Running Toward the Plague

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. Matthew 25.35-37

          For our church family, COVID has hit home. For the past several weeks, our church family has had extended family and friends impacted by the virus. We saw some light as we began to meet again as a congregation. Now, we are once again on the brink of sheltering down and members of our church family are coming down with it; a deeper sense of reality sets in. People are understandably scared. Anxiety is up, nerves on edge, and the questions rise: why? God what are you up to? What do we do now? 

          The Bible gives us answers, and history affirms the promise. Would you follow with me for a brief moment and let’s see how God’s people have responded to sickness throughout history?

          The Bible is the story of God. Through the pages of Scripture we witness God’s people facing all sorts of struggles and illnesses: Job, King Hezekiah, and Paul to name a few. In each case, their testimonies all concur with Paul as he writes concerning God’s faithfulness in 2 Corinthians 12.9, “my [referring to God] grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

 

          Around 150 AD, the Antonine Plague hit and killed about a quarter of the Roman Empire population. The Christians were persecuted and accused of being the cause insisting the epidemic was divine punishment against them because they would not pay homage to the Roman deities. Amidst the plague that affected Christians and others alike and in the face of the persecution, even while many people fled to protect their own lives, the Christian people embraced a responsibility to care for the sick and minister to the afflicted providing food and other assistance.1   

          Between 250 and 270AD the Plague of Cyprian devastated the Roman Empire. Interestingly, this plague coincided with a massive empire-wide persecution of Christians by emperor Decius who, again, blamed the Christians for the plague. Both Christians and pagans succumbed to the disease. But the emperor soon found the Roman people favoring the Christians who rose up again, despite widespread community panic, to care for those who were falling victim to the plague. When it seemed like the end of the world, Christianity spread rapidly as Christians demonstrated their faith was worth dying for. This selfless persistence eventually led one authority to observe, “these impious Galilaeans support not only their own poor, but ours as well.”

          In 1527, the Bubonic Plague, “Black Death,” hit Wittenburg, Germany, the home town of Martin Luther. Despite pressure to flee, Luther had a conviction to stay and help the infected even with a pregnant wife at home. In a letter to other pastors he stated, “According to this passage [Matthew 25.41-46], we are bound to each other in such a way that no one may forsake the other in his distress but is obliged to assist and help him as he himself would like to be helped. Martin Luther argued that hospitals and trained staff were a benefit when available, but that as a Christian, he had an obligation to love his neighbor as himself. His convictions on the matter were very strong and he urged people to recognize that the horror and fear that were presenting themselves were indicative of the intrinsic spiritual warfare taking place; that “Satan himself was driving them to anxiety, fear, and worst of all, ‘...to forget and lose Christ, our light and life...’”2  Luther went on to open his home as a ward to those infected and saw it as an opportunity to preach the gospel to the afflicted. In the span of 5 short years, Luther experienced excommunication from the church, the plague, and the death of his newborn daughter. Sometime during this time, Martin Luther authored the great hymn “A Might Fortress is Our God” based on Psalm 46. 

          In early American history, Christian missionaries were essential in carrying medicine and supplies to Native Americans and others throughout the devastations of small pox, yellow fever, cholera and scarlet fever. 

          Setting aside their own health and safety, Christians were among the first responders serving in hospitals and attending to, praying for and sitting with the sick even in their homes during the Spanish flu of 1918. 

 

          Recently in Liberia, Dr Rowden led a team of Doctors Without Borders managing cases of Ebola victims. Their task brought them in direct contact with 10-25 infected people per day amidst a virus that spread chiefly by this means. When asked, Dr Rowden testified his strength came from his Christian faith and the support of his family. Many of the people fighting the Ebola virus in West Africa have been missionaries. 

 

          The first hospital ever founded is credited to Christians in 369AD. “Charles Rosenberg shows in his volume, The Care of Strangers, The Rise of America’s Hospital System, the modern hospital owes its origins to Judeo-Christian compassion.”3  Since then, Christians have by far been the leaders in medicine and the development of hospitals and medical systems. 

 Presently, I have witnessed how members of First Baptist Edinburg have continued to minister to each other and our community. I praise God for a church family that moves forward in faithful confidence in our Lord Jesus Christ. 

 

          Throughout history, both biblical and afterward, God’s people have risen to the occasion to respond to crisis in bold faith, facing the storm in godly wisdom. This has been a testimony to the faith and hope they have in a living God. 

          So how are we to continue to face this current plague? 

          First, we will pray for God’s sustaining grace and peace. That we might remain confident that our Redeemer is faithful and true; our Father is good. 

          Secondly, we will do all we can to be safe. God’s grants us wisdom and bold faith is not foolish. So, we wear masks, wash our hands, sanitize and keep socially distanced as much as we are able. But we do not hide. 

          Thirdly, like Jesus and our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ throughout history, we are called to continue finding ways to love our neighbor and make disciples. Those who have repented and believed the gospel by faith alone in Christ alone by God’s grace alone, are called to “fear not” for our living hope is Christ and our eternal future is secure by the Holy Spirit. Our master leads us onward. 

          Finally, as we experience close family and friends affected by this present plague, or we  join those who are personally suffering its ill affect, we are burdened to pray without ceasing that God would walk with us, even carry us, through this storm. We cry out for deliverance (2 Sam 22.2) as we also pray like Paul that we “will boast all the more gladly of [our] weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on [us].”4  

          I don’t know how or when we will come out of this present darkness. But that is ok. “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” (2 Timothy 1.12)

May God’s grace and peace be with us all,

David A Alexander, 

senior pastor, First Baptist Edinburg

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