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A Case for Positivity
Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Luke 12:32-34 (NRSV)
Luke 12:32-34 (NRSV)
Don't think about all those things you fear
Just be glad to be here
From "Hayling" by FC Kahuna
In Jesus' day, the Jewish people often looked to rabbis to settle their disputes.1 One day, a man approaches Jesus and asks him to get his older brother to divide the family inheritance with him. In regards to inheritance, the rule of primogeniture was the custom: the oldest son was to receive two-thirds of the family estate.2 To someone like myself whose culture emphasizes fairness, it does not seem right that things like gender or order of birth should privilege one child over another. Naturally, I would expect Jesus, who typically sides with the underprivileged, to side with the younger brother on this matter.
Apparently Jesus is not the least bit concerned with this particular dispute. More interested in the way the man regards material possessions, Jesus warns him to guard himself against greed. He then tells him a parable about a farmer who is blessed with an extremely abundant harvest of grain.3 The farmer has more grain than he ever imagined he would have, so he does not have enough room to store it all. He decides to demolish his barns and to build bigger barns. With plenty of grain stored up, he will be able to live a life of ease for many years.
Sean Gladding points out that, if this particular farmer had a good harvest, then it is likely that other farmers had good harvests as well. If they all took their excess grain to the marketplace, the prices of grain would plummet, and the poor would greatly benefit from the low prices. If the farmer stored up his grain and waited until there was a famine to sell it, he could charge whatever he wanted and make a killing.4
Unfortunately, the farmer soon dies, and what happens to his grain is undetermined.
Jesus then encourages His audience not to worry about their needs but rather to rely on the God who provides for all of creation, even the birds, the flowers, and the grass. Jesus promises that, if we seek God's kingdom, all we need will be provided for us.5 By transitioning from a teaching on greed to a teaching on worry, perhaps Jesus is implying that our relationship with our material possessions is somehow connected to our anxiety.
In the series of teachings commonly known as the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches us a number of things about our relationship with our material possessions. He encourages us not to treasure temporal, earthly things that ultimately end up rusted, busted, or boosted but to instead treasure eternal things that can never be taken away from us.6 Soon afterward, He reminds us that we can serve either God or money: we cannot serve both.7 Between these two rather straightforward teachings, Jesus makes a statement about our eyes.
Jesus says that, if a person's eye is healthy, then he or she will be full of light but that, if a person's eye is unhealthy, then he or she will be full of darkness.8 Our eyes are light receptors that give us the sense of sight. If our eyes function properly, then our lives will be full of light and color. Without light, there is no sight, so, if our eyes don't function properly, we will, in one sense, live in darkness. The very fact that this teaching is nestled between two teachings about material possessions would seem to imply that it is somehow related. That said, I do not think that Jesus is referring to our literal sense of sight.
If our outlook on life is generally negative, we will find ourselves full of anxiety, and when we're afraid, our priority becomes self-preservation. Anxious about the future, we become greedy as we start stockpiling money and goods. Greed and accumulation fuel our fear. We become paranoid that others who are more desperate, less prepared, and less scrupulous might want to benefit from what we have accumulated, so we take measures to protect what is ours. Given enough time, the farmer in Jesus' story might have built guard towers and razor wire fences around his new barns.
On the other hand, if our outlook on life is more positive, we will experience less anxiety. With less anxiety, we will hold our material possessions a bit more loosely, so we will be free to be generous with them. Our focus in life will not be on accumulating the material goods we think will protect us from future hardships, and we will be free to serve higher causes as we seek the Kingdom of God.
If we live happier, less anxious, more generous and loving lives through positivity, then should we not try to maintain a positive outlook on life? Jesus teaches us not to worry about our needs but to trust in God as we seek God's kingdom. Perhaps the facts, figures, and data that would give us reason to be negative are not quite as truthful as we think.
Ultimately, it all comes down to what we choose to trust,
the nightly news or the Good News,
the kingdoms of the world or the Kingdom of God,
the "as is" or the "already" and "not yet,"
the visible or the Invisible,
our perceptions of reality or Ultimate Reality.
Notes:
- William Barclay. The Gospel of Luke, Revised Edition. 1975, Westminster Press. p. 164
- See Deuteronomy 21:15-17.
- Luke 12:13-21
- J.R.D. Kirk and Sean Gladding. "Slavery and Food, Sex and Money with Sean Gladding." Homebrewed Christianity's LectioCast, 07/25/2015.
- Luke 12:22-34
- Matthew 6:19-21
- Matthew 6:24
- Matthew 6:22-23
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