GOD, SPARROWS, & HAIRS

                                                    GOD, SPARROWS & HAIRS

Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.

“I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Luke 12:1-7.

Introduction

Jesus had been doing battle with the scribes and Pharisees. He’s been calling them many names and had been pronouncing many woes on them. “You foolish people! Unmarked graves!” and so forth.

At the tail-end of Luke 11 we see that the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had begun to oppose Him fiercely. They were besieging Him with questions. They were trying to catch Him out in something He would say.

As generally happens whenever there is a scrap, a crowd gathers. However, this is a crowd of many thousands. And they are trampling on top of each other. Jesus turns to His disciples and says, “Be on your guard against of the yeast of the Pharisees” Luke 12:1. What is this “yeast of the Pharisees”? Jesus tells His disciples that it is “hypocrisy”.

I’m not much of a baker. In fact, I know next to nothing about baking. However, I do know that yeast or leaven is something that works its way through a whole batch of dough. It’s what makes dough puff up when it’s baked. The Pharisees are puffed up religious people. And they have risen against Jesus! What is the problem with the Pharisees? Again, it’s hypocrisy.

As you know, a hypocrite is an actor, a stage-player. These Pharisees are religious phonies. But Jesus can see right through their charade. He’s exposing them for the phonies they are. And He’s not afraid of them.

He is warning that hypocrites and those who are like them are in danger of hellfire. No, Jesus is not scared of them. And He is telling His disciples not to fear them. Then He says,

“I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell.”   

Did you get that? The disciples of Jesus Christ are to fear God not men! It’s a reverential fear. A respectful fear. In other words, it’s infinitely better to have God as your Friend than your enemy.

So, that’s the background to what we’re looking at. The main verses I’d like us to focus our attention on is Luke 12:6-7:

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Luke 12:6-7.

God

Have you ever noticed how much the Bible is about numbers? Five sparrows. Two pennies. Even the hairs on your head are numbered. Hair today. Gone tomorrow?

Whenever I’m on a break from army chaplaincy I grow a beard and let my hair grow longer. But off comes the beard and click go the shears whenever it’s time to get back into it. It’s all about army discipline. Jesus has been disciplining His disciples. Fear God not man. Men can only kill your body. But God can destroy your body and then cast you into that terrible place called, Gehenna, “hell, the fires of Tartarus, the place of punishment in Hades,” which that word here means according to the Analytical Greek Lexicon Revised.

If you were there, and you heard Jesus talk like this, your knees would be knocking. You’d be trembling like a leaf. You’ve just watched Jesus take head on the scribes and Pharisees. And these puffed-up hypocrites are all fired up against Him. Gnashing their teeth! You’d be thinking that they would be coming after you too. Guilt by association and all of that.

Well, that’s what Jesus is going on about. He’s telling His disciples not to fear men who can kill only your body. Rather you’ve to fear God who can kill your body and throw you into the place of torment!

Have you ever faced an angry mob that wanted to punch your lights in? I remember one time as a youth being chased by a gang of boys. They were throwing bricks that were whizzing past my head! Somehow, I managed to escape. However, that evening I was at a youth club and saw a bunch of them. My legs started to shake, then my whole body as I invisibly made my way toward the exit. I managed to escape unscathed again. But I was terrified that they would catch me!

If you’ve known that kind of fear, then you’ll know what Jesus is talking about here. If you know what it’s like to fear an angry mob, then multiply that fear by a million when it comes to God! Yet Jesus did not fear the angry mob. How brave was Jesus? He feared God not man. And the good news is that He is the One who looks out for you.

Look, Judas Iscariot was one of His disciples, one of the twelve. There we go with numbers again. But Judas was a hypocrite. And the worst kind of hypocrite is a religious hypocrite. “Brood of vipers!” Jesus called them. “Whitewashed tombs!” Clean on the outside but full of dead men’s bones in the inside. Hypocrites!

So, there you are. And you see all of this going on. And you’re scared. And Jesus has been literally putting the fear of God into you. He wants you to tremble in the presence of Almighty God, and the fear of what God can do to you. Then He starts telling His disciples about sparrows, and the number of hairs on your head. Why? Comfort! He wanted to fortify His disciples.

Birds

How many times have you said to yourself words like, “I’m gonna read my Bible more”? Have you ever seen those “How to read the Bible in one year” things advertised? What is it they say about the road to Hell? It’s paved with good intentions or something like that? Why is it that Christians of all people have so much trouble reading God’s Word?

Too busy? Too tired? Not good at reading? I don’t understand all that Old Testament stuff? I can relate to that. I think I was about sixteen when I resolved to read the whole Bible from cover to cover. I got through Genesis. Started flagging in Exodus. Then gave up when I got to Leviticus. How would I have managed when I got to the Book of Numbers, what, with all those numbers?

God likes numbers, including the Book of Numbers. Why? Comfort! It’s to fortify His people. Abraham, “count the stars if you are able to number them.” God wants to teach you from His Word. But if you neglect the Bible, how will He comfort you? If you don’t know God’s Word, how will you be fortified, you know, strengthened? Your knees will be knocking with the fear of men. And you will have little or no fear of God.

Your ignorance of Scripture is the Devil’s greatest weapon against you. The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. Learn how to wield the sword. It’ll save your life, body and soul. For therein are the words of life.

How did Jesus handle Satan the tempter in the wilderness? “It is written! It is written! It is written!” And Jesus didn’t quote the Devil just any old verse. He knew how to apply the Scriptures to His every situation. One of the Old Testament verses He quoted the Devil was Deuteronomy 8:3, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4.

Do you know what comes a couple of verses after Deuteronomy 8:3? I prefer the NKJV which says in Deuteronomy 8:6, “You shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him.” The NIV uses the word revering instead of fear, “walking in obedience to Him and revering Him.” Are you getting the impression as we look at this text that Jesus is thinking Old Testament Scriptures all the time?   

The scribes and Pharisees are wailing, and they are wailing against Him. There are thousands who have shown up to watch the spectacle. And what does Jesus do after He has taken on the scribes and Pharisees? He turns to His disciples to tell them about sparrows and the amount of hairs on their heads. What?

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Luke 12:6-7.

How can Jesus go from talking about hypocrisy, and God throwing these kinds of people into Hell, to talking about sparrows and hair? I put it to you that it was because the Word incarnated was crammed full of the Word inscripturated.

Let’s talk about sparrows. The Triune God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, i.e., Father, Word, Spirit, created the birds on the fifth day, Genesis 1:20-23. In Psalm 84:3 we read,

Even the sparrow has found a home,

and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young—
a place near your altar.

A five for tuppence little sparrow is welcome in God’s Holy Temple! Think about that. Yeah, build yourself a wee nest and raise your young next to the altar in the Temple. God didn’t command that the priests should shoo these birds out of His Temple.

Sparrows, unlike vultures and carrion crows and their likes, were clean birds. Five sparrows for two pennies, tuppence. They are two a penny in Matthew 10:29. Why would you need two sparrows for a penny anyway? What would you do with them?

Some people eat them. “Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie” sort of thing! Blackbirds have a little more meat I suppose, than sparrows. But sparrows are so small that you would need a whole bunch of them to make up a dozen! If you know what I mean? There would hardly be a pick on a sparrow. But I suppose if you were desperate, you’d try one! They’re just a bunch of feathers with wings, a beak and legs, Nothing to them.

But what if you were a leper? A leper like one of those spoken of in, let me see, Genesis, Exodus and then, yes, Leviticus. Yeah, there’s a bit in there about ceremonial cleansing for those who have had a skin disease, such as leprosy. Leviticus 14:3-7:

The priest is to go outside the camp and examine them. If they have been healed of their defiling skin disease, the priest shall order that two live clean birds and some cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop be brought for the person to be cleansed. Then the priest shall order that one of the birds be killed over fresh water in a clay pot. He is then to take the live bird and dip it, together with the cedar wood, the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, into the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water. Seven times he shall sprinkle the one to be cleansed of the defiling disease, and then pronounce them clean. After that, he is to release the live bird in the open fields. Leviticus 14:3-7.

Where is a leper going to get money to pay for two sacrificially clean birds? Well, did you know that the birds don’t need to be award-winning racing pigeons! They don’t need to be two turtle doves! Two sparrows will cover it! They were two a penny in Jesus’s day, five for tuppence. Catch your own sparrows if you can’t afford a meagre penny!

Now, if you’re thinking that it was supposed to be two turtle doves or pigeons that poor people were supposed to use for the leper cleansing, if that’s you, then well done! However, don’t confuse the sin offering and the burnt offering of Leviticus 14:30-32 for what’s going on here.

I can assure you that the same word for bird as used for killing one and dipping the other in its blood and setting it free, is the same Hebrew word for sparrow in Psalm 84, “Even the sparrow has found a home.” The Hebrew word means, “a little bird (as hopping): bird, fowl, sparrow.” (Strong’s). I kept pigeons for years, and I don’t recall ever seeing a pigeon hop, apart from ones that are missing a leg!

Both the Hebrew צִפּוֹר (tsippor) and the Greek στρουθίον (strouthion) are generic terms for little birds, probably songbirds. However, the Hebrew word has to do with the chirping sound made by birds such as sparrows. So, a “cheap as chirps” sparrow it is!

Jesus had been out there healing the blind and the lame and the deaf and dumb. He had been casting out demons and healing all kinds of diseases and even raising the dead. When John the Baptist sent his men to ask Jesus if He was the Coming One, how did Jesus respond?

“So he replied to the messengers, ‘Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.’” Luke 7:22.

You all know the story of Jesus healing the ten lepers? Yeah, ten! How many came back to thank Him for healing them? One! And He was a Samaritan! What did Jesus say to the ten of them? “When he saw them, he said, ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were cleansed” Luke 17:14.

Yes, the priests at the Temple! Two sparrows for a penny, five for tuppence. Isn’t God wonderful? He sent His only begotten Son into this world to save us from our sins! He can heal our diseases, including leprosy! And if we die in Him, we go straight to where He is, to be at His side in Glory awaiting the resurrection of our bodies.

Jesus proved that He was God in the flesh by doing miracles. Yet, the scribes and Pharisees did not believe Him. Incredible! They followed a religion, but it wasn’t the Bible’s religion. Otherwise, they would have recognized Jesus. How? From reading what the Scriptures said about Him! What Scriptures? The Old Testament Scriptures, you know, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers all the way down to Malachi.

Right, speaking of numbers, again,

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Luke 12:6-7.

Hairs

Did Jesus get a bit side-tracked after talking about not fearing men but God? And then He starts talking about sparrows and hair numbers? Of course, He didn’t! So what is going on then? He’s in the midst of the great unwashed as it were. They are all unclean. Every last one of them! That’s one of the reasons why He washed His disciples’ feet. They were unclean sinners.

Do you remember the time when someone washed Jesus’s feet? What did she wash His feet with? With tears! She washed His feet with tears of love and gratitude! Why? Because Jesus forgives sins. And what did she wipe His feet with? Luke 7:44 “Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon [a Pharisee], ‘Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.’”

“Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” What did Simon the Pharisee think about Jesus? “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of a woman she is – that she is a sinner” Luke 7:39. If this Pharisee had known the Scriptures, he would have understood that Jesus came into the world to call sinners to repentance. But no. He followed a false religion.

Right, five sparrows for two pennies and two for a penny. Two sparrows to show your gratitude to God for healing you. What about the hairs on your head being numbered? Well, what about the cleansed leper at the Temple? Leviticus 14:8,

“The person to be cleansed must wash their clothes, shave off all their hair and bathe with water; then they will be ceremonially clean.”

“Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” Do you think that Jesus is thinking Scripture here as He instructs His disciples? Surely, He has to be! He is the living Word. The Bible is all about Him from cover to cover.

He has come to His own, but His own are rejecting Him. And here He is rejecting the scribes and Pharisees to their faces. It’s all Jeremiah 7,

“Therefore say to them, ‘This is the nation that has not obeyed the Lord its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips. “‘Cut off your hair and throw it away; take up a lament on the barren heights, for the Lord has rejected and abandoned this generation that is under his wrath.” “‘The people of Judah have done evil in my eyes, declares the Lord. They have set up their detestable idols in the house that bears my Name and have defiled it. They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind…” Jeremiah 7:28-31.

Gehenna is the Greek word used by Jesus here for Hell. It derives from Hinnom as just described. That’s why Jesus is telling us to, “Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.” 

On that happy note, as we begin to tie it all together, think about it, Jesus said in Luke 12:3, as the NKJV renders it, “Whatever you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops” Luke 12:3.

Notice that Jesus mentions “housetops”, and shortly thereafter starts talking about sparrows. Psalm 102:7, “I am like a sparrow alone on the housetop.” From “proclaimed on the housetops” to “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?” Of course, we can’t know for sure, but you’d have to admit that Jesus has His head full of Scripture. But more than that, He knows how to apply Scripture to every situation. And so should we. It is by the Scriptures that Jesus makes Himself known. “These are they which testify of Me” John 5:39b.

Conclusion

Sparrows are plentiful. Hence them being of little worth. “Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.” Think about it, not one little sparrow on the whole of the planet earth escapes God’s attention! As the old hymn by the Nova Scotian Civilla Durfee Martin put it,

Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,

Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heaven and home,

When Jesus is my portion? My constant friend is He:

His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;

His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

Be comforted because God is watching over you and He knows every last hair on your head. God loves numbers, numbers that you and I cannot even count to!

God comforted and strengthened our father Abraham by asking him to count the number of stars if he was able. No one but God can number the stars or Abraham’s spiritual descendants that the stars represented, among whom we are included.

A people innumerable, yes, you and I are included, and we’re all bound for Heaven, Revelation 7:9. Praise God!