³⁰ Even all the hairs of your head are counted.³¹So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Somethings are impossible to count: the stars in the heavens, the grains of sand on the shore, and the hairs on your head (baldness aside!) The impossibility of counting the hairs of the head is proverbial (Ps 40:12; 69:4), but even the impossible is not impossible to God who made them. The Creator’s intimate knowledge of those he has made is expressed movingly in other imagery in Ps 139:1–18. Equally proverbial is the saying “not a hair of his head will fall to the ground” to express a person’s total security (1 Sam 14:45; 2 Sam 14:11; 1 Kgs 1:52; cf Dan 3:27, Luke 21:18; Acts 27:34.22) The Father who knows the number of each disciple’s hairs will make sure none of them are lost. Continue reading →

²⁹ Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge.

This section does not try to sketch a misleading picture of a God. Sparrows fall to earth and disciples of Jesus are slain, and Jesus never says that it hardly matters. “What these sayings assert is that God is indeed God, that he is above success and failure, help and isolation, weal and woe, holding them in hands that Jesus says are the hands of the Father.” (Schweizter, as found in France, 404) Continue reading →

²⁶ “Therefore do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. ²⁷ What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops

These verses have their parallel in Luke 12:2 and, some would say, in Mark 4:22. I would disagree with the Markan parallel. While the words are similar, the topic in Mark is not missionary endeavors, but rather why Jesus teaches in parable and leave some listeners “in the dark,” so to speak. Perhaps one might offer that the Markan context is that what must remain secret for a time will ultimately be revealed. But in Matthew’s use (and Luke’s) there is no nuance. The disciples are to proclaim the good news so that all can hear. In the setting of a Palestinian village, the housetop (rooftop) is a very visible platform from which to proclaim the Good News to the people in the streets nearby. Continue reading →

²⁶ “Therefore do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. ²⁷ What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.²⁸ And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.²⁹ Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge.³⁰ Even all the hairs of your head are counted.³¹ So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.³² Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.³³ But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”  (Mt 10:26-33) Continue reading →