More than Sparrows

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This post is adapted from a talk given at St Oswald’s Church, Rugby, on 10th May 2026. The Bible passage referenced is Matthew 10:24-39.

What are you afraid of? There are a lot of things that people are scared of… spiders, heights, confined spaces. For me, it’s the ocean. The immensity of it scares me. I don’t know how far down it goes, and I don’t know what I’ll find in it. It’s not so much a fear of sharks or other scary sea creatures as the number of unknowns and the long list of possible things that could possibly go wrong. I once heard that the thing you are most afraid of is linked to your most dominant character traits, perhaps even revealing your fatal flaw. I don’t know how true that is for you… But as someone who likes to know what’s going on at all times, the unknowns of the ocean are really scary. I don’t think I’m alone in that fear (or that fatal flaw), but it doesn’t make it any easier.

It’s somewhat funny then that so much of the Bible contains stories about water and that, somewhat relatedly, Christianese is full of water-related metaphors and imagery. For example, we talk about ‘stepping out of the boat’ to refer to someone taking a step of great faith. But we also know from Scripture that water is scary. Noah needed an ark because the flood was so great that he would’ve perished without it. God needed to part the Red Sea for Moses and the Israelites; otherwise, those fleeing slavery would have had to choose between dying in the water or dying at the hands of the angry Egyptians chasing them. At no point in Scripture does the Bible shy away from the risks and dangers of water. When the disciples are in a boat with Jesus, and a storm rages around them, they are terrified, even though they are fishermen. Water is scary. And yet, God has power over it.

You may be wondering what on earth that has to do with this passage… isn’t this passage about birds?!

Well, I wonder what jumped out at you as we read this passage. There’s a lot in it, but the thing that stuck with me this time is a phrase that we find countless times in Scripture: “Do not be afraid.” This speech comes as Jesus sends out the twelve disciples into the world to heal hearts, minds, and bodies. As we heard last week, the mission of the disciples was to proclaim the coming of God’s kingdom and meet the needs of the people they encountered along the way. I don’t know about you, but that’s a pretty big task, and I probably would’ve been more than a bit nervous.

There’s a lot the disciples were probably afraid of, but there are three particular groups of people that Jesus identifies not to fear.

Do not be afraid of…

1. THOSE WHO MOCK YOU

2. THOSE WHO TRY TO KILL YOU

3. THOSE WHO TELL YOU YOU’RE WORTHLESS

Each of these instructions not to be afraid are in the same conjugation in the original Greek, a conjugation which implies that this lack of fear ought to be experienced always and be all-encompassing. It should characterise their entire lives, as it should characterise ours too.

Let’s delve into each of them a little more:

1. THOSE WHO MOCK YOU

It is not always popular to be a Christian. And even though we live in a much more secular country than previous generations did, the unpopularity of Christianity is not a new thing. Jesus predicted it for his followers from the beginning. People would make up things about Jesus and his followers all the time when they were roaming around. They’d make up stories, gossip about them, and generally mistreat them with their words.

That’s what the first few verses of this reading are about. Jesus is basically saying: “If they say bad things about me, of course, they’re going to say bad stuff about you.” If people don’t like a particular leader and you’re a good and obedient follower of that person, you’re not going to be very popular. You can apply this now to politics or celebrity culture, or the workplace. In our day and age, it is very easy to be ‘cancelled’ for being affiliated with certain unpopular figures. So in our 2026 language, Jesus is saying: ‘if you affiliate with me, you may be cancelled because they’ve already cancelled me… but don’t worry about it.’

I don’t know if you’ve ever been on the receiving end of mockery. I have, and it’s absolutely miserable. It wasn’t always about my faith, but sometimes it was. My character was constantly called into question, and - I’ll be honest - it was tempting to lash out in self-defence, using harsh words of my own to retaliate.

Somehow, by the grace of God, I didn’t. And I’ll tell you what… the fact I didn’t retaliate spoke so much louder than any words I could’ve said, positively or negatively. Someone even came back to me later and said he started exploring Jesus because of how I, a Christian, reacted in the face of all the backchat and gossip.

I don’t say that story to big myself up, and I certainly wasn’t a saint through it all, but it’s a real-world example of what Jesus says: from the Message translation, “Eventually, everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are.” That’s what happened to me.

I was certainly hurt by those who mocked me; I won’t lie about that. It’s done a lot of damage that I’m still working through. But, at some point, people began to realise that they didn’t have a leg to stand on and that their behaviour was pretty cruel. The truth came to light.

The pain of being judged/mocked/cancelled for being a Christian is sometimes significant. But at the end of the day, when we all come to judgment before God in the final days, those who have stuck by the truth will see their reward. And so, we should proclaim the truth boldly now, shouting it from the rooftops, not to draw attention to ourselves but to bring glory to God.

2. THOSE WHO TRY TO KILL YOU

Sometimes, proclaiming the truth gets Christians in serious trouble. It’s not just that they experience being mocked. Their lives are at risk. The Christian charity ‘Open Doors’ estimates that over 388 million Christians worldwide face significant levels of persecution and discrimination. That’s 1 in 7 believers. But Jesus tells them that they don’t need to be afraid either. I don’t have any firsthand experience with being persecuted for my faith, but hearing people who have… it always astounds me how much faith they have. They risk their lives and the lives of their families to follow Jesus because they have seen the difference he makes and because they believe what he said is true.

Jesus tells these people that their fate is secure. There’s nothing that can be done to their physical bodies that will alter the state of their soul. This isn’t a way of saying that your body doesn’t matter, but it’s an acknowledgement that the thing that makes you ‘you’ is the stuff inside: your character, your ‘core being,’ as The Message says.

Well, and there are countless stories that I’ve heard over the years of people being threatened with bodily harm who are miraculously saved and protected. Sometimes, the attackers retreat and change their minds. Other times, they try to do damage, but God prevents them from achieving their goal.

This doesn’t always happen, of course. There are plenty of people who have been killed in the name of Jesus… Jesus himself being one of them.

But just as Jesus overcame death and walked out of the tomb on Easter Sunday, so too will all of us who believe in Christ experience a bodily resurrection and eternal life with God.

1 Corinthians 15:55 says, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

Death often has a stronghold over us here on earth because grief is so strong and so real, and we miss people after they die. But it simply isn’t the end.

Martyrs aren’t here to tell us their stories, but so many of them were fearless in the face of death. They knew what they had been taught, what they believed, and what they proclaimed was the truth. And, as Jesus said, one day the truth will become clear. They may not have won in this life, but they certainly secured eternal riches in the kingdom of their Lord.

3. THOSE WHO TELL YOU YOU’RE WORTHLESS

I have terrible self-confidence. You may not believe that, or you may very well believe that… but I really do. I’ve struggled with it since I was a teenager. And so, when I began to understand this passage, it was incredibly helpful for me. It helped me see that God really cares about everyone and everything because he made everyone and everything.

Sometimes, it’s not other people who tell us we’re worthless, though. Oftentimes, we ourselves are our harshest critics. We tell ourselves we’re worthless, even if there’s no evidence to back that up.

If you’re struggling with that today, let me tell you… right from this passage. You are so precious to your Father in heaven.

I love my dad. I really do. We’re not the same in every way, and sometimes, that has caused some friction. But the thing I know about my dad is that he deeply cares about me. He doesn’t always say it, but there is no doubt in my mind that, to my dad, I am worth more than many sparrows.

And if that’s true about my dad, who, while amazing, isn’t perfect, how much more true is that of our heavenly Father, who knows the number of hairs on your head (if you have them!) because he put them there. And he made your innermost being. Psalm 139 says, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Because you are. You are worth so much more than you probably believe.

And when you believe that, your whole world can change. I’m not saying we should all delve into arrogance, but I am saying that, no matter what you think, your heavenly Father thinks the absolute world of you.

On the days when I believe that, and that’s not every day, I can walk through this world, whatever it throws at me, and know that God is with me every step of the way.

Let me tell you a story…

A week or so ago, I got into an Uber after an appointment at University Hospital in Coventry. Almost immediately, the driver starts sharing his testimony with me. He wasn’t afraid to do so. And yet, even in a moment in which it was probably pretty safe for me to also talk about Jesus, the notion of sharing my faith with a stranger outside of a church context caused me a bit of anxiety.

I work for a Christian charity, I preach here, and I write about my faith online… and still, when faced with the outside world, I got a bit nervous. And so, while it’s true that we’re worth more than sparrows and that should give us a sense of self-confidence, the reality is that this sentiment is shared with the disciples to give them the courage to evangelise. The two go hand in hand. When we feel secure in our faith, why shouldn’t we share that with the world? I’ve been challenged this week: if I really believe all that Jesus preaches and teaches, all that the Bible has to say, why aren’t I shouting it from the rooftops? Now there’s tact to be had as we do this. We’re all different, and so we can and should go about this in our unique ways. We all have different contexts, some where it’s more appropriate for sharing our faith than others. But what are we waiting for?

Every week, at the post-Alpha course I run, I get to hear the stories of women learning about faith, some of them for the first time. And I’m reminded every week that we meet that someone had to invite them to something, someone had to share their faith, and someone had to give them a reason to keep coming back. I won’t tell you because they’re not my stories to tell, but these women are experiencing God in the most amazing ways… all because someone dared to say “Would you like to come?”

It’s scary to ask the question, but I can tell you that it’s worth it. Just take a look at the fruit!

This passage about having full faith in Jesus comes right in the middle of him sending the disciples out. And so, really, all of this stuff about not being afraid is couched within a message about mission and evangelism.

It probably feels really patronising for me to say “do not be afraid” Some of us are going through or have been through really scary things, and for some of us, mission and evangelism may feel really far from our comfort zone.

But, at the same time, God says over and over again in Scripture, “Do not fear.” And I think this passage speaks to why. I don’t think God is saying that anxiety or nervousness is necessarily bad. I think God knows that these feelings, to varying degrees, are part of the human experience. Yet, Jesus is offering us an antidote: the knowledge that these things that terrify us now will never be more powerful than the love God has for us.

Romans 8:38-39: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

When we step into that love, we receive a fullness of life that nobody else can offer. Jesus says this at the end of their passage, albeit in a rather confusing way: “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”

In Mere Christianity, CS Lewis says this: “Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life, and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life… look for Christ, and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”

Life with Jesus is amazing. I have never felt more free and joyful than when I’m pursuing Jesus with all my soul… and that’s from someone who’s experienced deep depression, great anxiety, and much trauma. Being a Christian is not always easy, and it doesn’t mean our troubles go away, but it is the best thing you can ever decide to do.

And, if you have been following Jesus a while, don’t forget this: you are so precious. There are amazing things to discover when we put Jesus at the centre of our lives.

Don’t be afraid. God is good. All the time. And he is faithful to the end.

I hope this was helpful, or at least provoked some interesting thoughts. Please feel free to send it along to someone and encourage them today. If you want to connect with me in other ways, you can follow me on Instagram.

With much love and gratitude,
Stephanie