“Don’t worry, be happy,” sings Bobby McFerrin in his 1988 hit. He explains that whilst life is full of difficult situations, worrying does nothing to change them; if anything, it makes them even worse.
 

The words of Jesus, which he addresses to his disciples and which Luke and Matthew recount to us (Lk 12:22–34, cf. Mt 6:25–34), read in a similar vein. Jesus begins with a call that at first seems very extreme. Not to worry about food and clothing means not to worry about meeting basic human needs. The fact that this demand strikes us as so profound, so radical, is precisely what Jesus criticises. Because people worry so much about these things, they stockpile supplies and focus entirely on meeting these needs. But this leaves hardly any room for other things.

In the version handed down to us by Luke, Jesus asks his disciples who can add even a single moment to their life through their worry. The answer to this rhetorical question is ‘no one’. So if worry cannot even add a single moment to life, what is the point of it?

To make it clear to the disciples that worrying about food and clothing is unnecessary, Jesus draws comparisons from the animal and plant kingdoms, explaining to them that God will take care of them. God also cares for the ravens, which neither sow nor store up provisions, and he cares for the lilies, which are so splendidly clothed. Just as God cares for these, so too will he care for people and the disciples, providing them with clothing and food so that they need not worry about such things. “Your Father knows that you need these things.” (Luke 12:30)

Now, this is by no means a call to sit back and wait for God to provide for you. It is not about ceasing to care for one’s own well-being altogether, nor is it about shifting all responsibility onto God, who will sort it out. Rather, Jesus’ call is about perspective.

Jesus, just as he reports from his Father, is clear about what people need to survive and that they do need it. This is made abundantly clear in many of his stories and parables. But he is equally clear that God lovingly turns towards people and cares for them. This is his message, his perspective, which he seeks to convey to people and which he also seeks to convey to his disciples in these words about worry.

With this perspective, this certainty promised to us through Jesus’ actions and words, concern for what we need to live and the many things that otherwise occupy us need not play the most important role in our lives. We must not neglect them, but neither do we need to worry about them, for such worry leads nowhere. It does not make our lives or the world any better.

When we put these worries aside, no longer regarding them as the most important thing, space is freed up. Space for concern for what God wants, and thus also for what is important to our neighbours. For our focus on God cannot be separated from our focus on our neighbour. Love for God and love for our neighbour belong together. And we can turn to both of these if we take Jesus’s call to heart and do not worry about everything.

Oscar Cuypers