Tonight I offered a reflection Matthew 10:24-33 during Evening Prayer. The text of what I had to say is below.
“I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself/ a small bird will fall frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.” The name of that poem is Self-Pity and it was written by D.H. Lawrence. I’d like to say that I first heard it and studied it in one of the many literature courses I took in college, but actually, the first place I ever heard it was in the movie G.I. Jane.
G.I. Jane stars Demi Moore as a woman attempting to become the first female Navy Seal. Before her training begins, the Master Chief stands before the recruits and recites D.H. Lawrence’s poem. It is a gentle moment, a literary moment, one that will stand in stark contrast to the training that is about to commence, training that involves pushing the recruits both physically and mentally, demanding that they push past that moment when they think they can’t go on, when they think that if they go just one more minute, or one more mile, they will die.
I was reminded of this poem as I read the verses from Matthew. Here we have Jesus warning the disciples not to be afraid of those who can only kill the body, but to fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. It is a warning that the disciples will be pushed and will be afraid. It is a foreshadowing that many will be killed for their belief in Christ. But in the end they should not worry about death because souls are far more precious than bodies.
In the midst of Jesus’ warning, in the midst of some pretty dark language, Jesus also offers comfort. As it turns out, the message here is one of worth. What are we worth in God’s eyes? How important are we?
And the answer is we are worth so much more than we know. We are more important than we ever dreamed possible.
In Matthew 10:31, Jesus says, “So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.” This isn’t the first time that Jesus has compared the human race to birds, sparrows here. In Matthew 6:26, Jesus says, “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?”
Why birds? Why does Jesus choose to compare us to birds? Why not cows, or jackals, or camels or the dung beetle? Maybe the answer’s obvious. Each of those animals comes with its own inherent symbolism and so does the bird.
I would argue that in literature, the bird is frequently seen as innocent and that killing birds or caging them is seen as sinful.
Take the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. “Remember it is a sin to kill a mockingbird,” Atticus tells Scout. Why? Miss Maudie explains, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy … but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
Or in the poem Sympathy by Paul Lawrence Dunbar, “I know why the caged bird sings … It is not a carol of joy or glee/But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core/But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings.”
Birds are special, are innocent; they don’t get angry or complain. They don’t feel sorry for themselves. They are beautiful and are perhaps, in their ability to take flight, far more free than any other animal on earth. They are special.
But we are more so, Jesus says.
God the Father takes care of the birds. And we are of far more value than birds.
