Stress or Rest?

Jesus on stress Phil Moore, London Most people don’t find {Jesus’ teaching on rest} very controversial. That’s because they haven’t understood it. They think that Jesus’ teaching about stress and worry is nothing more than fortune-cookie wisdom, nothing more than a first-century version of the Bobby McFerrin song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”. But it isn’t. It is much, much more radical than that. It tells us that stress is the chief symptom of our idolatry and self-worship. When we understand what Jesus said about stress and worry, it’s easy to see why it got him killed. The gospel writers tell us that the issue of stress and worry was a recurring theme in Jesus’ teaching. Luke tells us what he taught in the autumn of 29 AD, only five or six months before his enemies crucified him: Do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or ...