Life and Death

March 14, 2020

John Maxwell asks, “What do you do with the apostle Paul?” Though they desperately wanted to, the authorities couldn’t figure out how to control him. 

“Paul, we’re going to put you in prison.” 

“Been there; no problem.”

“Paul, we’re going to throw rocks at you.”

“OK. That’s been done before.”

“Paul, we’re going to beat you.”

“With whips, rods, or fists?”

“Paul, we’ll kill you.”

“I’m already dead. I’ve been crucified with Christ.”

Paul could not be bought, threatened, or manipulated. As he told the Corinthian Christians, he was “bought with a price, not his own.” He belonged to Jesus Christ and feared no one except God. Even when warned that imprisonment and death awaited him if he insisted on going to Jerusalem, his only response was “I am ready not only to be jailed in Jerusalem, but even to die for the sake of the Lord Jesus.” Writing from jail to the Philippian Christians, he said, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (1:21).

People who live for power are always quick to manipulate circumstances to control others. It doesn’t take much of an excuse for them to use even the slightest crisis to decree how others should live, and those who have no horizon beyond themselves are easy pickings. We’re already seeing it with the coronavirus. Though cancer kills more people every day than this virus has since it’s been first identified, it’s the virus that is shutting down schools, businesses, government, and travel. Though apparently dangerous to a small percentage of those who contract the disease, fear is in the driver’s seat. Our local grocery has plenty of food, but is out of toilet paper. The owner tries to explain to people that if nothing is going in, nothing’s going to come out. But it’s toilet paper he’s out of.

Historically, past epidemics have provided Christians with golden opportunities to minister to people no one else was willing to have near them. They did so at risk of their own lives, and often paid the price. Nevertheless, their obedience to Christ and their love for others impelled them to care for those most in need. Faith overcame fear. 

Writing as one not infected, I could be accused of hypocrisy. “What would you do if people you know came down with it?” I could be asked. My response would be to wash my hands and continue doing what I had been doing. And as a seventy-year-old and therefore an at-risk person myself, with Paul, I say, “I am crucified with Christ;” my life is in God’s hands, for which I am thankful tonight. It keeps me from manipulation.