The Peril of Pandemic

“And you shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that you be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.  For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquake, in divers places.  All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:6-8).

Wars, famines, plagues, and pandemics, just the sort of things meant to disturb the equilibrium of men’s minds and hurl humanity into alarm.  “But,” says Jesus, “do not be troubled when these things loom, because I have told before of their inevitability.”  Why we panic under such circumstances is every bit as important a consideration as why we remain calm in times of peace.  When the world is at ease, do we account for the things that trouble the heart of God--things like the thunderous roar of humanity on a rampage against His holiness?  Centered in the hearts of men and women, the plague of sin insidiously infects everything it touches. Much like a virus that survives undetected on external surfaces, sin persists in its influence imperceptibly, manifesting in subtle and overt ways alike. But does its manifestation trouble us in the least?  Do we even acknowledge its symptoms?

It is imperative that we sincerely consider our hearts’ response to the virus that is disturbing nations in this hour.  Do we react with fear? Or do we respond with faith, in the recognition that our Lord has foretold this event and every other like it?  Jesus says simply, “See that you are not troubled.”  Are you troubled just now?  If so, why? Are you concerned for your own safety?  Are you concerned for the health of those around you?  Are you worried about the economic impact of the social distancing prescribed by government officials?  Our response to these things is a good barometer for the depth of our trust in God.

This worldwide pandemic known as the novel coronavirus is nothing novel at all, at least inasmuch as it was foretold by God Who knows the end from the beginning, because He is the Beginning and the End.  These birth pains, as Jesus calls them, are the predecessor of something of greater severity that is coming upon the world. As the church of Jesus Christ, we are invited to walk through the present turmoil with a peace that passes all understanding; not untouched by the peril, but unmoved by it.  I say invited, because that is precisely what our God has done by placing us here in this hour in the midst of this crisis.

Peril presents us with an opportunity to respond as a living epistle written before the eyes of a world longing for answers.  What does your life say to a worry fraught world that reads the pages of your behavior? While the answer to the question of, “Why?” may not be so readily heard or received, the answer to, “What?” is one which must not be wanting in us as the church in an hour such as this.  “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,” and this fear precludes fear for any external event that might befall us as the saints of God. This holy fear is also the answer of wisdom which the world desperately seeks and just as desperately needs.

Whether the peril we face be the plague of sin in the human heart, or the cursed effect of sin in a world bowing under its weight, an effect as far reaching as pestilence and pandemic, let us stand steadfast in the love of God that casts out fear.  Let us lift up our eyes to the One Who told us before what would befall the earth in her last days. This world is passing through birth pains which cause creation to convulse under the curse of sin that will one imminent day be dealt with in its extremity by the blow of Heaven’s justice when the Son of God splits the sky with the archangel’s shout.  Jesus looked through the corridors of time to behold the final days of suffering through the lens of His own excruciating torment on the cross. He now adjures His church in this hour to peer through the same lens, to expand our vision from the myopic view of the present pandemic, and to recognize that the serpentine torment of sin that smothers the life out of humanity runs much deeper and disturbingly than a virus running rampant.

On His trudging march toward Golgotha, Jesus prophesied to the daughters of Jerusalem about perilous days ahead.  Hanging on a cross, His scourged body bleeding profusely, Jesus demonstrated uncanny concern for His persecutors, beseeching His Father for their forgiveness.  His boundless love made entrance to paradise for a criminal on a cross whose only request was for a merciful remembrance from heaven. If the Son of God so walked under unfathomable agony, how then shall we respond?  How shall we live amidst the peril of pandemic?  

Jesus said the time will come when those who live in Judea must flee to the mountains to avoid the proximitous influence of the Antichrist.  In our immediate circumstance, to avoid crowds and cloister in homes is not in itself a response of fear, it may well be in keeping with the direct leading of the Holy Spirit Whose counsel we must heed.  However, if this imposed isolation results in separation from authentic community, or impedes the expressed demonstration of love toward the church and an unbelieving world, we may well have fallen prey to the subtlety of Satan’s seduction toward fear.  The faith of Christ demands continued fellowship, however that must be accomplished. Creative attempts at community are nothing new to the body of Christ which has suffered persecution throughout the ages. Do not shrink back, do not tremble for the uncertainty of what is to come, do not let your heart fail you for fear.  These responses must not be evidenced among those who name the Name of Christ.

If we flee, let us flee to Rock that is high above.  If we shut ourselves in, let us do so into deeper communion with Jesus Christ, while utilizing all means at our disposal to maintain the fellowship of the saints.  If we find ourselves in financial hardship, let us trust unswervingly that the God Who holds the sparrow’s breath will never fail to give us bread. May we find that this peril shall now prove to be a present spiritual discipline granted by the Lord Who counted us worthy to suffer arm in arm with a world that cannot calculate the reasons for the pandemic.  Our Lord beckons us to His bloodied bosom that we might be a conduit of surpassing peace to a people longing for answers, searching for hope, and aching for meaning. Church of Jesus Christ, let us be what we were made to be for this very hour--the salt of the earth, the light of the world, a healing balm from God Whose own wounds heal a plague of sin infinitely more severe than this pandemic that He foresaw and forespoke.