SARS and SASS
And the seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked by worries, riches, and pleasures of this life, and they bring no fruit to maturity. Luke 8:14 NASB
Worries – SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) first appeared in China in 2002. Its current strain is COVID-19. But SARS has a much more ancient history, at least by analogy. Yeshua even speaks about it. It’s the Greek word sympnígō. The verb comes at the end of the sentence, after worries, riches, and pleasures. Accordingly, it isn’t just worry that chokes us. It’s all three of these. The biblical cause of SARS isn’t some Chinese virus. It’s self-concern. Concern about those inevitable uncontrollable circumstances of life. Concern about money. Concern about pleasures. These are the things that cause us Severe Acute Spiritual Syndrome (SASS), and they might cause SARS as well. After all, body, mind, and soul aren’t separate elements of personality, are they?
In biblical terms, sympnígō is like drowning or strangulation. You just can’t breathe! The pressure on your lungs increases. Your life is constricted. Everything is too much. And all because you tried to control life, tried to gain riches, tried to find pleasure wherever you could.
Perhaps we need to examine the Greek for “worries” as well. There’s actually quite a bit of history to this word group. I’ve added some RED highlights.
Greek merimnáō, promerimnáō, mérimna.
- Greek Usage. This group covers much the same range of meaning as the English “care”: a. “to care for someone or something,” b. “to be concerned or anxious,” c. “to be intent on or strive after,” d. “to be anxiously expectant,” e. “to be solicitous,” and f. “to brood, speculate, or inquire.” The plural mérimnai is often used for the cares of life which disturb sleep, from which refuge is sought in love or drink, and which only death can end.
- Hellenistic Jewish Use. The group is used in the LXX for intentness, for pondering, and for anxiety or anxious care. . .
- The NT
- mérimna and merimnán occur several times in the NT but only rarely in post-NT works. The usual Greek meanings are to be found, e.g., caring for in Mt. 6:25ff., intentness in Mt. 6:31, anxiety in 1 Pet. 5:7, sorrow in Lk. 8:14, and pondering in Mt. 10:19.
- The NT realizes that life is swayed by care. Concern is unavoidable but it is given a new orientation. Liberation from it comes as one casts it upon God, not because God grants every wish, but because prayer grants freedom from care. To be anxious about food or clothing is opposed to concern for the kingdom of God (Mt. 6:26ff.). Naturally we have to work (1 Th. 2:9 etc.), but we cannot secure life by care; our concern must be for the kingdom. To care for the world is to fall victim to it. If care gains control over us, it leads to apostasy (Lk. 21:34). We must focus on the one thing needful (Lk. 10:41–42), confronting worldly ties with a hōs mḗ (1 Cor. 7:29ff.). We belong to the coming aeon and must be ready for it (Lk. 21:34). But this entails care for others as members of the same body (1 Cor. 12:25).
- In Mt. 6:25ff. merimnán is self-concern relative to the future. The questions show that worry is what is meant. It is this that makes a proper concern foolish by fostering the illusion that concern for the means of life can grant security to life itself. The future is not in our hands. We cannot add one cubit (either length of days or stature) by worrying. The right course is to seek first the kingdom, and God will see to other things, not removing uncertainty, but taking the worry out of it. A bit of secular wisdom drives home the point in v. 34. It is ridiculous to add tomorrow’s worry to that of today.[1]
To Bultmann’s analysis we need only add a comment from Kaufmann:
“The most advanced manifestations of paganism show a tendency to regard man as able to save himself by his own devices. . . Salvation . . . is his own concern, not the gods’ . . .”[2]
Wherever we find a tendency to believe we can save ourselves, no matter what form or process is involved, we are practicing paganism. Money, sex, and power are not gods. They cannot save. But they are very persuasive, because they appeal to a basic tenet of the yetzer ha’ra, namely, I can do it myself. The biblical worldview is uncompromisingly dependent. There are no personal rights, no individual procedures, no ritual patterns for salvation. It’s up to God. Period. He promises to uphold His word, and we are invited to accept that promise. But it’s His guarantee, not ours. Whenever we begin to act as if we own our lives, our destinies, we are slipping into a pagan world. In the Bible, life is a gift on loan from God.
Breathe!
Topical Index: choke, sympnígō, worry, mérimna, Luke 8:14
[1] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (pp. 584–585). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.
[2] Yehezkel Kaufmann, The Religion of Israel, p. 59.
