Responding to Crisis: Turning to the Words of Jesus
I am quarantined in my home today in Colorado like many others around the world checking the news and tracking the number impacted by the coronavirus. Presently, there are 802,369 infected and 38,990 dead. 3,718 persons died yesterday and 1,200 have died by 6am today.[1] The sports, entertainment, and service sectors are all but shut down, and the business sector is reeling. Most are at home, anxiously waiting and unsure of when the pandemic will end. It seems the world has significantly changed with the entrance of COVID-19. My son was hoping to be married on June 8th. Now he is wondering what type of world he will face with his future bride.
As believers in times like these, we are invited into a dialogue with the Scriptures to search for understanding. As a minister, the gospels are the first place I search. The life and sayings of Jesus become the window by which I watch God in the flesh respond to all kinds of human suffering and pain. Jesus is the living display of God’s perfect thoughts and emotions concerning every human experience. This truth has led John Piper, in his book Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ, to write: “Since Christ is the incarnate display of the wealth of the mercies of God, it is not surprising that his life on earth was a lavish exhibit of mercies to all kinds of people. Every kind of need and pain was touched by the mercies of Jesus in his few years on earth.”[2] In tragedy, I turn to the words in red for an unordinary, heavenly wisdom.
Jesus’ Response to Tragedy and Crisis in Luke 13:1-9
In the gospels we see Jesus confronting the issue of suffering and death on many fronts. As the king of a heavenly kingdom, He releases God’s power to the oppressed, touching and healing the sick, casting out devils, and raising the dead. We also see His compassionate heart as He weeps over Lazarus’ death and as He laments with tears over the coming destruction of Jerusalem (Lk. 19:41). There is one passage in the gospels where Jesus specifically addresses a mass killing and natural disaster. The passage is Luke 13:1-9. The question lingers before us: what will Jesus’ counsel be to God’s people in times of great tragedy?
At first glance, Jesus’ answer in Luke 13:1-5 is quite disturbing and seems to lack the compassion and decorum of a seasoned leader. In fact, in my 25 years of ministry, I have only heard one national Christian leader quote this verse in response to any crisis.[3] None with regard to this recent global pandemic have dared to brave its waters. To be honest, as I ponder Jesus’ words, I am also hesitant to quote them. Yet, we need more than conventional wisdom today that seeks the premature easing of our fears or the presumptuous moving forth with false confidence. We need a window into God’s heart and mind where we gasp and fall silent before an unordinary, heavenly wisdom. I must acknowledge to you that the more I read these verses, the more my heart has been humbled before the Almighty, and a surprising tenderness to the Lord and neighbor has begun to emerge.
The chapter begins with a preceding conversation over two recent tragedies — a mass killing of innocents and a natural disaster. Some followers in Jesus’ presence carry over the conversation and pull Him into the cultural discussion.
There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, no; 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 sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down,” (Luke 13:1–9, NKJV).
Let the Pain of the Crisis Touch You
“Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, no,” (Luke 13:2).
The story is especially shocking with regard to whom it happened and where it took place. Pilate is depicted as killing innocent religious observers in the very act of worship and mingling their blood with the blood of their sacrifices in the Holy Temple. The place of prayer, worship, and peace had become the place of violence and murder.
The story is especially shocking with regard to whom it happened and where it took place. Pilate is depicted as killing innocent religious observers in the very act of worship and mingling their blood with the blood of their sacrifices in the Holy Temple. The place of prayer, worship, and peace had become the place of violence and murder.
As they talk to Jesus about this event, one gets the impression that they are doing what humans do when tragedies like this happen. They discuss why it happened and debate possible solutions. Jesus responds with a seemingly out of place question. “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered such things?” (Luke 13:2). Imagine the strange looks and awkward silence as Jesus ignores the obvious injustice and tragedy and turns the conversation quite personal.
It is as if He means to clear away all the cultural and religious opinions of the day by shockingly making the national tragedy a personal confrontation. Crisis takes us all by storm, and the usual first response is to comfort our consciences and ease our fears through a multitude of opinions. This is true in the church as well as society in general. The human response is to do damage control and turn to sources that relieve our fears and bolster our particular opinions. We easily make the tragedy part of a broader religious or societal issue rather than a personal confrontation. Our various Christian movements and denominations usually rush to our go-to-verses and ascribe both causes and solutions to the crisis that fit with our particular theological bents and ecclesiastical practices.
Examples today abound. The prayer movements I am involved with are calling for solemn assemblies that stand in the gap and push back this “demonic disease.” The signs and wonders movements with a postmillennial bent are calling on us to embrace the church’s finest hour and release Christ’s healing power to the sick and infirmed. This will all turn out for the release of revival and the vindication of the gospel. The sacramental parts of the Body of Christ are appealing to us to embody the gospel and sacrifice our lives in care for the sick and the poor, pointing to the Lord’s admonition in Matthew 25:34-36 that when we care for the sick and poor, we care for Jesus Himself. The missional churches and movements are calling for us to give ourselves to an expression of church that is centered in neighborhoods and entails small groups that can endure the governments gathering restrictions and are able to reach and disciple our unsaved neighbors. Thus, each calamity becomes a soap-box moment for our particular burden or opinion.
While each of these particular opinions and approaches to the pandemic carry valuable insight into the heart and mind of God, and in some sense, I agree with all of them. However, these are not the first response Jesus is desiring. He is looking for something more personal at the outset of the crisis that will deliver us from both false comfort and false bravado. His question cuts right through the cultural, popular responses to the tragedy and goes right to the heart of the matter. As the Creator and Redeemer, Jesus knows the human heart better than anyone. When tragedy occurs, people stay in their comfortable lanes, reverting to easy answers, blame shifting, political and religious opinions, and anything else to shield them from facing the core, fundamental human problem of our shared sinful state in a fallen world.
Jesus immediately removes the deflection and the self-protection and responds to His own question, “Do you think you are less sinful than them? I tell you no!” Do you hear His emphatic response, “I tell you no!”? Jesus forces us to put ourselves right in the pain. You are in the same shared predicament as everyone else. You have the same core problem. The same potential to hurt and the same possibility to be hurt. I hear similar overtones from the prophet Joel in Jesus’ voice.
In the book of Joel, we find Israel in the midst of a national crisis. A locust plague has swept through the land, and in a matter of days the agricultural engine of their financial system is shattered. The crops are destroyed, the trees are stripped, and next year’s seed is in danger. Drought is compounding the problem as fires spread and herds of cattle perish.
At ground zero the prophet Joel draws the nation’s attention to the urgency of the hour through one simple question: “Has anything like this happened in your day, or even in the days of your fathers?” (Joel 1:2). It is as though he cries, “Stop pacifying the pain with your multitude of opinions and keen rebuilding strategies and just look at the crisis. The crops are destroyed. The food is cut off. Fires are breaking out, and the cattle are dying.” He exhorts every class of society to wake up to their current situation and wail over the loss. Before you move on to the public debate grounded in political and religious positions, look at the crisis and let it touch you. Let your heart feel the pain! Later, the prophet would say, “Rend your heart and not your garment.” Quit moving on to religious opinions and ceremony around this tragic event. Let this tragedy touch your heart. Place yourself right in the pain.
Few things are worse in the midst of a tragedy than a clearly stated opinion from a disconnected and untouched heart that has shed no tears. God’s desire in times like these is that the eyes would cry before the mouth would speak. Hollow words from faces that shed no tears bring no true change.
Days into the pandemic, I personally found my heart somewhat untouchable, moving quickly into critiquing the multitude of voices speaking as to what God’s role is in the crisis and what our response should be. I even joined the debate and publicly released my too cents worth, pointing to an article I had previously written for Ministry Today.[4] Yet, Jesus was calling me to stop and connect my heart to the pain. If I am honest, I have shed little to no tears over these 38,990 deaths.[5] Even worse, the tragedies now come so often I hardly skip a beat in my normal routine over any tragedy. I have already compartmentalized entire areas of my heart and mind where sub-categories of horrors — like lone shooter mass killings, deaths from military conflicts, natural disaster casualties, and infectious disease statistics — stay filed away. A new one comes. I seemed shocked for a moment, and then file it away without many feelings at all. This moving on devoid of an emotional response is a death knell to the spiritual life, for a hard heart does not feel and cannot pray.
In this current global pandemic, I found myself listening to all the prophetic voices of the day ascribing this and that as the cause and this and that as the solution for the Church. Even as I was already in an extended fast for revival, I heard the Lord whispering to me this week, “Let it touch you, Allen. Let it touch you!” Don’t move on to the popular cultural and religious opinions of the day and the pointing of the fingers as if we are not all in the same sin predicament. Let the pain of human sin and the fallenness of the world touch you. Let your vulnerability to a fallen world touch you. Don’t be so quick to turn away from the common human mirror. Connect your heart afresh to the fact the world is in desperate need for a Savior and Redeemer.
Embrace the Call to Repentance
“I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish,” (Luke 13:3).
Having paused our usual cycles of quick opinions and ongoing debates about God’s involvement and our needed response, Jesus makes an emphatic statement about the proper initial response of all believers to tragedy and crisis — repentance. Let the crisis touch you and use it as a unique opportunity to turn your wayward heart back to God. There is an underlying social and spiritual problem going on that is bigger than this particular pandemic and loss of life. The problem is within you. It is within me. It is impacting our world and allowing for the oppression of demonic powers. Something is wrong at the core of our human experience.
David proclaimed it, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” Jeremiah confirmed it, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” Jesus would emphatically expose the issue in John 3:19, “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil.” He would later say, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.” Paul would follow suit in Romans, “There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God . . . For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” He would go on to say in Romans 8:20-21 that the entire world has subjected to futility and the bondage of corruption because of sin.
Jesus calls us to examine our hearts in the hour of crisis, turn away from every wayward thought and act, and turn back to God with contrition and sincerity of heart. Crisis calls for a humble introspection and return to the only hope we have. Five times in the Book of Revelation, Jesus calls for churches in Asia Minor to repent. In Revelation 2 and 3, the tender Lamb of Calvary, who died for the sins of the world and told John to not fear because He holds the keys of death and hell, exhorts five of the seven churches to repent as preparation to the coming crisis. Jesus wants the churches to overcome and walk in faith, compassion, and authority but first they must repent of their compromise and sin. Hear the words of Jesus:
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. (Revelation 2:5, NKJV)
But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth. (Revelation 2:14–16, NKJV)
Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.” (Revelation 2:20–23, NKJV)
Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. (Revelation 3:2–3, NKJV)
So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore, be zealous and repent. (Revelation 3:16–19, NKJV)
Remember, this is the tender, resurrected Jesus speaking to His churches as He prepares them for the coming shaking that will involve the increase of human sin, the rage of Satan, the groan of creation through all manners of natural disasters and pandemics, and the punitive judgments of God against Satan and the world’s systems.
In these letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor, Jesus also showers them with words of affection, encouragement, hope, and vision. The Lord uses both His kind and corrective words to make the church ready to shine in the world’s darkest hour. This is why Paul declared in Romans 11:22, “Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.” In times like these we must choose the entire counsel of God, letting both His loving encouragement and discipline conform us more into His image and produce greater levels of love in our hearts. Repentance is not the only word to the church, but it is the first word. And, the scriptures exhort us that it is even His kindness that leads us to repentance.
In the solitude of the quarantine, I have been examining my heart this week. Has the pain of the crisis hit me? Is my heart tender in the place of prayer? Is my mind exalted at wanting to have the correct perspective, but my heart detached from the pain? At what level is indifference in me? At what level is pride in me? At what level is unbelief in me? In what ways am I in compromise? In what ways am I not living the gospel? At what level is anything displeasing to God in me? Am I ready to meet my Maker if the virus visits my home? I must admit that I have been trembling before a holy God who both loves me and calls me to righteousness. Oh God, deliver me! I want to hate even the garment defiled by the flesh.
The problem is the urgency and intensity of the crisis usually moves us as leaders to speak too soon without the brokenness and wisdom that reflection and repentance bring. This leads to all sorts of public statements filled with false comfort or false bravado that short-circuit the process of refection and repentance. Jesus calls us to pause, reflect, and repent first. Speaking may come but not first for the Christian. First must come contrition and tears.
In our attempt to dismantle the inordinate and ungodly fears among believers, we as leaders often give public statements that rob the Body of Christ from the fear of the Lord and a humble trembling before the Almighty. Fear becomes the greatest enemy as the preacher exhorts us that fear is the opposite of faith and that God has not given us a spirit of fear. Yet, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It is clean and aids in the perfecting of ourselves in holiness.[6] We quickly reassure our congregations of God’s approval and peace, moving to verses like Psalm 91 and Romans 8:28 to relieve the tension of the moment and fail to mention a multitude of verses on God’s discipline, chastisement, and unwillingness to answer the prayers of a people in compromise and rebellion.[7] By doing so, we rob people of genuine reflection and humble repentance. We steal the gift of trembling before God from God’s people. Jeremiah warned the false prophets and worthless shepherds of the day that declared peace when there was no peace. Hear his words:
I listened and heard, But they do not speak aright. No man repented of his wickedness, Saying, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone turned to his own course, As the horse rushes into the battle. “Even the stork in the heavens Knows her appointed times; And the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow Observe the time of their coming. But My people do not know the judgment of the Lord. “How can you say, ‘We are wise, And the law of the Lord is with us’? Look, the false pen of the scribe certainly works falsehood. The wise men are ashamed, They are dismayed and taken.
Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord; So what wisdom do they have? Therefore I will give their wives to others, And their fields to those who will inherit them; Because from the least even to the greatest Everyone is given to covetousness; From the prophet even to the priest Everyone deals falsely. For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, Saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ When there is no peace. (Jeremiah 8:6–11, NKJV)
How often do we heal the wounds of His people in the hour of crisis by wanting to relieve the shock of the incident? Yet, the Spirit may be wanting to ask His people some significant questions, “What is our contribution to our common shared sin predicament? How is the current compromise of the people of God helped our current fallen context? When we gather is it to seek for greater obedience and to pray for our cities? What idols have we embraced, and how much like the world are we? How often has our lack of wisdom in the crisis left both God’s people confused and our gospel watered-down?
Few generations have been given the opportunity of being quarantined home for an extended period of time with their families. Our Heavenly Father, the Father of all comfort and mercy is wanting to use even this time for us to draw near to Him, that He might both shower us with His love and invite us into removing everything that hinders our devotion back to Him. Jesus is a jealous Bridegroom who will use all of life’s circumstances to produce the greatest amount of love in our hearts for Him.
You Shall Likewise Perish – Don’t Think This Will Not Affect You
I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish,” (Luke 13:3).
Jesus goes further and attaches their need for repentance to the stark reality that unless they repent, they will likewise perish. Twice he affirms this in verses 3 and 5. What is Jesus saying here? In one sense, Jesus was always pointing beyond the temporal predicament to humanity’s need to grapple with eternity and our future standing before God on the last day.
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (Mt. 10:28)
Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? (Mt. 16:24-26)
28 Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice 29 and come forth -- those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. (John 5:28-29)
However, in this scripture Jesus gets very particular and does not leave us in an abstract future. Rather, He gives a parable of a fig tree planted in a man’s vineyard. The vineyard owner found no fruit on the fig tree, and thus, labored in vain for three years to find fruit. The stark warning now comes, one more year of labor shall be given and then the tree will be cut down if no fruit remains.
He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’” (Luke 13:6–9, NKJV)
This parable has all the foreboding overtones of Jerusalem’s oncoming destruction and can easily be applied to the life of Jesus as He ministered among Israel. Galilee had received three years of revival with displays of unusual power, yet as a whole the region had not turned to God. Jesus just weeks earlier had stated, “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades.”[8]
In a literal sense Jesus is warning that these smaller tragedies should have moved them to respond in turning to the Lord in repentance, fasting, and prayer. Even John and Jesus’ ministries had not turned the people back to God. The corporate sin of the nation and the people of God were accumulating. Jesus knows the Galilean revival will soon be forgotten and will have produced little long-term fruit for the nation as a whole. John came warning them to flee from the wrath to come. Jesus came preaching the good news of God’s love and salvation. Yet, the people had neither responded in repentance to the message of God’s severity nor of God’s kindness. In a few months, the majority of the nation would reject their Messiah, and the oncoming consequence of this rejection would be catastrophic as over a million Jews would lose their lives in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Jesus would later weep over this fact.[9]
As I read this phrase “you will all likewise perish” over and over and thought of the current global pandemic, I wrestled with how to apply this verse to me. What is Jesus, the Living Word, trying to say to me? What are you looking for Jesus in us at this time? In my prayer, the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount jumped out to me.
You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:13–16, NKJV)
We are the salt of the earth. The light of the world. A city on a hill that cannot be hidden. In the parable earlier from Luke 13, the owner of the vineyard was looking for fruit. Jesus is looking for fruit! In Luke 13:1-9 Jesus connects the lack of fruit with the inability of His people to live lives of reflection and repentance.
The sad part of sin is that it accumulates and separates. As sin grows in a nation, attention in the Church rarely goes inward to a sober self-reflection that leads to repentance and personal change. The socio-political and religious lines keep dividing while people pull away from each other, blame-shifting and isolating themselves from their neighbors. Crisis and pandemics get weaponized for political agendas. Left-leaning Christians blame Trump, and right-leaning Christians point to the conspiracy behind this virus to steal our rights and enact a leftist agenda. Meanwhile, no one reflects and repents, and the sin just keeps on mounting. Christians remain cold-hearted and fruitless as the situation in their local communities gets worse. The numbers of infected persons increase, our hospitals continue to fill up, and the death toll rises. No one dares to trust anyone anymore. The Church focuses on winning the culture war and the presidential election while our hearts remain personally hard and unresponsive.
I believe Jesus gave us extraordinary insight into how the enemy keeps us from true societal change. If we as the people of God do not truly connect our hearts to the pain and truly repent at a deep level, asking the Lord to deliver both us and our nation from sin and its effects, the hearts of His people will remain unchanged as the sin accumulates and our unfruitfulness is exposed. If we do not identify with our shared plight and search our hearts in true repentance, we will point the finger and wage the culture war from a pious distance while the national sin mounts up and more blood cries out from the ground. We cannot imagine that the societal ills of this culture will not affect us and not point back to our lack of fruit. Christians will die today in hospitals and go to be with their loving Maker while many unbelievers will simply die, and our false comfort and false bravado will not stop it.
We must embrace the pain, let it touch us, turn to God in sincere repentance, and salt this nation again, not with false comfort and false bravado but with a broken and contrite heart that trembles before His Word. We must humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord and purge ourselves from all that is not holy, kind, and filled with faith. We must cast off all sin that hinders us and weighs us down and love like we have never loved, even unto death.
We have an extended period of time to gather our families in our homes to reflect, repent, and pray to God who alone can save us and the nations. We must use this crisis to prepare the way of the Lord. We have a mighty calling to be in this world yet not of it. We must do more than alleviate the shock of the moment with quick public statements, sermons, and prophecies. We must let this crisis touch us to the core, embrace the fear of the Lord, repent, and bear fruit! Lest we hear the words of the prophet ringing through the ages, warning religious people everywhere:
Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Luke 3:7–9, NKJV)
How Am I Responding During this Quarantine?
First, I am weeping with those who weep and praying with fasting for God to have mercy on our nation and the nations of the earth facing this awful disease.
Second, I am uncomfortably letting Jesus’ words as they are without caveat and disclaimer chafe me. His words are not naturally digestible, but they are an unordinary, heavenly wisdom that cannot be improved upon. So, I bend and bow to them long before I even understand them.
Third, I am asking for the pain of our commonly shared human experience of calamity and crisis to touch me. I want to pause with my mouth shut long enough to experience true empathy, true brokenness over our shared plight and struggle with sin and a fallen world. I want to enter into the lament over living in a broken, hostile world from sin and its effects. I want a cry for a Savior to reemerge from my cold heart.
Fourth, I am turning to the Lord in prayer, reflection, and repentance. I am repenting for any hardness of heart, areas of compromise, and lack of fruit in my life. Oh, precious Jesus, rid me from everything indifferent, violent, sinful, and selfish. Deliver me lest I be a primary share holder in the sin of this nation, content to repeat the party line and religious opinions of the day while our national sin accumulates and mounts up to heaven.
Last, I am setting my heart to embrace my city and to love as I have never loved. The gospel must be preached, and it must be lived. At some point I must come out of my home to love, heal, deliver, and save. I may have to join many of the saints of old who entered the plague with Jesus’ compassion, armed with service and faith.
I truly want my heart to be humbled by Jesus’ words concerning my common experience with my neighbor of the internal and external effects of sin. I am repenting of and seeking deliverance from all that is not holy. I refuse to rob myself or the Body of Christ from the fear of the Lord and the gift of reflection and repentance. I am turning my heart back to God. I am leaving the separatist and the fruitless, knowing that piety is found in the struggle, crucified outside the camp, and loving the lost one made in His image. I am asking for a silent trembling, a holy life, and a bigger love, lest I perish with a cold, sterile heart. I am praying for God in His mercy to deliver us from the impact of human sin, Satan’s rage, and a fallen world’s effects. I am also praying for God’s mercy and grace that I might be a vessel of light and love from a place of humble contrition and unwavering faith.
Somehow, the words in red, which at first glance seemed like the words of an unseasoned leader, are humbling me. I am now praying for them to escort my heart into the fear of the Lord and the boundless love of Christ. With the arrival of Covid-19, it seems the world has truly changed. My hope and prayer is that we will too.
[1] John Piper in an interview just after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11/01.
[2] https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/, as of 6am on 3/31/20
[3] John Piper, Seeing and Savoring Jesus (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2001), 92.
[5] https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/, as of noon on 3/31/20.
[6] Psalm 19:9, Proverbs 9:10, 2 Corinthians 7:1.
[7] 1 Corinthians 10:1-22 and Hebrews 11 & 12 for example
[8] Luke 10:13-16.
[9] Luke 9:41.
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