When Jesus tells us not to worry about our lives, He is saying not to worry about our lives as an all-inclusive admonition. He is telling us not to worry about our lives, about the food that we need, about the clothes that we need.
We so need to hear these words. Even those of us who have walked with our King for years, need to hear His words. It is very normal for us to worry, and Jesus is calling us out of what is normal for the world into a new city, a new heaven, a new earth, where God’s sovereignty is the operating principle of life, not anxiety.
Peter Leithart writes that a New Kingdom is “being heralded in the midst of the corruptions of worldly kingdom, a new city in the midst of the old cities” (Leithart, p. 158).
Then Leithart ties it all together: “the Old City is a city of anxiety.”
Anxiety is the operating foundation of the world. It is what drives our institutions, our schools, our politicians, our government, our military...
We see and hear this all the time.
