The Love of God in the Time of Corona
Into the fourth month of the year 2020, I wouldn't have expected that the COVID-19 outbreak would be this severe. The situation in Singapore itself escalated alarmingly over the past few weeks. The social distancing rule that was getting stricter over time finally reached its peak when the government announced the "circuit breaker" policy last Friday. One of the efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus is the closure of offices of various non-essential services for one month, starting from this Tuesday. The environmental consultancy firm where I work at is also affected. As the environmental consultancy firm where I work at obliged us to work from home for a month, I was left in shock as we had never tried that before. My anxiety became even worse when my office's group chat started fussing restlessly about the issue. It was at that moment that I began to realise and directly experience the impacts of the pandemic. “Fear and suffering are real everywhere,” thought I. This observation grew into a question, "What kind of response does the Christian faith offer? and how does it differ from other responses in the world?” Among the many writings and opinions out there, an article written by N. T. Wright led me to reflect about this matter more deeply than I expected, where I see the uniqueness and beauty of the answer that Christianity offers to this outbreak. “Christianity offers no answers about the coronavirus” The article opens with Wright’s observation of a reflex – like a knee jerking after being hit by a rubber hammer – from many circles to assign a label to the pandemic, either as a “sign”, “punishment”, or “nature’s antibody”. Conspiracy theories would spread as fast as the virus itself. These people he called “Rationalists” for demanding logical explanations for every single event. Opposite them are the sentimental Romantics who press for “a sigh of relief”, an instantaneous certainty that everything would be fine in the end. Against these two responses, Wright presented an alternative response that Christianity offers in the form of lament, where we honestly confess that we know absolutely nothing about both the reason behind a phenomenon and its outcome. He defined lament as an act of “[moving] beyond our self-centred worry about our sins and failings and [looking] more broadly at the suffering of the world”. The Biblical tradition of lament invites us to empathise with the hardship of those who face this pandemic in far-from-ideal circumstances, like a crowded refugee camp in Jordan and war-torn areas in Gaza. Wright then took us on a short trip to review the content of several psalms of lament. Some indeed close with a renewal of faith for the presence of and hope from God amid the trouble, but there are also psalms that end with darkness and misery like Psalms 88 and 89. From these two types of lamentation psalm, we learn that the practice of lament does not always give us the answer to our frustration and sorrows. Nevertheless, to those who weep, lamentation always reveals a mystery that the Bible tells: the LORD Himself also laments. The wailings of the Trinity are recorded plainly in the Old and New Testaments. The Bible records many occasions of God’s grieving heart, like when He saw the evil and sinfulness of mankind (Genesis 6:5-6) and when His chosen people Israel turned away from Him to worship idols (Isaiah 63:10). In the New Testament, we see the tears of God the Son at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11:35) and the groanings of the Spirit inside the people of Christ (Romans 8:26) while we ourselves groan with all creations (Romans 8:23). From these observations, Wright concludes that Christians are not called to (be able to) explain what is happening, why it happens, and what outcome would result; rather, the disciples of Jesus are called to lament. Together with the Spirit of God who groans in us, our lamentations transform us into the temples of God that proclaim His presence and healing love in the world that is suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic. Joining the lamenting God in lament Although the article that I summarised above broadens our knowledge and teaches a way of how to respond to the outbreak Biblically and wisely, I was still not satisfied with the conclusion that it arrived at. I felt that there is a deeper connection between God’s lament with His followers’ that the article didn’t explore. In my reflection of the matter, a phrase from Isaiah 53:3 suddenly came up in my mind: “man of sorrows”. The phrase is used by the prophet Isaiah in his prophecy of the servant of the LORD who would suffer to bear the punishment of sin and transgressions that we deserve (Isaiah 52:13–53:12). This is the very prophecy that was later fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ when He was flogged, mocked, and crucified about 2,000 years ago. This description of Jesus as a man of sorrows stirred my heart. As the God of all creations, Jesus is the only Person in the entire universe who can fully understand the very concept of pain and sorrows. With a single syllable, He can make suffering cease to exist in this world (cf. Matthew 26:53)! Jesus could have chosen not to come into the world, but He still did, taking up the human nature and form to endure suffering with the same senses as ours (Isaiah 53:7; cf. Hebrews 4:15) to the point of death (53:8) that “with His wounds we are healed” (53:5, cf. 1 Peter 2:24). He was not only full of sorrows; the suffering He experienced on the day we come to know as Good Friday made Him “a man of sorrows”, the incarnation of sorrows in human flesh and blood. On the cross, I see the connection between Christians’ lament with God’s: Jesus Christ has firstly lamented for and empathised with all of our sins and suffering, even enduring all the suffering Himself and bore them to death that we may “move beyond our self-centred worry about our sins and failings and look more broadly at the suffering of the world”, lamenting and empathising with others’ suffering. The apostle Paul described this truth beautifully, "[God the Father] who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). The God whom Christians worship, who revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, is not far from us all (Acts 17:27). He did not stay silent when His creations try to find ways to rationalise and romanticise the answers to all evil and suffering in this world by their own wisdom. To the Rationalists, Romantics, and all other human perspectives and religions, the Lord answers by coming to the world Himself, experienced all that suffering in the form and with the senses same as ours, laments with us, and paid the wages of sin until finished on the despicable cross. I think the concurrence of this COVID-19 pandemic with the Lent period (40 days before Easter) and the commemoration of Good Friday and Easter is no coincidence. Why so? Because in the gloomy, dark time of coronavirus, the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4), the light of the love of God that continues to be with us, can be seen shining even brighter. Lamenting in the darkness, hoping in the Light of the world How, then, do we practice lament now? For certain, we do not lament by trying to find explanations behind the extremely complex COVID-19 situation like the Rationalists nor by seeking for instantaneous consolation like the Romantics. In contrast, we lament by looking out of ourselves to help and empathise with the suffering of others per N. T. Wright’s suggestions and, I would like to add, directing others to see and believe in the Christ who laments with us and has borne all those sorrows and suffering for us. Through the prayers that we raise up, online conversations with families and friends, and time and energy spent to find out and help the needs of those who need help to survive through this outbreak, we proclaim the Gospel of salvation and love in Jesus Christ. My housemates helped to sharpen the last step by reminding me that the support that we can extend to others is in the first place God’s blessing that He has graciously given us. In other words, sincere thanksgiving is an inseparable part of our action in extending the abundant blessings from God to fulfil the lack of others. With all the additional time and resources that God frees up for me by obliging me to work from home for the next month, I know what I would apply from this reflection: giving thanks at every moment for all the blessings He continuously provides, lamenting the suffering caused by the pandemic, and helping those who are in need as able as I can. Through all of these actions, I pray that the world will know and hope in Jesus Christ who laments for us and has given Himself to bear our sorrows. If you have not yet followed Jesus, my prayer is that after reading this article you will be captivated by the beauty and uniqueness of the Christian answer as I am. While all other beliefs and perspectives are gasping for a concrete explanation to COVID-19, the God who reveals Himself in the Bible answers by coming as a Person into the history of the world and weeping with all of us. You, too, can join Him in lamentation for this world if you commit your life to Jesus and live onward with Him as your Lord and King (Romans 10:9). “Do you believe in all this?” (John 11:26). If you are following Jesus as His disciple as I am, will you lament with me and share this hope that the reality of the love of God in the time of corona is seen by much more people in the world that is infected by sin?
Have a reflective time this Good Friday and Easter! Lord Jesus be with you, soli Deo gloria. P. S. The title is adapted from the novel by Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera.
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