A Greater Sickness I: Oh, How They Love
We find ourselves in the midst of a global uproar. In the chaos of a pandemic, how are we as Christians to respond? There’s even a bigger pandemic that was spreading even before this virus: the pandemic of sin.
In 1 Thessalonians, Paul wrote on death. “I don’t want you to be uniformed,” Paul writes. You aren’t like the unbeliever who has no hope. What he said about death could be applied to this virus, as well. Belonging to Christ fundamentally changes how we approach death. There’s pain, isolation, and frustration across the globe. But for the Christian, there is hope.
In these episodes, we’ll look at believers who have come before us who faced terrible sickness, trials, and even stared death in the face, and have continued to live faithfully.
Every Christian might feel frightened. We all want to avoid the contagion of this virus. We may fear for our country financially. Things look very uncertain. Our life plans—graduations, weddings—may be interrupted.
But in the midst of all of this, we have an opportunity to walk with God as children do with a Father—in simple, childlike determination to trust Him. Because of this, we can rest. We don’t have to be paralyzed by fear or self because the King of the universe has promised to care for His children. We are free to think of others and to go about our tasks in a way that points to the beauty of Christ.
A pandemic similar to smallpox or ebola broke out in Rome, claiming about 5,000 lives a day. No one did for others what he himself wished to experience.
In Carthage, the Decian persecution came as a result of the plague. The people believed the Roman gods were punishing them since the Christians refused to worship the Roman gods. While death ran rampant, anger toward and persecution of the Christians only increased.
During the Plague of Cyprian, the Roman Empire was crumbling and the people were fleeing the city. But one group rose above the turmoil. It was the Christians who stayed and tended to the sick. Many Christians gave their lives to serve those with the disease. Many were heard saying, “Behold, how these Christians love.” It was shocking to others.
At the time of these plagues, there was no germ theory, no real awareness of hygiene. So, naturally, these plagues spread very quickly through the population. They suspected bad blood, so they called for blood letting from leeches. They also thought it was bad air that spread the sickness, so they encouraged even the children to smoke.
Our response to these plagues is generally one of arrogance. We may know better than to encourage our children to smoke to avoid sickness, but we are still just as morally ignorant as ever. In the plague of our day, we’re concerned about our physical health. But are we taking the same concern with our spiritual health?
In the mid-17th century, England experienced the worst outbreak of plague since the Black Death of 1348. London lost roughly 15% of its population, about 1 out of 6 people died. It is estimated over 100,000 died in London alone. During the plague, the rich (royalty, noblemen, pastors) left the city and fled to Oxford. The Puritans, who were persecuted and had been ejected from England, went back into London at the height of the outbreak and ministered to the empty churches. They chose self-sacrifice over self-protection.
God kept His word with Abraham and delivered his people out of Egypt. Three days in, the people are in the wilderness and already complaining. God hears them and gives them water. He says to them, “I am the Lord who heals.” This seems strange as the people were thirsty, not sick. But this word is better translated: “I am the One who makes you whole.”
In Isaiah 53:4, we read that Jesus was pierced, crushed, bruised, scourged, so that we may be healed. There is a cure to the sin-sickness of humanity. We have hope only because of Christ’s suffering.
William Bridge wrote during the plague in London. In light of this physical suffering, what spiritual advice can be given? When a time where physical illness is frightening, what do you need to do spiritually?
“What is my work this day? Now the work of this day is to trust the Lord. This is the work that protection and deliverance in the time of a plague calls for. Who is there that does not desire to be protected and delivered from this plague? Trust in the Lord. As ever you and your family may be protected now in this evil day, trust in the Lord, and call upon yours to trust in the Lord.”
Bridge is not saying if you trust in the Lord, you’ll never get sick. But he is saying that we can be kept by God in the midst of sickness, even if we contract the virus.
What does he mean by “trust in the Lord”?
“But what shall we do that we may trust in the Lord in this day of the plague? First of all, you must repent of your own sins, and be sorrowful for the sins of others, and of the times wherein you live. When the plague came in David's time, you know what David did, he repented: ‘Lord,’ says he, ‘I have done foolishly ... It is I, Lord, it is I.’ So let every one do; this God expects in the time of a plague.”
What do you do in a time where you’re fearful of sickness, you’re in social isolation, and you may have extra time on our hands? Take that time to come clean with God. Ask yourself: Have I lived for God, or for myself? Who would have thought two months ago, hearing about a virus on the other side of the world, that it would shut your office down and change your life?
Have you been living in false security? Have you been living for yourself? Go to the Word! Break your heart over your own sin and also the sins of the nation. Look at your heart, your family, your workplace, your school, and ask God, “How have we offended you?”
William Bridge concludes:
“Again, and so to the end; go to God, and tell the Lord that you do trust in him, and make him your dwelling place, your fortress, your refuge. Do this so you can truly say to God through the work of His son... ‘My refuge, my fortress, my God, in you will I trust.’ It is not enough to trust in the Lord, but you must go to God and tell him, that you do trust in him, that you make him your habitation; say, Lord, I make You my spiritual home, I trust in you, you are my refuge, and my fortress, in you do I trust.”
18th century hymn-writer, John Newton, wrote to a friend who had been seriously ill and recovered. This man was concerned for his soul in his sickness, but grew careless when healthy. Newton writes:
“Many a time, when sickness had brought me, as we say, to death's door, I was as easy and insensible as the sailor, who, in the height of a storm, should presume to sleep upon the top of the mast, quite regardless that the next tossing wave might plunge him into the raging ocean, beyond all possibility of relief. But at length a day came, which, though the most terrible day I ever saw, I can now look back upon with thankfulness and pleasure: I say, the time came, when, in such a helpless extremity, and under the expectation of immediate death, it pleased God to command the veil from my eyes, and I saw things in some measure as they really were.”
Do not wait, but go now, while it is called today, to the great Physician to be healed of your self-righteousness, self-sufficiency, self-rule, self-centeredness.
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Show Notes
Podcast Resources
The Righteous Man's Habitation in the Times of Pestilence; Being a Brief Exposition of the Ninety-First Psalm, William Bridge