“[T]his is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans’ lives …” These are the words of America’s Surgeon General Jerome Adams during an interview with Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace on Palm Sunday.
If ever people needed to see and hear active, living hope, they need it now. Christ followers have that hope. It is time to share it.
Christians must lead the way in submitting to government guidelines and ordinances in response to COVID-19. We must be the first to support the heroic efforts of those fighting on the front lines, including ministries and churches that were already helping the helpless.
More importantly, we must be the first to share liberating hope to a world that feels locked down. Now is the time to unleash the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Thousands of years ago a pandemic was unleashed upon the world. Despite the self-righteous efforts of the brightest minds, the wealthiest philanthropists, and the most pious clerics, the pandemic remains and is as potent as ever. Its name? Sin. It was contracted by Adam and Eve who passed it on to all of humanity.[1]
Sin is the only pandemic with a 100% infection rate and a 100% death rate. The Bible tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”[2] Scripture also says, “For the wages of sin is death ...”[3]
COVID-19 may go down in history as the unseen virus that, in weeks, caused the collapse of nearly every survival system in the world. Such physical, financial, and relational suffering has not been seen in the U.S. for more than a century.
And yet, the impact of the coronavirus will never come close to the past, present, and future impact of sin. Indeed, sin is the root cause of every disease.
Scientists are working tirelessly on treatment options and a vaccine to stop the spread of the coronavirus. One promising effort involves the use of blood plasma from patients who contracted COVID-19 but were not sickened by it. Sick patients could be revived after receiving antibodies from recovered patients. The living could give life to the dying.
Jesus shed His innocent blood to spiritually vaccinate sin-sick souls from the penalty of sin. His death, burial, and resurrection made it possible for us to receive something greater than good health. We can inherit eternal life! Because Christ is forever alive, we can live forever.
This holy week, we will practice physical distancing while creatively commemorating the sobering events that preceded Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.
In our remembering, we must focus on why Jesus suffered, died, and rose again. He did it to provide a hope-filled destiny to lost captives locked down by sin. Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed …” (Luke 4:18).
In the name of Jesus, we can call an unsaved friend to offer a word of comfort or maybe be a listening ear. In the name of Jesus, we can write personal notes of encouragement to those confined in senior living facilities.
In the name of Jesus, we can donate money to ministries that are courageously feeding and clothing the poor. In the name of Jesus, we can post positive messages of hope to counter the negativity on social media. In the name of Jesus, we can pray for our leaders and all the frontline workers fighting to keep us safe and healthy.
In the name of Jesus, we can reach out to young parents trying to figure out homeschooling while managing pent-up energy of little ones. In the name of Jesus, we can pray for marriages under a new layer of stress.
In the name of Jesus, we can share the hope of a Saviour who heals from the inside out. He alone can “set at liberty those who are oppressed.”
Light shines brightest when darkness is at its darkest. Let the light of Jesus shine through you today.
Meditate this holy week on the words of the great hymn The Solid Rock, by the seventeenth century hymn writer Edward Mote:
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name
On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand
[1] Romans 5:12b—"… sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned …”
[2] Romans 3:23
[3] Romans 6:23
About the author: Alonza Jones is the co-founder and president of Biblical Marriage Institute. Visit BiblicalMarriageInstitute.org to learn more.
Copyright © 2020 Alonza Jones. All rights reserved.
