Wednewsday Bible Study: What Jesus asked, part seven

 

Hang on, because this one, I am learning as I type!

The Passage starts with Jesus preparing the Disciples to be sent out two by two for the first time.He warns them with many examples that this is NOT going to be easy, or even pleasant.  Moreover, what they go to do will not be pleasant for everyone they meet.  But in the middle, Jesus uses as a 'swing verse' a by-now familiar creature to use as a comparison:

Mat 10:29  Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
Mat 10:30  But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
Mat 10:31  Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. 

The last time Jesus mentioned sparrows, it was to show the folly of worrying over physical things...

Mat 6:26  Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

But this time, He is comparing the Disciples to sparrows, in a much different context.  I had to ask myself the question- WHY were they buying sparrows 2 for a penny (or as Luke had it, 'buy four for 2 pennies, get the fifth one free', a bit paraphrased here)?  One site told me this:

Because of their size and abundance, in Biblical times, the sparrows were sold to the poor as meat, though one must imagine that such small birds hardly made a decent meal. Nevertheless, they were available cheaply.

I wondered if there was a sacrificial end to things, and I did find this:

Lev 14:1  The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Lev 14:2  "This shall be the law of the leprous person for the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest,
Lev 14:3  and the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall look. Then, if the case of leprous disease is healed in the leprous person,
Lev 14:4  the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two live clean birds and cedarwood and scarlet yarn and hyssop.
Lev 14:5  And the priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthenware vessel over fresh water.
Lev 14:6  He shall take the live bird with the cedarwood and the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, and dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water.
Lev 14:7  And he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed of the leprous disease. Then he shall pronounce him clean and shall let the living bird go into the open field.

The word here being used for birds the same as the one used for sparrows elsewhere.So what do we draw from this? "Well, Chris, we get that if God so loves a worthless sparrow, He loves us more!"  True, but... this passage is directed at the Disciples- and by extension, to all those ready to go out in the Great Commission.  And as such, it has very specific applications.

First, they are food to the poor.  They are bringing the Living Bread of Jesus's Word to the people- a Word that was worthless to the rich and those of abundance, but to those whose day-to-day existence was a challenge, it was Life Itself.  Not everyone ate sparrows because, as the man said, they were meat-poor; you had to recognize your need before you tried it.  Lesson to us- to get what Jesus wants to give, you have to recognize your need.

Next, let's look at the birds of Leviticus.  One bird of the two had to die.  The other got to go free- but ONLY after being dipped in the blood of the other. The bird killed had to be killed over 'running water'- living, or flowing, water.  Jesus called Himself the Living Water- He was the human 'bird' that had to be killed over the water that symbolized His Godhood.  The Disciples- they were the living bird, dipped in the blood and sent out.  And what was the end result of the ceremony?  The healing of a leper- the healing of sinners.

 The Disciples' lives were going to be sold cheap by earthly terms- but not without a value far beyond what most would notice. A value that brought living food to the starving, and healing to the sinner.  And their reward, as Jesus explains next, was not going to be a reward in this life:

Mat 10:32  So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven,
Mat 10:33  but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

When I was praying for guidance in doing this post, I turned on the radio and heard the announcer launching a Chuck Swindoll message.  He started by asking if we remembered the children's game where you whisper a message into the first child's ear, and see what the message had changed to by the last child.  God had been whispering for a very long time into ears that just weren't getting the message passed to them right.  Every one of the questions we have looked at so far have addressed this:  Getting back, past the misinterpretations of men, to God's pure message.  And that is the symbolism here, and in the Leviticus passage.

The cedar, used in the Temple as in closets to ward off corruption, is symbolic of God, "whose invisible attributes can be seen..."

The hyssop was aromatic, symbolizing the Word that had went out before Christ...

The scarlet thread was the blood that bound the Word to the soul of man...

And the two birds, one which had to die, the other that went forth, was the final step in getting the Pure Word to the people.

It is up to us to seek that Pure Word, and not let men's traditions force us into the 'child's games.'