TEXT TO RREFLECT ON
LUKE 12:4-7
“I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
REFLECT
Following Jesus in his day was tantamount to courting danger and death. Jesus had come from God with a mission to show the world what and who God is, and in the course of it, to be arrested, tortured, humiliated, and put to death. It was an excruciatingly painful mission. But it was necessary. The world had to know the length and breadth and height and depth of God’s love for them. Part of the mission involved unleashing scathing rebukes on the ‘Establishment’ – the leaders of the faith, the supposedly pious ones, and the rich. The ‘Establishment’ was to have represented God to the people. But the ‘Establishment’ had strayed far from their course, and had presented instead a distorted caricature of God. Jesus had to correct their portrayal of God. Hence he spoke against their practices.
It was inevitable that when Jesus spoke against the religious leaders, he would rouse their anger and hostility. Open opposition to such a powerful body was risky and was likely to result in Jesus’ and his disciples’ death. So Jesus had to address his disciples’ fear over the consequences of His opposing the religious leaders, and the rich and powerful.
He began by confronting their fears head-on: “What’s the worst that these people can do to you? So they kill you. What more can they do after that? That’s it, right? They kill you, and they can do no more harm. But consider what harm they can do to the people who do not know God. These leaders kill the people, but being the representatives of God and lying to the people, they have the authority to harm them even further to hell. Anyway, you are more important to God than sparrows, which God even cares for. And God is even concerned over the minutest details about you, such as how many hairs you have on your heads. So, don’t be scared.”
That is some perspective of death and the dangers that we fear! Taking a long look through to eternity, the harm that evil people can do is limited and short-lived. They are temporary and will not last. They will pass. And through it all, God is still watching over even the smallest details of our lives.
RELATE
We don’t spend enough time thinking about eternity. Our view of life often stops at the point of earthly death. We don’t look beyond that. We make retirement plans, financial plans, plans for life and relationships after retirement. We think hard about what to do in our winter years. Yet our thoughts almost always stop at the point where we leave our earthly life. From this short-sighted view, death is terrifying, because it shortens our already short life-spans. We see death as terminal; the end of life. The end of all that we have lived for.
Yet from God’s perspective, and the reality of life, life on earth is a mere fraction of one’s life span stretching into eternity. There is so much more life to explore and live in eternity; life that we cannot see because our sight is blocked by the curtain of mortality. But if we would see from God’s perspective, we would realise that death and dangers are insignificant in the light of what there is in eternity.
Actually, the Bible does teach much about eternity and life after our earthly lives have ended. I have not paid much attention to it. I have only a cursory knowledge of that. But I do want to know. And I do want to help others to know as well. Because I suspect that if we knew more about eternity, we would live life on earth differently than how we have been living it. I would want to invest and spend my present life with greater abandon, with the aim of helping all of us find life in eternity.
REST
1. Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.
2. ’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.
3. Through many dangers, toils, and snares,
I have already come;
’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
4. Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.
5. When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun.
John Newton, Amazing Grace, 1779.
Chiu Ming Li
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