Even A Sparrow Holds Intrinsic Value — Per Jesus! By Dr. Chapman Chen

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. (Matt. 10:29–31; cf. Luke 12:6-7)

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? (Matt. 6:26)

So he told them…“Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours… ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’” (Luke 15:3–6; cf. Matt. 18:12–13)

He [Jesus] said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep!" (Matthew 12:11-12)

Summary: David Clough (2012:75) and Charles Camosy (1989, 57) opine that these verses show that Jesus teaches that human life is much more valuable than that of animals. Yet, IMO, here, Jesus is not affirming a hierarchy of God’s creatures, but subverting the hierarchical human value system (cf. Alexis-Baker 2012: 45). Per Norm Phelps (2002, 144-145), every creature carries an unbreakable core of intrinsic value. Jesus is not suggesting that the wellbeing of a sparrow could rightly be surrendered for human aims, but simply that God’s care for the sparrow is evidence that we can trust God to watch over us. Moreover, we are supposed care about the wellbeing of individual creatures rather than merely the survival of populations or species. Jesus makes clear that an environmental ethic that protects species and ecosystems but disregards the suffering of individual creatures is ethically lacking. Likewise, Richard Bauckham (1998:42) argues that every creature of God has theocentric value. Each of them has “ontological significance beyond human purposes," to borrow Ramirez's (2005) words.

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1. Jesus Subverting the Human Value System

Instead of affirming the human hierarchical value system, Jesus is in effect  suggesting something like this:-

You humans think that animals’ lives are cheap, that you are infinitely more valuable than animals, e.g., birds, sparrows, sheep. But God values each and every one of them! (cf. Alexis-Baker 2012: 45)

2. Every Animal Carries Theocentric Value

Similarly, Richard Bauckham (1998:42) argues that God estimates animals more than human beings do. While human people would barely become aware of the decease of a 0.5 penny sparrow, God takes part in the decease of each one. Even after humans evaluate an animal's usefulness, as in two coins for five sparrows, there is still “surplus value” not yet accounted for: theocentric value, i.e., Yahuah's value (Linzey 1998: xv). Human beings do not ascertain the value of animals. God does, and God's appraisal is not anthropocentric; God does not ascertain an animal's worth in accordance with its utility to humans. "This means animals do not exist exclusively for human use. An animal's life, and death, has ontological significance beyond human purposes," to borrow Ramirez's (2005) words.

3. God’s Care for the Sparrow Evidences that We Can Trust God to Watch Over Us

According to Norm Phelps (2002, 144-145), the concerns of the “less valuable” must not be given up to serve the concerns of the “more valuable.” Every creature carries an unbreakable core of intrinsic value, which renders the idea of “greater or lesser worth” irrelevant in ethical reflection. Therefore, when Jesus stated that humans are of more value than sparrows, he was not suggesting that “a sparrow’s well-being could be sacrificed for human purposes, but only that God’s concern for the sparrow is assurance that we can count on God to take good care of us.”

4. Care About Individuals as Well as Species

The second teaching in this story, again per Norm Phelps (2002), is that our care should be directed primarily toward the wellbeing of individual creatures rather than merely the survival of populations or species. Jesus does not treat the hundred sheep as a “flock” or as any sort of collective body; he regards them as one hundred distinct individuals, each significant in his or her own person. This directly challenges conservationists and environmentalists who focus on maintaining “healthy populations” and preventing species extinction, while simultaneously advancing practices such as hunting, fishing, and trapping that bring pain and death to individual animals. There is no doubt that safeguarding the natural world is a crucial duty. Yet, as Jesus makes clear, “an environmentalism that preserves species and ecosystems while ignoring the suffering of individual animals is morally deficient” (Phelps 2002, 145).

5. Conclusion

Jesus’ teaching on sparrows and sheep makes clear that every creature possesses God-given worth beyond human calculation. By subverting human hierarchies of value, affirming theocentric rather than anthropocentric standards, and emphasising care for individuals as well as species, he calls us into an ethic of compassion that refuses to disregard even the smallest life.

References

Alexis-Baker, Andy (2012). "Doesn't the Bible Say that Humans Are More Important than Animals?" In A Faith Embracing All Creatures. Eds. Tripp York and Andy Alexis-Baker. 39-52.

Bauckham, Richard (1998). "Jesus and Animals II: What did he Practice?". In Animals on the Agenda. Ed. A. Linzey et al. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Calvin, John (1989). Institutes of the Christian Religion. Trans. Henry Beveridge. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.

Clough, David (2012). On Animals: Volume I: Systematic Theology. London: T&T Clark.

Linzey, Andrew (1998). "Introduction." Animals on the Agenda. Ed. A. Linzey et al. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Ramirez, Jesse. "Animal, Factory Farms, and Catholic Social Teaching." Faith Seeking Food, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, May 25. https://www.scu.edu/ethics/focus-areas/bioethics/resources/faith-seeking-food/#:~:text=Aquinas%20denied%20that%20animals%20are,(2)%20Animals%20cannot%20reason.