“Do not let your hearts be troubled.”
How many different ways does Jesus have to tell us to trust him? How often does he have to tell us not to fear?
Yet the anxieties and concerns creep in. The world’s voices whisper louder. Take matters into your own hands. You can’t trust God. That was the devil in the Garden of Eden, and it’s the message he whispers to you every single day. You can’t trust the Father.
But guess what? You can. He doesn’t want you to live in anxiety. He wants you to live in trust.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is preparing his friends for their hardest test yet: witnessing the Passion. “Do not let your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1).
Throughout his public ministry, he has told them repeatedly that he is in control: “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again” (John 10:18). He has told them not to fear: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).
Now, on his last night with them, he says it again. “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”
And they still scatter. They still worry. They still fear.
Jesus is saying the same thing to you today. Last weekend, he reminded us (yet again) that he is the Good Shepherd. We have nothing to fear. Sure, there is plenty to be anxious about, in the world, our culture, our personal lives. Yes, the problems of daily life threaten to suffocate us.
But are we listening to him?
“No one can take [you] out of my hand. My Father, who has given [you] to me, is greater than all, and no one can take [you] out of the Father’s hand” (John 28-29).
That’s his message for you today. “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” (Matthew 6:27)
You can live for this life, allowing yourself to be consumed in anxiety and worry. Or you can live for the next, and live as a child who completely trusts in his or her Father’s love.
You know the Way.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled.”
Photo by Dolina Modlitwy on Unsplash
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