The context of Luke 12:32
“Fear not, little flock” chapter 1
Our verse under examination is sandwiched between a passage about anxiety in light of God’s provision (Luke 12:22-31) and a passage about watchfulness in light of the return of Christ ( Luke 12:35-40). Both topics should therefore inform our understanding of the meaning of Luke 12:32.
Anxiety in light of God’s provision (12:22-31)
And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
Verse 22 tells us to whom Jesus is addressing these words: his disciples. Disciples (Gk. μαθητάς, “learners” or “pupils”) is Luke’s usual term for referring to those who followed Jesus during his earthly ministry. This number would include not only the twelve apostles, but the seventy-two who were sent out by Jesus in Luke 10:1, and likely many women as well.
And what is Jesus’ command (for it is a command) to his disciples: Do not be anxious. The word translated anxious here (μεριμνᾶτε) can, according to BDAG, mean either “be unduly concerned” or “be concerned”. Which is in view here? Is Jesus’ forbidding undue concern with food and clothing, or any concern at all? And if the latter, what does this mean for us today?
Mεριμνᾶτε also appears earlier in the chapter in verse 11: And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say. The context here is someone being called to give an account for their association with Christ. Don’t worry, Jesus says, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what to say. It’s a just-in-time response. That leans toward the “give no concern” interpretation of μεριμνᾶτε here.
I think it’s interesting that the two categories of things we are instructed not to be anxious about in verses 22-31 are food and clothing - the basic needs of life. Jesus says that life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing (12:23). Yet God sees our needs and will graciously provide (, as he does for the ravens and lilies. You cannot add an hour to your life by worry (verse 25)!
Rather, we are instructed to seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you (verse 31). His refers to the Father, a deliberate word choice to remind us of God’s fatherly care and provision. There is a contrast between the kingdom of God and the cares of this world - even cares for basic provision! And yet he provides our needs.
How much of our mental energy is wasted on worrying about the future, about whether we will have enough, about the size of our 401(k)’s? I’m not saying retirement savings is bad - indeed, it is prudent - but anxiety over future needs is ultimately a lack of faith.
Note that his promise is that the Father will provide our needs, not our wants. God is not a vending machine or genii to provide our whims and luxuries. The provision is made so that we can be free to seek what really matters - the kingdom of God. In fact, earlier in the chapter the rich man who sought to accumulate wealth for himself is called a fool (verse 20).
Watchfulness in light of the coming of the Son of Man (12:35-40)
“Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
What would this have meant to Jesus’ original audience? We rightfully read this to refer to Jesus’ Second Coming, but this is before Jesus’ has even left! Leon Morris comments on this passage:
We naturally interpret this of the second coming, but many scholars feel that this would have been incomprehensible to Jesus’ hearers. They hold that Jesus is warning them to be ready for a crisis, which is probably to be seen in the events surrounding the crucifixion. It is hard to exclude such a meaning and there is a permanent application in that Jesus’ followers must always be ready to face the crises of life in the spirit of true discipleship. But it is impossible to hold that this exhausts the meaning. There is the fuller reference that looks forward to the second coming. (Morris, Leon. (1988). Luke: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 3, p. 234). InterVarsity Press, emphasis added.)
I think Morris is right here, particularly given Jesus’ use of the eschatological title Son of Man. That (and the frequent use of kingdom language) would have had his Jewish audience thinking of the Day of the Lord, when God’s agent (the Son of Man described in Daniel 7) would bring salvation to God’s people and judgment to his enemies.
What his audience did not yet know was that the coming of the kingdom was not a single event. Jesus’ incarnation (and particularly his death and resurrection) was the inauguration of the Kingdom of God, where the decisive victory over Satan and the forces of evil was accomplished. However, the kingdom does not come in its fulness until Christ’s Second Coming, when evil will be judged and destroyed and “made a footstool for his feet.”
The message of watchfulness remains the same. We do not know - we cannot know - when our Master will return. We don’t even know whether we’re in the first watch of the third. Our task is to be vigilant and alert.
It is in this context - God’s provision and God’s return - that we must understand Luke 12:32. To this verse we will turn in the next installment.