As I write this, British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, is in Intensive Care. Our hope and sincere prayer are that God would spare him and hasten his recovery. Covid-19 is no joke! Today, however, some good news painted our computer screens. Bill Gates says that if people continue to practice social distance, cases “should begin leveling off towards the end of the month.” He also offered a smaller number of deaths than the White House’s estimate. Over at the Wall Street Journal, we were greeted with some encouraging economic speculation. The author argues that our economy is strong enough to sustain whatever is ahead. Due to our creativity, we should be back in business soon. I pray this all becomes prophetically fulfilled.
But not all is wine and roses. There are apocalyptic voices everywhere. The Drugde Report has bathed their hideous white screens with bad news for the last four weeks. They have painted such a dreadful picture that at one time, they covered every available space with unimaginable scenarios, all of which determined the end of the world in some capacity. As I have tweeted, their hype has probably given them immense attention. Even now, though some numbers are changing, the message is still the same whether during Covid-19, Hurricane Season, Wars and Rumors of Wars: Fear sells.
Fear! Fear! Give me some of that ol’ time religion! It’s been there since the days of Genesis. When Eve ate the fruit, she allowed her fears to consume her. “Did God really say?” When the first mother suspended her belief for a second to contemplate the Serpent’s words, she gave in to fear.
Will Yahweh keep his promises? Shall the Creator of all the earth give me the knowledge to endure? Perhaps this serpent is right. If I doubt God’s ability to come through, I might as well accept this offer. If I doubt that God can intervene and do just as His Word promises, then fear settles.
To settle in fear is easy. But the Christian faith is not an easy faith. Again and again, we are called to count the cost. The Bible gives us difficult imperatives to challenge our faith. James says, “Count it all joy, when you meet various trials.” Paul says, “rejoice, and again, I say rejoice.” Is this the message you are hearing on the news today in opposition to the ubiquitous apocalypticism? Is this the exhortation from our political figures? No. Fear sells easily but joy is something we must fight and strive for in this world.
Make no mistake: I do not wish for anyone to minimize concerns. I have stressed that not taking the necessary precautions is naive and assumes a stupid hubris. However, we are not addressing the obvious. We are talking about taking a certain posture as Christians. We are talking about rejoicing that the King has come on this Holy Week, and he is not like other kings who forsake the throne when things are not going his way. Jesus does not step down for even a second during the Spanish Plague and certainly not the Covid-19 crisis. We do not worship a king who sees the cross from afar and runs away in fear. We exalt a King who sees the cross and draws even nearer.
Our expectations are framed around the current view of Jesus we have. We instinctively know that he enters our lives daily, hourly, repeatedly by his Spirit, but the manner of his entrance is usually interpreted according to our current view of Jesus. When we are living in fear, surely everything taking place is reason to succumb to fear’s power. Then, we adopt a minimalistic view of the Messiah’s work which is why so many are content with a small Jesus. The audience of fear is always more eager to hear than the audience of fear not.
It is clear especially in our day that fear is the most sold American drug! To some extent, we have all taken it and to some extent, we are all addicted to it. But Jesus comes to break our addictions this Monday of the Passion. When everything is not as it should, he says, “Rejoice; fear not!”
