4 Ways This Covid-19 Season Allows Us to Walk in Christ’s Path

I’m probably like most of you. I don’t like social distancing, and I like wearing a mask and gloves even less. These tools have become symbols of isolation, of keeping one’s distance, reminding us in a very visceral way that we’re on our own, cut off from the many friends on whom we would normally rely. 

Sitting down face to face, having fun with friends over lunch or dinner, making plans to go do something with people – none of that is happening as I record this. We are isolated. 

Social Isolation

But God has used this social isolation as yet another symbol in my life, a symbol of what Jesus went through in the whole drama of Holy Week, particularly as recorded in the Gospel of John.

One of the things you notice in John’s account is that Jesus is in fact, utterly alone. There is no one to support him other than his mother, two other women and of course John himself, the beloved disciple. There may have been others we don’t know about, but these were at the cross. Other than that, the followers of Jesus were scattered. The only other people who were there, were there to enforce the law.

I don’t like being isolated like that. Neither do you. But Jesus had the capacity, the God-given capacity, to be able to walk through a level of pain, suffering and isolation entirely unfamiliar to any of us, all with a kind of poise and confidence that is nothing less than astonishing. Jesus had already assumed into himself all he needed to be able to make that one final extraordinary offering of himself, taking away the sins of the world. We see it beginning in the garden prayer, where it says his “sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground” (Luke 22:44b) as he took into himself the pain and suffering and trauma of the world. 

Divine Orchestration

Because the suffering we see happening to Jesus, in the trial and on the road to Golgotha, has in some ways had an echo in the suffering of all of humanity: the falling, the ostracism, the mockery, the lying about him, the making fun of him, the abandonment. All of those are things that have happened to various human beings. And yet the extraordinary exception is that Jesus is experiencing all of that for all of us, united to all of us in a way that can never be said of any other human being. He is the one who bore our sin, taking it to the cross and offering it to the Father.

You see, Jesus was participating in a divine drama that had been organized from the beginning of time for our sake. Jesus knows this. But he’s standing in front of Pilate in the midst of this incredibly jagged-edged conversation about the very meaning of truth. 

Finally, Jesus looks at Pilate and says, “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:11a). Jesus knew he was there by divine appointment. And John picks that up, again and again and again: “These things occurred so that the scripture might be fulfilled” (John 19:36a): the drinking of the sour wine, the dividing of his clothing, all of that acting out that which had been said about the Messiah, in some cases over 1000 years prior to it happening. This was a divine drama that God had orchestrated, and it was because of that sense that Jesus was there by divine appointment and had received from the Father all that he needed to carry out his role in the salvation of the world. It was those things that gave Jesus the capacity to be able to walk with the kind of poise and confidence that he did. 

Sacrificial Service

The other thing that we see in Jesus, and this takes us back to the story of the beloved disciple and the women, is that he served. Even in the midst of the most excruciating isolation, Jesus served. “Woman, here is your son. … [Son], here is your mother” (John 19:26b-27). Jesus took care of his widowed mother, even in that hour. Jesus demonstrated trust in his heavenly Father, the profound capacity to serve even in the midst of the pain and isolation. 

So we too are invited to walk the way of the cross, as one of our collects says: “Almighty God whose most dear Son went not up to joy, but first he suffered pain and entered not into glory before he was crucified, mercifully grant that we walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace.”

Holy Companionship

It’s an astonishing thing for us to come to the realization that what Jesus’ salvation for us does not do is spare us from human suffering. We are in fact protected from eternal damnation. We are given the assurance that God will use all things that are going on in our life for his purpose. But neither of those things mean we are spared from suffering. And to walk in the way of suffering means we too, need to take on and receive from our heavenly Father that which we need to be able to walk faithfully, to walk with a similar kind of trust. 

We must remember that even in the midst of the horrors we know, which are small in comparison to the suffering of many across this planet,  we are also being held, we’re being kept, that God is not absent, but he is in fact working through all that we know and all that we are even enduring. We must trust that suffering is not a sign of abandonment; it is, in fact, a sign of companionship. We walk in the way of his suffering, knowing that as we do, we are being drawn into the very grace and mercy of our heavenly Father who loves us. And in so receiving that trust and grace, we are also called to serve, to be available for God to use us even in the midst of these circumstances. 

By the grace of God, we will not allow our own inner difficulties to keep us, shield us, even blind us to the opportunities to serve. Because there are times in our life, even when they are most difficult, when we are called to look upon someone else, and give. 

Thank God, Jesus has done that for us. May we also walk in that same way and in so doing, find a deeper level of companionship in our Savior and a wondrous new appreciation for his love and care. In all of our isolation, may we find nothing else than the way of life and peace. 

What has Jesus taught you about walking in his way during this time of quarantine? Share this blog and your response on Twitter. Please include my username, @revgregbrewer. 

 

(This post is an adaption of Bishop Brewer’s sermon on April 10, 2020, in the Bishop’s Oratory of the Diocesan Office, Orlando.) 

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.