Lilies of the Field

Lilies of the Field: The Scripture
Matthew 6:28-34: "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Lilies of the Field?
This excerpt from the Sermon on the Mount has several comments relating to the land around it.

First, what was a lily of the field? So many new species have been introduced in recent centuries, and the Bible offers so few clues, that identifying biblical plants and fruits can be a challenge at best. (The infamous apple in the Garden of Eden may have actually been a peach - the only apples around were crabapples.)

"The lily of the valley has been equated to chamomile, crowfoot, various species of lily, narcissus, sea daffodil and lotus." So says my NIV Archaeological Study Bible, in the article 'The Flowers of Ancient Israel,' on page 1037. While the lily of the valley may be quite different from a lily of the field - frankly, I have no idea - it gives you an idea of how clueless modern scholars about biblical plants.

The greatest consensus for lilies of the field surround anemones, which would have been prolific on the fields of Galilee during the late spring, when this Sermon appears to have been given. (See the section on Solomon for a description.)

It's hard to see what's so special about them here, but you get an idea of what they look like.

Lilies of the Field: "Do not worry about tomorrow...
"...for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

My rather unsophisticated journal has relevance here: "Well, I gotta say, lilies wilt pretty fast when detached from their source of life!" Meaning, I picked one in the field and took it in the taxi - the taxi driver gave me a really strange look - but by the time we got ten minutes down the road it was a limp and lifeless disaster sitting in my lap. I left it in the taxi by mistake - just as well, I suppose. We can't separate from our source of life - God - and not wilt.

First century Galilee was an agrarian society with subsistence living. More coloquially, many peasants could hardly eat. Some had been taxed off of their ancestral land entirely, and were the wandering homeless looking for a day's work in Jesus' parable of the day laborers. (5 - 15% in most agrarian societies, depending on droughts, crop disease, etc.) Many others were in debt, and were tenants on the land their families had owned for centuries. Even those peasants that owned their ancestral land lived in day-to-day circumstances.

There's a good chance that this was some farmers ancestral land. Money was tight, the crops were bad that year, and a landlord confiscated his land because he couldn't pay the taxes. Now he's a tenant on the very land that had been in his family for generations.

These weren't the days of bi-weekly paychecks and investing in higher education for future financial rewards. There was often very little you could do to protect yourself against tomorrow's worries; fishermen fished up fish for dinner that evening, and much of the farmers meal came from the crop currently in his field.

Even in situations with larger time spans, they were frequently powerless; for example, crop disease, locusts and tomorrow's rain were all out of their control, as were many medical problems: death in childbirth, infant mortality, malaria and the common fever were all a danger.

So quit fretting about tomorrow, Jesus says. There isn't a thing in the world you can do about it, and tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has plenty of troubles all its own. (Amen!)

Lilies of the Field: "...for not even Solomon is dressed like one of these."
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry...

They are long-stemmed flowers with a bright red hue and a green and black center. Their five petals have an iridescent sheen to them, and, as I wrote in my journal, "they shine extra-pretty." A childs crayon could replicate the color of a daisy, but there's an unearthly beauty to these fragile anemones.

Solomon was a tenth-century B.C. king renowned for his wisdom and wealth, and Jesus made essentially the same statement I just did when he said "Not even Solomon in all his splendor is dressed like one of these."

In other words, if Solomon's money couldn't buy it, nobody's could. But God can provide it for free.