1 Meanwhile, thousands of people had gathered. They were so crowded that they stepped on each other. Jesus spoke to his disciples and said, “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees. I’m talking about their hypocrisy. 2 Nothing has been covered that will not be exposed. Whatever is secret will be made known. 3 Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight. Whatever you have whispered in private rooms will be shouted from the housetops.
4 “My friends, I can guarantee that you don’t need to be afraid of those who kill the body. After that they can’t do anything more. 5 I’ll show you the one you should be afraid of. Be afraid of the one who has the power to throw you into hell after killing you. I’m warning you to be afraid of him.
6 “Aren’t five sparrows sold for two cents? God doesn’t forget any of them. 7 Even every hair on your head has been counted. Don’t be afraid! You are worth more than many sparrows. 8 I can guarantee that the Son of Man will acknowledge in front of God’s angels every person who acknowledges him in front of others. 9 But God’s angels will be told that I don’t know those people who tell others that they don’t know me. 10 Everyone who says something against the Son of Man will be forgiven. But the person who dishonors the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
11 “When you are put on trial in synagogues or in front of rulers and authorities, don’t worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say. 12 At that time the Holy Spirit will teach you what you must say.”
Read Luke 12:1-12 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
While teaching the disciples and warning them specifically about the dangers of hypocrisy, Jesus shares an amazing image of God and how He values each of us. In Luke’s gospel, we learn that Jesus taught this truth to the disciples with a crowd listening in by starting with a rhetorical question: “Aren’t five sparrows sold for two cents? God doesn’t forget any of them. Even every hair on your head has been counted. Don’t be afraid! You are worth more than many sparrows.” (v. 6-7)
This truth is amazing when we look closely at it. In these two short verses, Jesus emphasizes how valuable a cheap, plentiful bird is – and He emphasizes that even though there were hundreds or even thousands living in the region, “God doesn’t forget any of them”. Jesus first focuses on God valuing one of the least valued birds in that culture.
But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He then shifts our attention onto the fact that God even pays incredible attention to the details of our lives. While I don’t have any real desire to count the number of hairs on my head, God is that interested in me to do so. In an interesting shift of ideas, Jesus moved from talking about the least valued animal in that culture and then He moved our focus onto what might be the least important part of our anatomy – our hair.
I’m not saying that people don’t value their hair or that hair is not given with a purpose. Instead, I am intrigued that of all the parts of our anatomy, if we lose a strand or two of hair, it would impact us the least. If we lost a finger or a toe, this would be much more significant. Our fingers and toes are more valuable than a strand or two of hair.
These details are important to us because Jesus is emphasizing our value in God’s eyes. God values us so much that He pays attention to the least valuable thing about us, and He knows every detail about that least valuable thing. God values us more than a whole flock of sparrows, and we should not be afraid when trouble comes into our life. Through every trial God brings into our life there is a purpose, and while we might not see what God is teaching us in the moment, we can trust that He is preparing us for eternity with Him – because He loves us and values us so much that Jesus became human to redeem us from sin.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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