Christ Died for You So That the Worst Has Already Happened

15th Sunday after Trinity

August 28, 2016

Matthew 6:24-25

Christ Died for You So That the Worst Has Already Happened

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

She's calm. The woman in Zarephath who had lost her husband and now was on the brink of losing her son and her own life comes across as calm.

We hear her when Elijah comes to her town. He asks her for some water; she obliges. But when he asks her for some bread, she says she can't help. She only has enough bread to have one last meal with her son and then they will die from starvation. She's calm. She doesn't break down and cry. She is speechless—she tells a stranger that her son is going to die before her eyes How do you say this to anyone?

But she told Elijah. What else could she do? What good would worrying do? Worrying is just imagining the worst that can happen. It's hard to worry when the worst is happening.

This poor widow isn't the only one who is calm in the face of the worst that can happen.

Before they were thrown into the fiery furnace Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to a furious Nebuchadnezzar:

¹⁶“King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter [they hadn't bowed down to a golden idol]. ¹⁷If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and He will deliver us from your Majesty’s hand. ¹⁸But even if He does not, we want you to know, your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” (Daniel 3:16-18 NIV)

No groveling, no anger, no curses, no backing down. Just calm steadfast trust in the true God. Just so with Daniel before he was thrown into the lions' den. There's no record of screaming or crying. They just throw him in.

For Daniel and his fellow Jews, this calmness came from their trust in God's promise to them, which we summarize in the words of Jesus:

Seek first [My] kingdom and [My] righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33 NIV)

Daniel and his fellow Jews already had Christ and His kingdom; nothing, not even Death itself, could not rob them of Him and His righteousness.

So also Death cannot rob you of God's gift of being right with Him. Many of you have faced the death of a Christian loved one. You were sad, but underneath it was your calm abiding trust in Jesus' promise: believers cannot die. This is Jesus' promise to Martha, when her brother died. It is His promise to you when your brother dies:

²⁵“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die; ²⁶and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die. (Jesus 11:25-26 NIV)

What is strange is that we trust Jesus is the big things—death and resurrection—but we so often sin by worrying about the little things. We worry about school exams and college boards. We worry about paying for unexpected medical bills. We worry about retirement.

Our brains demand that these little things get the most attention and the most anxiety. These issues are the literal bread and butter of our lives: money, good schools, good jobs, good living after work.

But Jesus tells us: Don't worry. And He specific here about what not to worry for: Money and loving Money.

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. ²⁵Therefore 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?” (Matthew 6:24-25)

When we worry about Money, we are more foolish than birds and sadder than lilies. When you worry about Money, repent and trust in Jesus' forgiveness. If you are burdened with this Money-ache, come and see me and I will bring you Christ's forgiveness. Pray to Him for daily bread in the prayer He taught you. Daily pray for His swift return and deliverance from the burden of our imagination that is so often imagining the worst that can happen: the loss of money.

Instead daydream and imagine how the best thing has happened to you. Christ died and rose for you. He shed His blood on the cross and now gives you His blood—which is worth more than all the gold and silver in the world—for the forgiveness of your sins, especially your sins of worrying about Money.

Money can't love you, but He loves you, you know. He really does. He proved it again and again. His cross and when He had you Baptized. He love you, even when you think the worst is happening.

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Alleluia! Amen!