Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ,
In the past few weeks we have all learned some new words like Covid-19 and social distancing. We are, hopefully, getting very good at washing our hands for how long? 20 seconds. But we are also struggling to not touch our faces, right? Because as soon as someone tells us not to, we feel this massive itch 🙂 But in all seriousness, we see the confirmed case numbers and death numbers around the world multiplying every day, and even here in NZ it looks like Covid-19 is spreading its tentacles into our communities. So here we are, with most of us watching church on You-Tube. How weird! And yet, it seems that this may be the new normal for some time to come.
Well, before we say anymore, let’s remember what the preacher stated in Ecclesiastes 1:9-10:“What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us.” So, we are not the first generation of humans who have had to deal with pandemic and closed churches, and we will not be the last to do so before the Lord Jesus returns.
What we need to do, which is what every generation of believers has done in similar circumstances, is to seek instruction and comfort from the living and abiding word of God. And our text is entirely fitting because it is about large scale tragedies and how they are to be interpreted. So may the Lord comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. May He quiet the fears and strengthen the faith of His beloved children, but also awaken faith in those who are in ignorant or rebellious unbelief.
As we just read, Jesus was speaking to a crowd of many thousands. And having called on everyone to publicly profess faith in Him as the Christ, someone asked Jesus to act as a judge about an inheritance dispute. But what Jesus did instead, all the way through ch. 12 and into ch. 13, was to present Himself as the Judge (capital J), before whom everyone will one day appear on Judgment Day. And He did this by laying out a number of situations that call for a decision. Essentially, He says, You must decide who I am. Will you acknowledge Me as the Judge of your eternal destiny?
- So in vv13-21, He warns about not being too attached to earthly things and to be ready to die and appear before God.
- In vv22-34 He spoke about not being anxious and investing in spiritual things; “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
- In vv35-48, the warning is: Watch and be ready; live expecting the Second Coming; “the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
- And from v54 to the end of the chapter, He rebuked the Jews of His day for not recognizing Him as the Messiah promised in the OT. What they saw about Jesus should have led them to accept Him as the Son of God. So He said, “Why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”
So as we consider Luke 13:1-5 today, the question we want to consider is: How do we interpret COvid-19? What does Covid-19 tell us about Jesus Christ? How should we respond to what is going on around us? And our two points will simply be the wrong interpretation and the right interpretation.
- So let’s begin with the wrong interpetation of ‘disasters’ or pandemics.
- Some who were present as Jesus spoke told Him about a
recent tragedy. And we don’t know much
about the detail of this tragedy, but apparently some people from the region of
Galilee had come down to Jerusalem and been killed in or near the temple, and
Pilate had mixed in their blood with the blood of the temple sacrifices. And you get the sense that this was big news
then; if they had it back then, everyone would have been posting about it on Facebook and
Twitter.
- Now, what we need to understand is that Jerusalem Jews viewed ‘Galileans’ kind of like how Americans speak about ‘hillbillies’ or ‘rednecks.’ Galilleans were lower class, not nearly as law-abiding as we Jerusalem Jews are, human beings.
- So what these Jews were saying to Jesus was, Oh, don’t worry, Jesus, we can interpret the times. The fact that these ‘Galileans’ died such a scandalous death? Well! That proves that they were great sinners and that we are right to despise them. Yeah?
- But Jesus immediately corrected this wrong interpretation
of this tragedy. He said, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than
all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way?” And we will come back to this question and
how this tragedy should have been interpreted after we read about the next
tragedy that Jesus mentioned. You see,
what He did next was to bring tragedy
closer to home. And He did this by
mentioning something that happened to Jerusalem Jews, which is the 18 who died
when the tower of Siloam fell.
- And again, we do not know much about the circumstances of this tragedy. One non-biblical Jewish historian of the time wrote about Pilate building an aqueduct to bring water into Jerusalem. And Pilate funded the aqueduct with the sacred temple money and Jews were among those who built it, and the religious leaders were horrified at this. And it maybe that the tower of Siloam was part of this aqueduct and that the death of the eighteen was viewed as God’s punishment for how the project was funded and on those who were part of building it. And so, again, in the minds of most of the people, great sin equaled great tragedy.
- But Jesus asked them the same question: “Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?”
- You see, there have always been those who stand ready to
judge those who experience tragedy as those who must be the worst of sinners.
- In the OT we find this in the story of Job; that was the attitude of Job’s ‘friends’; Come on Job, what have you done? Own up! You’re getting punished, big time, so you must have sinned, big time.
- And there will be preachers today saying that Covid-19 is God’s judgment on abortion legislation or mega-rich corporates or whomever else they think deserves God’s severe judgment.
- But brothers and Sisters, young people and boys and girls, it is clear from Jesus’ words that that is the wrong way to interpret such events. We should not conclude that the worst affected countries or those who have died are worse sinners than us.
- And Jesus makes this crystal clear as He answers the question He Himself put before the crowd, twice, when He said, “No. I tell you!” The Galileans and the Jews who died were not worse sinners than other Galileans or other Jews.
- So, to interpret Covid-19 as God’s judgment on some
particularly bad sinners would be wrong.
But there are other ways that we could
misinterpret or wrongly respond to Covid-19.
- I mean, many of us experienced the enormous ‘high,’ if I can use that language, of church camp, last weekend. Three solid days of fellowship and joy and preaching. And now the whole church program has pretty much been cancelled. And has anyone looked at their kiwi-saver balance recently? And there appears to be little doubt that some of us will be hit by unemployment. And statistically this virus may very well lead to the illness or even death of some of us. And things like this might make us angry. God! What are you doing?
- Others will barge about not washing their hands and disagreeing with the cancelation of public events because it’s just a silly virus and what’s the big deal!! Martin Luther spoke about this 500 years ago in relation to the plague! He said, “Others … are much too rash and reckless, tempting God and disregarding everything which might counteract death and the plague. They disdain the use of medicines; they do not avoid places and persons infected by the plague, but light-heartedly make sport of it and wish to prove how independent they are.” He called people like this a suicide, and he described it also as a lack of love for your neighbour! Wrong response!
- And many of course, don’t spend an ounce of time thinking about God in this time. I have heard people say that this just Mother nature giving us humans some time out because of pollution and killing some of us off because we have over-populated the world. So cruel and heartless. But what does Psalm 14 say? “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” And so, again, to ignore God is the wrong response.
- Some are full of anxiety – panic buying, reading every FB article – wrong response.
- But there are also those who will now build bunkers. Even if they survive, they will live in fear of the next virus. Their whole focus will be virology and preaching about virus awareness!!! Wrong response.
- So, what is the right interpretation of Covid-19? How should we respond to what is happening?
- Well, the place to begin, in terms of general biblical
principles, is to recognize that God caused
Covid-19 to happen.
- Amos 3:6 says, “Does disaster come to a city, unless the LORD has done it?”
- Matthew 10:29 tells us that not even a sparrow can fall to the ground or a hair from our head apart from the will of God. Even pandemic comes according to the will of God and to accomplish His good purposes.
- Think of righteous Job who said to his wife, “Shall we receive good from God, and not evil?” And do you remember his words from ch. 1? “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”
- Will your interpretation of Covid-19 be to bless the Lord? And that doesn’t mean you have to have a Covid-19 party! I have often pointed you to godly Habbakuk, who, when he heard devastating news about the Babylonian invasion, said, “I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me … Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.”
- Congregation, God is in control. He rules every molecule of creation! And that is a good thing! We may not understand all that He does but He has told us that He works all things for the good of those who love Him in Christ Jesus.
- Romans 11:33-36, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever.
- This afternoon, Vicar Nathaniel Rademaker will read Q/A 26 of the Heidelberg as our confession of faith. It says, God is my Father because of Christ His Son. “I trust Him so much that I do not doubt He will provide whatever I need for body and soul, and He will turn to my good whatever adversity He sends me in this sad world. He is able to do this because He is almighty God; He desires to do this because He is a faithful Father.”
- Is that your profession of faith? Will your response to Covid-19 be worship?
- But a second part of the right interpretation of Covid-19
is that while tragedy is not necessarily a punishment for a specific sin, pandemics
are part
of the curse of sin.
- The message of Genesis 1 is that there were no pandemics
in the Garden of Eden; it was “very good.” It was the rebellion of Adam and Eve that brought
sin and death to the world, just as God had warned it would. And that means that every single atom of
creation is now infected with sin. Romans 8:22 describes it as the groaning of creation. So
Covid-19 is a part of creation’s groanings.
- And this means that as human beings, we need personal recreation or salvation. We begin life dead in sin and we must be re-created by the Holy Spirit. And this happens when we believe that Jesus died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. That is when God takes away our sin and guilt and clothes us with the righteousness of Jesus. That is when we become His re-created children.
- But this whole universe needs to be recreated. Covid-19 is another flashing neon announcement about the reality of sin. While there is much beauty in creation, there is much evil and decay and disease and ugliness and death. And all that will only be dealt with by Jesus when He comes again. He is going to purify the universe of every molecule of sin and remake it more pure and beautiful and perfect than it was in the beginning. eHHe is going to make the new heavens and the new earth free of pandemic, and free of pain and free of death!
- The message of Genesis 1 is that there were no pandemics
in the Garden of Eden; it was “very good.” It was the rebellion of Adam and Eve that brought
sin and death to the world, just as God had warned it would. And that means that every single atom of
creation is now infected with sin. Romans 8:22 describes it as the groaning of creation. So
Covid-19 is a part of creation’s groanings.
- Does that sound good to you? Does that sound like where you would like to
spend eternity? Well, there is only one
way to enjoy this new creation. And that is what Jesus
talks about when He says here, twice, “Unless
you repent, you will all likewise perish,” So the third and last part of
the right interpretation of Covid-19 is to repent. And to repent means, literally, to turn
around and go in the other direction.
- So unbelievers must repent of unbelief. If you have not believed in Jesus as your Saviour and Lord, you must do so today. If you die in unbelief or Jesus returns, you will spend eternity in a place of permanent pandemic but without death, forever. So take hold of Him today. Believe and trust and obey Him. Make Him Lord of every word you say every dollar you spend every hour of your time. Give Him your life.
- But even those of us who do believe in Jesus are in need of daily repentance.
- Maybe we have been too attached to sports or kiwisaver or our job or our health – finding our security and joy in those things instead of in Jesus.
- Some of us might be half-hearted in our participation in the life of the congregation.
- Some of us haven’t told anyone about Jesus Christ for ages or ever.
- Some of us are failing to be the husbands and wives or parents or children that God calls us to be.
- Some of us are deeply in love with the fleshly temptations of the world.
- And the list could go on, right?
- What does Jesus say?
Repent – turn around. Pastor
Peter was going to preach this morning from Colossians 1. Paul and
Timothy’s prayer for the Colossian believers, which, by the Holy Spirit, is a
prayer for us all today, is: We pray for you that you may “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully
pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in
the knowledge of God.”
- So a right response to Covid-19 is to pray, Lord, thank you for sending Covid-19 to shake me up. I want to walk in a manner worthy of you, I want to be fully pleasing to you, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of You.
Dear friends, the Lord has spoken to us today. The right interpretation of Covid-19 is to believe and confess that:
- God is sovereign. He is our faithful, loving Father, through Christ.
- And we live in a fallen world that will only be recreated at the Second Coming of Jesus. So we pray, “Come Lord Jesus, Come quickly,” and we live expecting His return, any moment.
- And we live a life of daily repentance! We turn away from all that is evil and we turn towards all that is right and good and true and pure.
And this is the message that our unbelieving neighbours and workmates desperately need to hear. But for them to hear it you have to tell them! Will you do that?
We end then with this confession of faith from Psalm 46, that I have slightly paraphrased: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though [Covid-19 moves among us].” And all God’s people said, Amen.