of this world, because
they have at one time sunk their whole heart into earthly things. They think they must
care for themselves, there is no God Who cares for them. No, even children of God are
tempted with it, and therefore it is necessary that we hear what Christ preaches to us
about true and false worries.

What does our dear Lord Christ preach to us about concerns?

1. about what we should not worry,
2. about what we should worry.

1.
a. The things about which we should not worry; these are the things that belong
to food and necessities of this temporal life: food and clothing.
3
Are these not concerns
that possess the hearts of men most of all? The thoughts and endeavors of children of
this world comes up almost entirely in them; but this corruption even adheres to
children of God. The Lord speaks precisely to this when He says, "Do not be anxious
about your life, what you will eat etc.";
b. what kind of worries is meant by this?
. not the worries of office.
4
The housefather has to provide for his
children, that they are well educated, that he clothes them, feeds them,

1
Luke 22:35.
2
For example Psalm 34:10-11
3
Matthew 6:25.
4
"The one who leads, with zeal", Romans 12:8.
sends them to school; the housemother, that she holds council for her
own; governing authority has to provide for the welfare of subjects. All
these concerns are rather concerns of love that serve the neighbor, as
God has ordered all these offices for this reason: that we benefit and
serve our neighbor in them. No one can uprightly attend to his office
without much care, effort, and hard work, even if it would be the least.
But God commands such a thing in Romans 12:7: "If anyone has an
office, then let him attend to his office.";
. but the concern of avarice and of service to mammon, i.e. the concern to
obtain, preserve, and multiply money and possessions; subsequently
the concern of dissatisfaction with what you have, the concerns of the
faintheartedness with low supply, the concerns of desperation in real
need. Now since these concerns tempt not only the world, but also the
children of God, the Lord thus shows how sinful and harmful they are;
c. why therefore should we not worry?
. they are incompatible with the honor and service that we owe God, "No
one can serve two masters" etc.
5
For what purpose does the heart have
desire and love, even all his thoughts and desires are directed there. If
mammon possesses the heart, then all of man stands in its service; he
makes works, lives only for his mammon; how can he also serve God
with it?
. they are lacking understanding, "Do not be anxious about your life"
etc.
6
Life is more than food, because it serves only for preservation of
life; the body is more than clothing, because it serves only for covering
the body. If God has given us life and limb without our concerns, how
could he not want to give us the rest, what life and limb needs! For
what purpose does our concerns require of us?
. they are vain, "And which of you by being anxious can add a single
hour to his span of life?"
7
whether this would be understood by the
length of life or of the stature of the body; because both is determined
by God
8
;
. they deny divine care, "Look at the birds of the air" etc.
9
If the birds and
flowers are an object of divine care, how much more man, who was
created according to the image of God, and is redeemed to eternal life;

5
Matthew 6:24.
6
Matthew 6:25.
7
Matthew 6:27.
8
Job 14:5; Zechariah 11:22.
9
Matthew 6:26, 28.
. they are heathen, "For the Gentiles seek after all these things" etc.
10
The
Gospel reveals to us the Father in Christ; no heathen has recognized
God as Father;
. they are an unnecessary, self-imposed load, "Therefore do not be
anxious about tomorrow" etc.
From all this let us see how all these concerns are the poisoned fruit of apostasy
from God, through which we averted from Him with our trust and have turned to
ourselves and to creatures; how we therefore should let ourselves be moved to daily
repentance by this corruption that we must daily still see and feel in us; then heartily
also thank Him for the fact that He has spared us from annoying and useless concerns
through so many and precious promises and through them has made room in our souls
for other and more important concerns that affect our eternal salvation. For we hear in
our Gospel not only about which we should not worry, but also about what we should
worry.

2.
a. The object of concern commanded by Christ is the kingdom of God and His
righteousness
11
;
. The kingdom of God is the kingdom of grace and salvation that Christ,
the only ediator and Redeemer, instituted by His blood and
established in the hearts of men by the Gospel, as He gives to them His
Holy Spirit Who works, strengthens, and sustains faith in Jesus Christ
through the Word, through which we are partakers of His redemption
from sin, death, and the devil and are His members who remain with
Him and grow into blessed perfection in eternal life;
. the righteousness of the kingdom of God is different than the world; is
a righteousness that comes from faith, that justifies us not only before
God, but also must have the fruit of righteousness. The righteousness of
the kingdom of God is therefore the entire life of the Christian, that he
leads in faith, that is still imperfect and remains imperfect, but
nevertheless must be a constant growing;
b. Why does the Lord Jesus Christ lay on us a concern regarding the kingdom of
God and His righteousness?
. not because that our concerns, works, running and wrestling would be
able to do something about it, that we come into the kingdom of God;
because it must first come to us, which happens when God lets His

10
Matthew 6:32.
11
Matthew 6:33.
Gospel be preached to us, works faith in our hearts, and makes us into
His children in baptism, but
. Christ has, rather, imposed a concern on us, because faith, if it is
without struggle and temptation, very soon wearies and falls asleep; it
has to cope with and to do with sin in the flesh, that he kills it; with the
devil and the world, that he fights off its temptations; also because faith,
if it is never exercised in obedience toward God, in love, humility,
patience, chastity, and every good work, loses its force and withers like
a dead tree.
It must therefore be the constant concern of Christians that he keeps the faith and
a good conscience, that he purely retains Word and Sacrament, from which faith comes
and from which he draws strength, desires with all diligence and earnestness for the
preservation and propagation of the Word, eagerly cares for the Preaching Office and
the Church, and prays to the Holy Spirit for himself and his fellow Christians for
protection and maintenance in the faith (1st, 2nd, and 3rd petitions of the Lord's
Prayer); the danger of souls must penetrate in us all the more, because we see how so
many of them fall on the wrong path, believe a long time and fall in the time of
temptation or chokes the Word again by cares of the world and of wealth and brings no
fruit.
The concern, my hearers, that we are on the right way to heaven and remain on
it, let it be your first and greatest concern. It is thus necessary that we forfeit eternal
good, where we neglect it; we need not to worry about the other; for He Who is true
promises; thus the other will add everything to you. If He will fulfill it, then truly He is
called Jesus. Amen.
G.A. Schick

You might also like