“Have no fear of them,” Jesus says, as he tells his followers of the enemies they may encounter going about God’s mission. “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground unperceived by your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
So, God knows the number of hairs on our head and values us even more than precious sparrows. That does not mean God promises us physical protection (read Psalm 79 sometime…). I believe it means simply that we are of infinite value to God, whose love for us is not diminished by our physical death. Oh, that helps, right?
People who have encountered death, in what are called near-death experiences, frequently testify that they no longer fear death. And it is the fear of death that so often holds us back in fully living the life we’re given. It is a hard balance to strike as followers of the One who promised eternal life: to live fully in this life, loving its gifts and pursuing God’s mission in the world, the world for which Christ died, while holding this life lightly, knowing it is not our final destination.
I don’t think Jesus is minimizing the trauma of physical death. He is inviting his followers to weigh that against the greater trauma of spiritual death, of apathy or even allegiance to the enemy who seeks to degrade and destroy the creatures of God. If fear of death, or fear of losing income or time or reputation, keep us from giving our hearts to God, we place ourselves in spiritual peril.
Following Jesus does not mean that nothing else in our lives matters; it means we gradually allow ourselves to put Him first, above all, above every other thing and person who claims our love. It’s not either-or; it’s both-and… and in the order of priority. God comes first.
And if God comes first, it lowers the stakes for everything else. We can be more confident taking risks when we value our God-Life more than our physical life. Not caring so much about our physical existence – while still investing in it; I did say it was a balancing act – sets us free to discover who we most fully are, how exquisitely and uniquely we are made. Rather than seeing Jesus’ words as warning, might we take them as invitation to greater freedom?
Today let's examine what holds us back from making God our number one priority, if God is not.
What fears impede our proclaiming to those we know our allegiance to God in Christ?
If we can name our fears, we can invite the Holy Spirit to transform them into freedom. “Perfect love casts out fear,” is a promise we are given in scripture. Wherever we feel fear, we might invite God to sow love… envision the place of your fear and God planting a seed of love in that spot.
Then we can sit with the sparrows and watch our fear wither like a weed and the love grow strong and beautiful, knowing that God is keeping an eye on us... and counting our hair (which will be easier with some than with others...)
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