A Christian Response to the Coronavirus

A pastoral livestream devotional via Facebook and YouTube will take place this Thursday, 4/2 at 7:30pm. Sam and Darin will be discussing this devotional and fielding questions over the livestream.

There are different ways we can respond to the current Coronavirus crisis, and many preparations we can make to deal with it. Of all the preparations and social distancing measures we are taking, the most important preparation we should make is theological. How are we as Christians to view what is happening? While practical measures are good to take, a theological understanding will equip us for what is coming even better than a well-fitting face mask and a good supply of toilet paper. What we really need to face the days ahead is understanding.

Although having this crisis is new in certain ways, there is nothing new in having crises. There were crises in Jesus’ day as well, both people-caused tragedies and natural disasters. One time during Jesus’ ministry with his disciples, a couple of these tragedies happened and Jesus’ disciples asked Him about it. This was His response:

There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." Luke 13:1-5

This is Jesus’ cheery response to a contemporary crisis. Does it strike you as heartless? Doesn’t Jesus understand the suffering that comes with these events? It turns out, though, that Jesus was giving His followers and others listening exactly what they needed to face their current sorrow (and greater ones that were coming). 

I began to pastor a church in New York City in the year after 911 happened. It was recognized at the time that New Yorkers were flooding into the city’s churches. And you could see it. All different kinds of churches saw a jump in attendance as people who normally wouldn’t go near a church started showing up. Why? It was a pretty obvious demonstration of the inadequacy of the secular worldview to deal with large-scale disaster. So though Jesus’ answer is unfashionable, we should be wise and not be quick to dismiss it or to look elsewhere for our spiritual preparation. Jesus brings His followers’ minds to God’s judgment.

Read the passage above again. Jesus is talking about the great final Judgment. His instruction is to view large-scale crises as portents of the Judgment to come. They are reminders that the great condemnation from God that we all deserve is coming. We really are not in control like we think we are. And that ever-present suspicion that we have really messed things up is actually true. Furthermore we will come before the throne of God to answer for it. We will all alike face God’s just wrath.

Jesus, however, draws a sharp distinction in how believers and non-believers should experience this message. As the other parables around this passage show, Jesus expects believers to experience this message as a reminder of how they have passed beyond judgment. When we experience this world’s temporal judgments, they are tastes of the ultimate judgment that we escape through the sacrifice of Christ for us. Trust in what He has done brings us to repentance. Then these large-scale disasters are only reminders of what would be in store for us fullscale otherwise. It would not be inappropriate to envision Christ contracting the most deadly virus to spare us its consequences. 

To the nonbeliever, though, it is a very different experience. These judgments are warnings to turn to God before it is too late. A viral plague like this should strike fear in the heart of one who has refused God’s grace, as one more prompt to turn (He calls this “repentance”) and cast one’s self on Christ’s mercy.

So though while God has ordained us to sustain temporal judgments while we remain in this fraught world, like the spread of a wild virus, they point us to a very different future. Knowing this will prepare you to act well in this time. We’ll be talking more about what this preparation means this Sunday on our Iron Works Livestream Sunday Service.