Introduction
What is it that you are worrying about? Are you worried about Global warming and the looming environmental crisis? Perhaps you are worried about the present financial upheaval – can I afford my mortgage payments, will I have a pension when I retire? Maybe you are worried about your health – or that of your loved ones. What about children, do you worry how they are going to turn out, will they succeed at their studies, get a steady job, find a loving partner? It is easy to be worried about many things. As I was thinking about this I was reminded of the other use of the word worry – not letting go of a situation, like a dog worrying at a bone. Often we do need to worry away at a situation until it is resolved but it seems to me that more often it is the situation that worries away at us. We think we have resolved something and found peace then it comes back again. (eg.)
Jesus and his disciples had plenty of reason to be worried. The context for this passage from John 14 is the upper room at the end of the Last Supper. Judas has gone to strike his deal with the religious leaders and Jesus had just predicted that Peter was going to deny him. Jesus knew that his end was near and in this context he says “Do not let your hearts be troubled, trust in God, trust also in me” John14:1
Don’t worry
The first part of this statement seems quite straightforward until we ask the “Y.B.H.” question. How do we prevent our hearts from being troubled? Sometimes it can seem a bit like corporal Jones in Dad’s Army saying “Don’t panic!” – the more we tell ourselves not to worry the more worried we become. The first thing to do is to identify the source of our worries or troubles. In his famous teaching which we call the sermon on the mount Jesus identifies a number of these: treasure, food & drink, appearances, life-span (Matt.6:19-34). I suspect all of us are aware of the specific areas in our lives about which we worry most. Worrying becomes a habit and as with any such bad habit needs to be nipped in the bud as soon as we become aware of it. Troubled hearts arise from troubled minds. It is as we think about these things that they then start to disturb our hearts. We need to heed Paul’s advice in Romans 12 to be “transformed by the renewing of our minds” Rom.12:2.
Trust in God
Jesus goes on to give positive advice about how to avoid worry – by trusting in God / himself. So often the root cause of our worries is a lack of trust in God. Going back to the sermon on the mount Jesus spells this out. “your heavenly Father knows that you need them” Matt.6:32. There is no point in worrying about the essentials of life, God knows that we need them, trust Him. I realise this is easy for us to say from the context of our affluent Western society however remember the context in which Jesus was saying this – a time when not simply the essentials but life itself was at risk. Even when life itself is ending trust God. Why? – because a more glorious life awaits those who trust in him. Stephen knew this and trusted in God even as the first stones were being thrown.
It seems to me there are two reasons why we fail to trust in God, firstly our God is too small and secondly we see ourselves as too small.
The latter is addressed in the reading we had from Peter. We fail to trust God because we see ourselves as insignificant in his sight yet according to Peter we are: “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God” 1Pet.2:9
Application
Jesus is fully aware that his disciples will face many kinds of trouble. His re-assurances in these verses are based on fore-knowledge of what was to happen over the following few days. So much so that towards the end of this discourse he says “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 Hallelujah!