"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s will. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered." [Matthew 10:29, 30]
What do you think you’re worth? It is not likely you are worth the billions of a Paul Getty or a Howard Hughes. Do you go to the other extreme when you would sell yourself for a nickel and give three cents change? Are you like the young lad who wore a football t-shirt with the letters 00, a double cipher? Was this the way he was telling the world that he felt he was less than nothing? It is not only what you think you are worth but what others think you are worth. What are you worth to your club, to your friends, to your employer, to God? One day a woman ran out of the house with the trash when she heard the garbage truck. She wore a ragged, bathrobe, worn-out slippers, her hair in curlers, and her face was coated with greasy cream. "Am I too late for the garbage?" she asked. "No, hop right in," came the reply. Maybe you think of yourself as garbage. An alcoholic once said to a preacher, "Tell me that I’m not a bum. Tell me I’m not junk."
In today’s Gospel lesson Jesus gives the answer to our worth. It is not what you think of yourself, it is not what others think of your worth, but it is what God thinks you are worth. Jesus is teaching that it is better to fear God who can kill both body and soul rather than to fear man who can kill only the body. The reason you can trust God above man is because God has a higher evaluation of each person’s worth. He refers to the minimal cost of two sparrows: two for a penny! He tells how God knows when one of these almost worthless creatures falls to the ground. God’s knowledge of us is so detailed that he even knows the number of hairs on our heads.
Worth Everything
What do you think you are worth? The worldly man thinks he is everything. He is top value and there is nothing more important than he is. If he is not that, he wants to be. He will dream about it and strive to become somebody in the world. This was expressed by Archie Bunker, in "All in the Family." One day he said, "O Edith, I want to be on the team so bad I can taste it. And another thing. You should see the bowling shirts them Cannonballers got. All yellow silk, with bright red piping on the collar and sleeves." Edith replied, "And you look so good in yellow." Archie continues, "Yeah, I look good in yellow. And on the back there’s a picture of a cannon firing a bowling ball at a set of pins. Beautiful. When you got something like that on your back, Edith, you know you’re somebody."
The 1970s have been described as the "Me decade." Narcissism has been reborn in our time. You remember the Greek legend about Narcissus who saw his reflection in a pool and liked himself so well that he fell in love with himself. This is the generation that is preoccupied with self. We dwell on self-admiration, self-love, and self-concern. The "I" is the number one in our lives. In recent years we keep talking about and searching for self-identity, self-understanding, and self-fulfillment.
This is the age of humanism. We keep talking about the dignity and value of a human being. We appeal to people to be human. The greatest thing in the world, they say, is to be a human being. It is the ultimate value in life. This leads to the position that we are good people. Man is naturally and inherently good. We as humans have rights and we deserve the best. Commercials are
exploiting this feeling among the masses. One commercial tells about a hair spray which costs more, but the punch line says, "It costs more, but I am worth it!" Another product advertises, "Be good to yourself." A hamburger chain says, "Have it your way." Another crys out, "You deserve a break today." All this reflects our concern with ourselves and our own importance.
This results in an inflated evaluation of our own importance. We become little gods, and the self in the center of our existence makes the self none other than God. It results in making a person think that he cannot do wrong or fail. A seven-year-old boy invited his Dad to come out to the backyard and watch him hit the ball. He said, "Look at this Dad," and he pitched the ball into the air, swung, and missed. "Strike one," he yelled. He did it a second time, "Strike two!" He explained, "It takes only one to be a hitter." He threw the ball into the air a third time and again he missed. "Strike three - you’re out!" he shouted. Just then mother called them for dinner. As they headed for the house, he said, "Well, Dad, I guess that proved it. I really am a terrific pitcher!"
With this self-applause we can get to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. A sixteen-year-old girl wrote to Ann Landers, "What troubles me is that I have no problems ... I am a pretty, mature girl. My figure is great, my skin is like peaches and cream. I have all the dates I can handle. My grades are tops and I win everything I try for at school. Something has to be wrong with me because nobody’s perfect. What could it be?" With great wisdom and insight Ann Landers told her that her fault was that she was flawless. Haven’t you met a person who never does anything wrong? Never admits a mistake? Never says, "I am sorry"?
If we are so good, then we will not believe in or practice self-control. This is often illustrated in parents who think that their little ones should not be curbed lest they be inhibited. Parents sometimes think that their children are always right and can do no wrong. A
grandmother once wrote to Ann Landers about the way her daughter allowed her children to express themselves and not to hold anything back. If they are angry and feel hostility and fury, they are told to go to a "scream room" and let it out. The grandmother said she was taught to control herself and she wonders whether she was brought up the wrong way. Lack of self-control implies that a person is nothing but good and should not be curbed lest damage be done to the psyche. Could this be a reason for today’s preoccupation with violence? We allow ourselves to express our passion to the hurt of other people.
This view of one’s self leads to a false self-sufficiency. Andre Gide advises, "Believe in your strength and your youth. Learn to repeat endlessly to yourself: It all depends on me." This leaves God out of the picture. You do not need God. You can take care of yourself. All you need do is discover your potential and there is no end to what you can accomplish. Who in his right mind can accept that trash?
All of these forms of self-exaltation mean that modern man is self-centered and proud. It points to the one basic sin of mankind - self-assertion or the desire for recognition. This was the first sin in the Garden of Eden and the sin still stands.
Worth Nothing
What do you think you are worth? If you ask a true Christian, he will tell you that he is worth nothing in himself. A genuine Christian is not concerned about finding, but losing his identity in Christ. He is not out to find but to lose himself.
In our time we are told repeatedly that we are to love ourselves as a condition of loving others. Have we forgotten to hate ourselves? Jesus said that we must hate ourselves as a condition of being a follower of his. "If anyone comes to me and does not hate ... even his own life he cannot be my disciple." At another time, Jesus taught that a disciple must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow him - if he wanted to be a disciple. It is denying self, not affirming, exalting, confirming self but saying "no" to self. That doesn’t sound very modern, does it?
The greatest Christians have all had a very low opinion of their own worth. Listen to St. Paul: "I do not account my life of any value." In our language he is saying he does not consider his worth to be a penny’s worth! In a great prayer, St. Augustine said, "Let me hate myself and love thee." Luther taught that God created something out of nothing. For God to create something out of us we must first be nothing. When he teaches about God’s creation and preservation of us day after day, he says that God does all of this "without any merit or worthiness in me." When he explains how Jesus redeemed us, he says "who redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature." The great preacher, Spurgeon, put it this way, "Be content to be nothing, for that is what you are." Our hymns express this traditional view of a Christian’s importance: "Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?"; "Nothing in my hand I bring, Naked come to thee for dress, Foul I to the fountain fly;" and "Just as I am without one plea."
How and why does a Christian come to this apparently low opinion of himself? He reaches this estimate of himself when he confronts the greatness and the holiness of God. Then he sees himself in contrast to God. In 1976 when the "Today" show was featuring South Dakota, the cameras showed the fertile fields of the state and Mt. Rushmore with the four great presidents carved in the side of the mountain. In summing up South Dakota’s land and people, the announcer said, "The sky and land are so immense that the people know their place." When you confront the immensity of God’s infinite greatness, you realize your smallness. When you see the purity of Christ, you see
your own filth. When Isaiah saw the holy and majestic God, he moaned, "I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips." When Peter realized how good and great Jesus was, he fell down on his knees before him and said, "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." In the sight of God I am nothing, for I see all my sins, my imperfections, my unworthiness, my helplessness.
Is this good or bad? It is bad if you look at it in terms of self-contempt. It is bad if you despise yourself as adding up to a cipher. To have a Christian’s sense of worthlessness does not mean you despise yourself to the point of having no self-respect or self-esteem. If this results, it is a misunderstanding of the Christian’s view of himself as nothing. On the other hand, this view of being nothing before God leads to a good thing - the highest and most difficult virtue; humility. The Christian has no reason to be proud, for he is nothing and he has nothing that God has not given him. He has no right to claim anything. He has no right to expect God to answer his prayers and do his bidding. I have no right to expect anything good from God as though I deserved it. I have no right ever to get angry with God or complain about bad luck. As I appear before God, I am inwardly urged to confess my sins and confess my unworthiness to be in his presence or to be his child. If there is any good in me, if there is any talent I possess, it is all from God. He gets the credit for any good in me.
Another good thing about this position is that it leads to exaltation. Jesus taught repeatedly that he who humbles himself will be exalted. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. The prophet, Samuel, said to King Saul, "When you thought little of yourself, God made you king." When Jesus humbled himself to be born of a virgin, to take the form of a servant, and to die on a cross, God highly exalted him and gave him a name above every other name. This happens to every Christian who approaches God in humility and a sense of nothingness. God lifts him from his knees and stands him on his feet and crowns him with life.
Worth Something
What do you think you’re worth to God? As a secular person, you are led to think you are everything, the greatest good, the ultimate goal in life. Then you live for yourself and claim your rights as a human being. As a Christian, you stand before God and you see that you are nothing except what God can make out of you. But, what does God think about you and me? Are we of any value as persons to him or are we too small to be important to him? In our text Jesus points to God’s high evaluation of the individual. He calls attention to the smallest items of creation and God’s estimate of their value. Then he asks whether a human being is not worth as much as these.
God thinks you are something. You are valuable, you are important. This is based on the fact that God knows you personally and individually. Your importance is proved when a great person indicates that he knows you and can call you by name. Suppose you lived in "the sticks" and you came to the capitol city for a visit. The governor or the president met you on the street and indicated that he knew you. Would you be surprised? Honored? Would you be convinced that to the chief of state you were that important as to be known? In our text Jesus tells us - and who else would know better than he? - that God, the infinite, almighty Father in heaven, knows you not only by name but to the smallest detail of your being. Jesus says that God knows us so intimately that he knows how many hairs are on our heads. It has been computed that a blonde has 145,000 hairs, a brunette 120,000 hairs, and a red-head 90,000. This is on the average, but God goes one better than that. He knows how many hairs are on your individual head!
This means you are not too small for God’s knowledge and concern. You are his creation and he knows what he made. And what he made, according to Genesis, was good. Even if nobody knows you or remembers you, God does because you are that valuable to him. During the World War I the King of England sent a Christmas card to all the soldiers in the army. There was a soldier who had no friends or family. He was alone in the world. He received nothing for Christmas. Then the royal Christmas card came. He responded, "Even if no one else remembers me, my king does."
God considers you something also because God cares for you. The other morning we found a little bird lying helplessly on our patio. Perhaps it flew into the glass doors thinking it was open space and hurt itself. It could not fly and could use only one leg. I went out and picked up the bird and it fit into the palm of my hand. As I did, I thought of the words of our text that not a sparrow falls to the ground without God’s will, consent, or permission. Could it be possible that God knew of this one little bird’s falling? It is so great that it almost blows your mind. That bird is so important, so valuable to God that he knows and cares what happens to it.
Jesus taught from this that God is even more concerned with a human being than with a single bird of almost no value. This means God thinks a person is worth enough to be loved and cared for. Let us be sure we understand, though, that God does not love people because we have inherent worth or goodness. That is not the teaching of the Bible. Rather, man gets his value because God loves him in spite of his unworthiness to be loved. From the beginning man disobeyed God’s laws and will. He has been a rebel and fought against God. He despised God and turned to gods who were no gods at all. Man has clothed himself with filthy rags, and he, like the Prodigal, went to a far country of sin to live it up and waste God’s resources. It is similar to a child who lost his teddy bear. It originally cost only $10, but a reward of $100 was offered for its return. What made this teddy bear so valuable to the child? By now the teddy bear was old, worn, and ragged. It was the child’s love for the teddy bear that made it so valuable and important to him. Man, too, can be worn-out and ragged and almost worthless in man’s sight, but God considers him, as poor and worthless as he is, to be of inestimable value because he loves him. Paul expressed it beautifully, "Herein perceive we the love of God in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us."
If we really want to see what value God places on us as individuals, we need just look at the cross. See those thorns - you were worth the pain! See those nails in hands and feet - you were the reason for it! See the agony of a miserable death - he died just for you! And don’t forget who was on that cross. It was God’s Son - "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself." God so loved you that he gave his only Son. So that is what you mean to God. You are worth God’s self-giving in Christ. It is almost too good to believe!
Since God thinks so much of me, then I as a person can have a sense of importance and value. I am not garbage nor junk. I am a child of God who makes me what I am. A person cannot understand who he is until he knows whose he is. All of our modern search for self-identity, self-understanding, and self-fulfillment leads to confusion and frustration because we cannot know nor find ourselves apart from God. Before joining the church, Jane Addams described her condition: "Weary of myself and sick of asking what I am and what I ought to do." She accepted Christ and joined the church. There she found the answer to who she was and what she ought to do. If you are troubled with the same problem in understanding your worth, turn to God and accept the truth in Christ. In a God-denying world the best thing we can do with self is to make a self-denying surrender to Christ.