Our government is telling us to stay away from sick people during the COVID-19 outbreak. How should Christians respond to this? Our whole lives we have simply stayed away from people if we were sick. Now we are told that we must stay away from people if we are NOT SICK. This should strike us as odd. The Bible gives us some indication about how to think about this..
There are two fundamental operating procedures for Christians.
First, pastors are required to visit, pray for and lay hands on the sick (Jas. 5:14). Notice that God lays the burden on the sick person to “call the elders of the church,” for prayer. This is a command. So, if you are sick, feel free to call the elders of the church for prayer. Pastors need to care for the sheep, especially when they are failing and fearful. People need encouragement when they feel terrible. They need prayer when their lives are hanging in the balance.
This is consistent with the principles and practices of the priests in Leviticus 14. They were obligated to be in the presence of the sick person or material, and they had handling procedures that protected them (See Lev. 13-15). The priests examined the sick person, material, or house and then declared them to be clean or unclean.
Christian history is full of stories of pastors that did not flee the plague. Pastors are shepherds who do not abandon the flock, “the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Fleeing defies both providence and compassion. This contradicted Hippocrates and Galen during the Black Plague, and it contradicted the theology of flight. This is the two-pronged idea that fleeing the plague is fleeing divine judgment and that it is righteous to preserve life.
Second, God expects all of His blood-bought people to visit the sick. Jesus said, “I was sick, and you visited me.” He was speaking of all true Christians. Genuine Christians have compassion for the sick and they don’t dodge them. This is the normal practice of the church.
If you are a pastor or a Christian, here is the summary, “thou shalt not be afraid of the pestilence and don’t shun the sick among you.”
This is after the pattern of Jesus who drew near to the sick and they drew near to Him for healing. However, there may be unusual or extreme situations where elders should wisely not lay hands and saints refrain from visiting, but we must not ignore them or be afraid. Theodore Beza believed that a pastor’s physical condition figured into the equation. He argued, if “age, debility or other factors-can do nothing to aid their neighbor” they “should probably flee.” (See Spencer J. Weinrich excellent thesis on, “How [Not] to Survive a Plague: The Theology of Fleeing Disease in Sixteenth-century England.”)
Whether to flee or to stay seems to have two theological sides to it and pastors took different sides. Martin Luther's pastoral strategy for visiting the sick during the extreme conditions of the Black Plague illustrates his approach,
"I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance inflict and pollute others and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me and I have done what he has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbor needs me however I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely as stated above. See this is such a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy and does not tempt God."—Martin Luther, Works v. 43, p. 132. Letter "Whether one may flee from a Deadly Plague" written to Rev. Dr. John Hess. For the entire letter, click here: https://blogs.lcms.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Plague-blogLW.pdf
In the plague, the general equity of the Law was Luther’s general practice. This is consistent with the quarantine and hygiene laws in the Bible. This is theology applied. Let’s apply it in our own lives, lest we create a culture of fear. Christians should veer away from Hypochondriatic Nosophobia.
It's really important that we should think biblically about visiting the sick. Should we visit the sick? Our government is telling us to stay away from sick people during COVID-19 outbreak. How should Christians respond to this? Our whole lives we've simply stayed away from people if we were sick.
Now, we're told that we must stay away from people if we are not sick. This should strike us as odd. Because the Bible gives us some indication about how to think about this. After all, scripture is sufficient for times of plague. There are two fundamental operating procedures for Christians that are revealed in the Word of God.
First, Pastors are required to visit, pray for, and lay hands on the sick. James 5.14 tells you about it. Notice that God lays the burden on the sick person to call the elders of the church for prayer. This is a command. So if you're sick, feel free to call the pastors of the church for prayer.
Pastors need to care for the sheep, especially when they're failing and fearful. People need encouragement when they feel terrible. They need prayer when their lives are hanging in the balance or if they feel that way. This is consistent with the principles and the practices of the priests in Leviticus 14. They were obligated to go into the presence of the sick person or material and they had handling procedures that protected them.
Look at Leviticus 13 to 15. The priests examined the sick person, material or house, and then declared them to be clean or unclean. Christian history is full of stories of pastors that did not flee plague. Pastors are shepherds who do not abandon the flock. Jesus said, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Fleeing defies both providence and compassion. Refusing to flee the plague contradicted Hippocrates and Galen during the Black Plague. Some Christians even developed a theology of flight. It was built out of two ideas. First, that fleeing the plague is fleeing divine judgment.
And second, that it's righteous to preserve life. The flight theology folks made some good points that need to be included. I don't have time to develop them here. Second, God expects his blood-bought family, his people, to have compassion and visit the sick. Jesus said, I was sick and you visited me.
He was speaking of all true Christians. Genuine Christians have compassion on the sick and they don't dodge them. This is the normal practice of the church. Now there may be some unusual or extremely dangerous situations where elders should wisely not lay hands and saints refrain from visiting. But we must not ignore the sick or be afraid.
If there's a particularly deadly disease, one might modify the practice. Theodore Beza believed that a pastor's physical condition figured into the equation. He said, if age, debility, or other factors can do nothing to aid their neighbor, they should probably flee. For a fascinating explanation and analysis of flight theology, look at Spencer Weinrich's thesis on how not to survive a plague, a theology of fleeing disease in the 16th century England. Okay, Whether to flee or not to flee seems to have two theological sides to it, and pastors took different sides.
Martin Luther's pastoral strategy for visiting the sick during the extreme conditions of the black plague illustrates his approach. I like it. "'I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated, and thus perchance inflict and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence.
If God should wish to take me, He will surely find me. And I have done what he has expected of me. And so I'm not responsible for either my own death or for the death of others. If my neighbor needs me, however, I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely, as stated above. See, this is such God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy and does not tempt God." So if you're a pastor or a Christian, here's the summary.
Thou shalt not be afraid of the pestilence and don't shun the sick among you. See Psalm 91. This is all after the pattern of Jesus, who had a human body. He drew near to the sick and they drew near to him for healing. In the plague, the general equity of the law was Luther's general practice.
As you should expect, Jesus kept the law perfectly. He is consistent with the quarantine and hygiene laws in the Old Testament. This is theology applied. Let's apply it to our own lives. Lest we create a culture of fear, Christians should protect themselves and the church from creating a culture of nosophobiacs.