Scripture: Matthew 6:25-34
In The Lion King, the lions are the “royal family” of the animal kingdom… And one lion, Mufasa, is king. And at the beginning of the movie, everyone is celebrating the birth of Mufasa’s son, Simba. Well, almost everyone…
[Show Clip #1]
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that the Book of Judges defines that period of time in between the death of Joshua and the rise of the monarchy in Israel. The last judge to rule over Israel, and the man who would anoint both King Saul and King David, was Samuel. And the first chapter of the Book of 1 Samuel tells of his birth.
Samuel’s mother, Hannah, had been unable to have children. Her husband, Elkanah, also had another wife, who hadchildren—a situation that, as is usually the case in the Old Testament, brought nothing but heartache.
Listen to verses 7 and 8:
Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. And Elkanah, her husband, said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?”
You’ve gotta admit that’s kind of romantic. “Aren’t I enough for you? Isn’t my love enough for you? More than enough for you! In fact, am I not more to you than ten sons?”
And perhaps Elkanah would be “enough” for Hannah… except for one thing: Hannah’s husband is married to another woman who doesn’t have any trouble getting pregnant.
Hannah’s problem isn’t simply childlessness. It’s that her longing has become covetousness. She cannot see that God himself is enough for her.
And that’s often our problem too. What usually makes us most miserable in life, after all, is not that we don’t have enough; it’s that we don’t have what someone else has.
Jesus says, by contrast, “If you have me, you possess the greatest treasure imaginable.” The more satisfied we are in Christ, the less power everything else has over our hearts.
I told the hiring committee, when I first interviewed for this job last year that what I’m happiest about in my 20-plus years of pastoral ministry, is that my three children love Jesus more than anything or anyone else, and each is very active in loving and serving them in their local churches.
This, of course, is often not the case with pastor’s kids—“PKs.” They see the church from the inside. They watch their parents get hurt. Sometimes they walk away from church—or even from the faith.
It’s only by God’s grace that my children believe. I know Christian parents carry the heartbreak of children who don’t. Faith can’t be forced.
But I praise God that he graciously enabled my children to separate the sometimes difficult church-related stuff from Jesus. In other words, my kids always understood that even if their dad was having a difficult time at “work,” that had nothing to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and our personal relationship with Christ.
When my daughter was 16 she got badly hurt and gossiped about and slandered when her dad had to confront that church’s very powerful youth and children’s director. Elisa finally said, “Dad, do you mind if I go to a different Methodist church?” And I gladly said, “I do not mind.”
Elisa learned something I pray all of us learn: church can disappoint you, but Jesus never will. Church can’t satisfy the deepest hunger of your soul. Jesus can.
That’s the kind of church I want Five Forks Methodist to be—not a place that merely offers religion—especially the dangerous religion of what I call “Church-ianity”—rather, I want Five Forks to be a place where people encounter the living Christ. Everything else pales in comparison to him.
In this next clip, Mufasa’s son Simba and Simba’s friend Nala give in to Scar’s temptation, they lie to their parents, and they go to the elephant graveyard, where they encounter some of Scar’s evil agents, a group of hyenas, who are threatening to kill them.
[Show Clip #2]
Earlier Scar warned his brother, Mufasa, not to turn his back on him… and, truthfully, Mufasa should have heeded the warning. He keeps turning his back on Scar, and it eventually costs him everything. Scar is clearly a Satanic figure. And we’re reminded of the apostle Peter’s warning in 1 Peter 5:8, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”[1]
Neither Mufasa, Simba, nor Nala saw Scar in the shadows at the end of that second clip, but Scar looked a lot like a lion on the prowl, “looking for someone to devour.”
But here’s the problem: The devil rarely looks like that… He rarely looks like some evil, frightening, shadowy, menacing figure when he attacks us. If only he did!
Instead, the devil and his words seem attractive… he seems to be looking out for our best interests! The devil sounds like the voice of reason!
No, the devil may be a roaring lion on the prowl, looking for someone to devour, but the Bible also says that “Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”[2] And that’s the way he appears to Simba in the clip.
And that’s the way he’ll usually appear to us, too!
Well, eventually Scar’s evil plans pay off: He causes Mufasa to sacrifice his life in order to save his son. And then Scar shames Simba into running away from home… because Scar convinces him that he’s to blame for Mufasa’s death.
When Simba runs away, he makes a couple of delightful friends—a meerkat and a warthog—who teach him a song…
[Show Clip #3]
Surely one of the most neglected commands of our Lord comes from the Sermon on the Mount: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.”[3]
So… is Jesus saying, in so many words, “Hakuna Matata”?
Not quite.
Hakuna Matata wouldn’t necessarily be a bad philosophy of life—except it never explains why we shouldn’t worry “for the rest of our days.”
Jesus does explain it: “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”[4]
What makes “no worries” possible is knowing that our heavenly Father is always caring for us. That’s the doctrine of God’s providence.
But here’s where “Hakuna Matata” goes badly wrong—and maybe we do too: “It’s our problem-free philosophy.”
Problem-free…?
Jesus promises that our Father will take care of us—not that we won’t have problems!
We see this throughout the Psalms—even in the beloved Psalm 23: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.”[5]
Notice that Jesus the Good Shepherd doesn’t always lead us around the dark, scary valley. Sometimes he leads us right through it.
Or listen to Psalm 34:19: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.” David understood that affliction and deliverance often go hand in hand.
Or think of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. God delivered them from the fiery furnace—but only after they endured the fear of walking toward it—uncertain whether God would rescue them or not. As they told King Nebuchadnezzar, “Our God is able to deliver us… but if not…”[6] Their faith rested not in a problem-free life, but in a faithful God.
The Christian life is not trouble-free. But it is also never God-forsaken.
In this next clip, the prodigal son, Simba, begins his journey home. With the help of Rafiki, he remembers a truth that changes everything.
[Show Clip #4.]
[sing] Regrets, I’ve had a few
But then again, too few to mention…
That’s what the old Frank Sinatra song says. Many people, I know, would disagree and say that they’ve had more than a few regrets! How about you? Especially if you’re so committed to doing things “your way”!
Not long ago, I talked to a woman who was part of a Narcotics Anonymous group that met at the church I was serving. But this woman told me that—praise God—she was celebrating ten years of being clean, of being free of drugs. She is a deeply Christian woman now, and she gives God all the glory.
But she went on to tell me, with shame, that she had been a drug user and an addict for twenty years prior to that… And she deeply regretted all the harm she had caused to people she loved, not to mention to herself. She had even been in prison.
“If only I hadn’t done this… if only that hadn’t happened to me… If only I hadn’t hurt those people.”
Those are two small words that carry enormous weight: If only…
And I completely sympathized with this woman saying “if only.” While I’ve never been a drug addict, I certainly know the regret of causing harm to others because of my sin! And I’m tempted to think of a thousand things in my past that I wish had been different, or had worked out differently. I’m tempted to say, “If only…”
Maybe you are, too?
If so, I want to encourage us with the very words that I shared with this recovering addict. It’s something that Paul says—about himself—in 1 Timothy chapter 1. Listen to verse 15:
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.[7]
Notice Paul says, “I am the worst.” He’s not pulling punches, but keep in mind that Paul caused great harm in his past. He was a violent persecutor of the early church, and some of his actions even led to the deaths of Christians. That’s really, really bad! Surely Paul was tempted to want to rewrite his own past… to be filled with regret… to wish that things had turned out differently.
“If only…”
But not so fast!
He goes on in verse 16:
But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.[8]
Do you see what Paul is saying? In so many words, he’s saying, “God is using my past, even including—especiallyincluding—the fact that I was the worst sinner ever as an encouragement to other sinners: If God can show mercy to me… if he can save me… if he can use me for his kingdom… what do you think he can do for you?”
“If my past,” Paul says, “hasn’t disqualified me from God’s love and grace and mercy and purposes, why do you think your past disqualifies you. If God has done this for me, think what he can do for you!”
And I told this woman, this recovering addict, the same thing! I told her, “I understand that you wish these things in your past had been different, but there are people in your life right now who are struggling with addiction, and they don’t see a way out. They feel trapped in the same cycle that held you for twenty years. And God will use the very fact that you were that kind of person for twenty years to prove to other addicts that they, too, can find hope and healing and recovery and salvation!”
Listen: If you are a child of God through faith in Christ, there simply is no “if only”: God hasn’t wasted anything in your past! He is redeeming all of it, preparing you for what he has next. And what he has next is glorious.
Besides, let me ask you this: Do you like the person you are today?
I do. Not because I’m a finished product—hardly!—but because I can see what God is doing in me.
Well, God loves the person he’s making you into as well. And think about this: he’s been shaping you for years—using joys, failures, victories, and even sins he’s forgiven. Had your past been different, you’d be a different person today.
And God doesn’t love some imaginary version of you who never failed. He loves you—and he’s making you into a new person.
In this last clip, Simba goes home to claim his crown, but that means taking it away from his evil Uncle Scar, who has been reigning in his absence. Under Scar’s foolish stewardship, the once lush savanna has become a barren wasteland.
[Show Clip #5.]
Timon looked at the barren wasteland that Simba’s kingdom had become under his Uncle Scar’s illegitimate reign and said, “Ugh! We’re going to fight your uncle for this? Talk about your fixer-upper!” But Simba loved these lands… and its citizens who were starving and in need of rescue.
That’s not a bad symbol for who we are as human beings. As we saw in Genesis chapter 2, God endowed us humans with the ability to reflect his image in the world. He made us stewards over his Creation. Our responsibility was to love and obey him.
But like Scar, we chose to do things our way instead. Remember humanity’s first sin, in the Garden of Eden? The serpent promised Adam and Eve that if only they would disobey God—and eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—then they would become like God. And ever since then, we humans have tried to be like God—we’ve wanted to sit on the throne and be in charge of our lives, rather than submit to God and do his will.
One problem with this is that we’re really terrible at trying to be God. And we can doom-scroll news headlines and social media posts to see the many deadly consequences of our efforts!
We’ve made a mess of our lives and our world. And the name for our rebellion against God is sin.
And yet… like Simba, God looked at the mess that we sinners had made of his good world—how we humans were spiritually starving for God, how we were dying because of our sins, how we were in desperate need of rescue—and said, “I love them and want to save them”—even though we humans are also fixer-uppers. But God believed we were totally worth fixing.
God also believed we were totally worth fighting for.
Because make no mistake, like Simba in the clip we just saw, God also had to fight for us.
God fought for us when he sent his only begotten Son Jesus into the world—who…
Though he was God,
… did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.[9]
And that “criminal’s death” he died, he died for you and me!
And see, this is where the climax of The Lion King is very different from the gospel of Jesus Christ. In The Lion King, as we saw in that clip, Simba takes on Scar—and throws him off of Pride Rock, ultimately allowing Scar to suffer the death penalty for his treason against his one true king.
We watch that scene and think, “Good! Scar is getting exactly the punishment that he deserves!” It’s only by Scar suffering that punishment that the Pride Lands and all its citizens can be saved.
But that doesn’t work for us humans! The only way God could save us is by not giving us the punishment that we deserve!
Because guess what…?
We are Scar. We’re the ones who’ve rebelled against our one true King and deserve the death penalty!
And because he loved us more than we can comprehend, God—in the Person of His Son Jesus—took the punishment we deserved in our place! In other words, if King Simba were like King Jesus, he himself would have to jump off of Pride Rock—into the waiting claws and teeth of the hyenas down below.
Remember the two criminals on the cross in Luke’s gospel? The first one said, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!”[10]
But that criminal didn’t understand: the only way Jesus could save those two criminals—and every other human who ever lived, including you and me—was by refusing to save himself. Jesus could save himself… or us… and he chose to save us.
And he did so out of love: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”[11]
Friends, this is why we come to the Lord’s Table.
The King who refused to save himself now invites us to feast at his table… to remember his sacrifice for us… and to receive his grace…
[1] 1 Peter 5:8 NLT
[2] 2 Corinthians 11:14
[3] Matthew 6:25a ESV
[4] Matthew 6:26 ESV
[5] Psalm 23:4 ESV
[6] Daniel 3:17-18
[7] 1 Timothy 1:15 NIV
[8] 1 Timothy 1:16 NIV
[9] Philippians 2:6-8 NLT
[10] Luke 23:39 ESV
[11] John 3:16 ESV