Pandemics occur throughout
history. In the Roman world, the pagans were quick to “get out of Dodge.”
Listen to an early bishop Dionysius tell about what happened in the Alexandrian
Plague of 250 AD. “They thrust aside
anyone who began to be sick, and kept aloof even from their dearest friends,
and cast the sufferers out upon the public roads half dead, and left them
unburied, treating them with contempt until they died. (Works of Dionysius. Epistle 12) But the Christians had different
ideas. “Many of our brethren…did not spare themselves, but kept by each other,
and visited the sick without thought of their own peril, and ministered to them
assiduously and treated them for their
healing in Christ, died from time to time most joyfully…taking over to their
own persons the burden of sufferings of those around them.” And this was no
isolated incident. The plague went on
from 249 to 262. At its height 5000
people a day died in Rome. Cyprian wrote from Carthage that Christians should
serve not just their own but pagans who curse them. A hundred years before, we
think perhaps the first pandemic of small pox hit the empire (165-180 AD).
The famed physician Galen fled Rome for
his country villa. 1/3 the people died. But the Christians ministered without
regard to themselves.
Why? They had little knowledge of
disease except that it was infectious. But Jesus had said, “I was sick and you
looked after me.” (Matt. 25:36) He healed repeatedly (Matt. 4) and “sent His
disciples to preach the kingdom of God and heal the sick.” (Luke 9:2) Peter,
Paul and Barnabus, and Stephen have examples in Acts of where they did this.
And as Jesus never considered a healing complete unless it was also spiritual,
so did the early Christians. If a
Christian dies, life just continues eternally. “Because I live, you too shall
live.” “So then, whether we live or whether we die we are the Lord’s.” If a
sick or dying person came to accept Christ’s love and forgiveness, then they
had gained another brother to stand before the Son. This had an enormous impact on the other
Romans. Fleeing the plague couldn’t
compete with Hope in the face of death.
Plagues made Christianity grow and drew others to the faith. Plagues made love and other spiritual gifts
grow. And the Christian community that
survived was all the stronger from what they had gone through.
Wittenberg, 1527, the
bubonic plague struck again. It had been recurring every couple decades since
1347. Martin Luther had lost his 3 closest friends in grammar school, 20 years
before, and some think grief was a contributing reason he wanted to join a
monastic order. But in 1527 he and
Katarina stayed in Wittenberg to take care of the sick. They cited Matt. 25, and wrote that “ [we and
Jesus] are bound together in such a way that no one may forsake the other in
his distress but is obliged to assist and help him as He Himself would like to
be helped.” Yet Luther added that there
were circumstances that drive us to flee and that no one should judge another
for what they have done. “We are
here alone with the deacons, but Christ is present too, that we may not be
alone, and he will triumph in us over that old serpent, murderer, and author of
sin, however much he may bruise Christ’s heel. Pray for us, and farewell.” (Ag
19, 1527)
I
am humbled by all of this. It makes my
paltry gift of giving away an N95 mask seem tepid. (Construction guys have such
things on hand.) And all my rationalization about being careful not to become
infected and infect others seems rather fearful and cathartic. Wash hands and
take precautions, even staying away from public meetings.
But if someone needs my
service, who am I to refuse to be like Christ? Who shall I refuse to pray with
for His mercy? “Other people
would not think this a time for festival,” Dionysius said of the epidemic in
Alexandria. “Far from being a time of distress, it is a time of unimaginable
joy.” Where is Jesus? We are His Body
here on earth at work. The one who is
sick is Him waiting for us to come.
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