The former tax-collector continues to ponder…

Now, it’s one thing dreaming about becoming rich, it’s quite another worrying about how you are going to make ends meet!   

Many people do… some with more cause than others.  I’ve never really had to worry about putting food on the table, but I know there are those who do.  How do they manage?   Do they anxious?  Do they get jealous?  Do they get bitter and angry?   I think I can understand why they might!  I think, maybe, Jesus understands it too.

I don’t know about you, but whenever I am stressing or fretting about something, I find a good walk helps.  Maybe up a mountain, through the countryside, or along the coast …anywhere away from all the distractions and far enough to get a little breathless and feel the heart pumping goodness around the body. Best of all, somewhere with big skies or giant vistas, so that the magnificence of God’s creation can break through and put everything else into perspective.

It seems that Jesus agrees with this strategy.  He loves to take us walking and delights in pointing out the wonders of creation that we discover along the way.  We can learn a lot from nature, he keeps telling us.

“Think about those birds we stopped to watch as they were feeding on the seeds and hedgerows,” he told us. “Didn’t you just love that moment?  So tame…. So acrobatic… and so ingenious!  But those birds didn’t sweat away to plough the field and sow the seed.     They don’t rush to bring the harvest in, nor build great barns in which to keep it.  No!  God feeds them!  Full stop!  Everything they need is given!  And you are worth more than those birds!

“And remember that field, red with glorious poppies?  And the bright marigolds and wonderful blue cornflowers – such a glorious array of wild flowers?  They didn’t slave away for hours in some sweat-shop making their own clothes, did they?  God clothed them!  In robes finer than even the royal tailor can make, too!  And those flowers and all the grass – that God clothes – are gone in a day!  If God bothers with all the effort to clothe something so fragile and temporary as the grass, don’t you think he’ll be all the more certain to see you clothed too?  So, what are you worrying about? It’s pointless anyway!”

Do you remember Zacchaeus, that little guy in Jericho who had to climb up the tree to see Jesus?   He came to mind as Jesus continued.  Could Zacchaeus, I wondered… can anyone … grow one more inch just by worrying about it?  Of course not!  Maybe Zacchaeus didn’t like being small.  Maybe he worried he’d be overlooked because he was little?  Maybe he thought he’d have to get bigger in some way to attract Jesus’ attention?  What rubbish!   Jesus saw him up the tree, didn’t he?  And he surprised everybody by inviting himself to tea at Zach’s place!   Zacchaeus mattered to Jesus.  And what a difference knowing that he mattered made to Zacchaeus!  I was amazed at how free he became once he knew he was loved… how he could so easily let go.  No sooner had he met Jesus and he was selling up and giving so much away to the poor! His wealth didn’t matter to him so much anymore.  He didn’t have to cling onto his riches as though everything depended upon them.  He knew that it didn’t!   Amazing!  And that’s how free Jesus wants us all to be!

Know this; worrying makes absolutely no difference to the situation at all, it simply exhausts you!  And, Jesus is adamant, worrying actually reveals just how little faith we have.  When we worry, we are no different to the pagans, he reminded us.  They have an excuse; they have no-one to trust and believe in.  But we do!  Jesus reminds us again and again that we have, in God, a loving parent – one who knows what we need and sees it as his place to provide for us.

That’s his job. Ours task is to trust him to do it and then get on with living a life that shows we really do trust him. When we do that – when we ‘focus on his kingdom’, as Jesus put it – we will discover  that God provides these things.

But it’s hard, setting aside our concerns about making ends meet, isn’t it?  When we have children and other people that we are responsible for, how dare we be so reckless?  It seems so irresponsible … neglectful even.   Love demands our concern, doesn’t it?  What kind of a parent wouldn’t care about their children’s need?

And yet, isn’t that exactly Jesus’ point?  We have such a parent, don’t we?!  It’s not all on us!  When will learn to relax, and then to flourish, as we bank on God? 

I think, when we do, it will follow that the poor will have less to worry about and more to enjoy – Why? Because, like Zacchaeus, we will be freed to stop worrying about ourselves and happy to share with them.