Understanding God in the Pandemic

Understanding God in the Pandemic

(Dr Ranjan Kelkar)

Jesus and his disciples were once sailing in a boat, when suddenly a violent storm erupted over the sea. The boat was swaying, the sea water was gushing into it, and the disciples were losing control. Jesus, however, was asleep. The frightened disciples woke him up and asked him annoyingly how he could be so careless while they were drowning. Jesus got up but he did not rescue them, nor did he give them a lesson in disaster management. Instead he rebuked the wind and the sea and restored calm. Only then did the disciples heave a sigh of relief. (Mark 4:36-41, Luke 8:22-25)

Whatever be the calamity we are facing, be it natural, financial, physical or emotional, be it personal or common to many, our first instinct is to blame God for it. We accuse him, baselessly, that he does not care for us. We begin to feel that he is asleep while we are in danger. We imagine that he has gone somewhere far away as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.  

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” was the anguished cry of Jesus himself as he suffered on the cross. (Matthew 27:46) If the Son of God could feel so forsaken, it is no wonder that David could have said that (Psalm 22:1) or that we have the same feeling today. Psalm 10 begins with these questions: “Why do you stand afar off, O Lord? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” And again at the beginning of Psalm 13, David asks: “How long will you forget me, O Lord? For ever? How long will you hide your face from me?”

An ever-present, all-knowing, almighty God

But think of it, God has not gone anywhere. He has been there all along. He is always with us, in calamity and in peace, in sickness and in health, in riches and in poverty, in joy and in sorrow. It is his promise that he will never leave us nor forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5) The parting words of Lord Jesus were: “I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:20) God is present everywhere, in heaven and on earth, in space, in the entire universe. “Where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?”, wondered David. (Psalm 139:7) One cannot find a place where God is not there.

There is one difference between God and Satan in that Satan can be only in one place at a time. He has to keep moving from place to place. After Jesus had been tempted, unsuccessfully, by the Devil in the wilderness, the Devil is said to have departed from there. (Luke 4:13) James tells us to resist the devil, and he will flee from us. (James 4:7) But it is different with God. Draw near to God, says James, and he will draw near to us. (James 4:8)

God is invisible to us, but his eyes can see everything and everyone. (Psalm 11:4, Proverbs 15:3) He watches us day and night. He does not slumber nor does he sleep. (Psalm 121:4) The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. (Psalm 34:15) The Lord listens to the prayers of his people with attention. (2 Chronicles 7:15) David recalls that “in my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.” (Psalm 18:6)

God is present everywhere in the universe. He sees all, hears all, knows all. He is aware of our needs even before we ask him. And he is able to provide us with things beyond our expectations. Nothing is impossible for God. (Matthew 6:32-33, Philippians 4:19, Matthew 19:26)

God has no favourites

God has puts natural systems in place to fulfil all basic human needs. The atmosphere has the right amount of oxygen that we need to breathe in order to remain alive. The sun radiates all the heat and light that we should have. The hydrological cycle keeps running continuously to give us the water we require. God does not expect anything in return for what he gives us and he gives it freely to all human beings. God has no favourites. He makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5:45)

Being a follower of Jesus does not guarantee a happy and comfortable life on earth. On the contrary, Jesus warned his disciples that in this world they would have troubles. But he also added, “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) During his earthly ministry, Jesus healed many sick people, gave sight to the blind, cured people of leprosy, made the lame walk. However, Jesus never performed any mass healing. He did not eradicate any dreaded disease from the world, did not prescribe medicines, did not vaccinate people against future sicknesses. Whatever Jesus did was at the personal, individual, level. He often told people that their sins have been forgiven and it is their own faith that has healed them. 

In the New Testament, there is a mention of an event in Jerusalem. It was perhaps an accident in which a tower had fallen resulting in the death of eighteen people. In this context, Jesus asked the people around him if they regarded those victims as being more sinful than others in Jerusalem. And he added, “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:1-5) Our repentance, our faith and our prayers, can help us in a calamity.    

There is no escape from the wrath of God

“God is Love” is a three-word sentence that is at the foundation of several Christian beliefs and doctrines. But in today’s world, engulfed by the pandemic, do these three words readily make sense? If God is love indeed, why is there so much suffering, pain, sorrow and fear all around, why is death flaunting its victory everywhere?

It is said about God that those he loves, he also disciplines. (Hebrews 12:6) It is also written that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews 10:31) The Old Testament has innumerable examples of the anger and wrath of God in action. They are not mentioned there just as a matter of record, but they are there for our reading in today’s times. We should try to understand afresh both the benevolence of a loving God, and the power of an angry God. 

“Sword, famine and plague” are three words that appear together in as many as 24 verses of the Old Testament. (Jeremiah 14:12, 21:9, 24:10, Ezekiel 5:17, 6:11, etc) However, this triple calamity is not ascribed to Satan, but God takes responsibility for it. God goes on to clarify that “he that is far off shall die of the plague; and he that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that remains and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my fury upon them.” (Ezekiel 6:12) In brief, it is impossible for man to escape from the wrath of God.   

There can be no isolation from the love of God

After the act of disobedience by Adam and Eve, God was so enraged that he condemned them to death and banished them from the garden of Eden. (Genesis Chapter 3) But God’s anger did not diminish, even slightly, his love for the two human beings he had himself created. So in the Biblical narrative of the Fall, we have Adam and Eve, ashamed of their nakedness and hiding from God, and we have God sitting with needle and thread in his hands and sewing clothes for them to wear! (Genesis 3:21) The love of God for his children is beyond our imagination!

Two thousand years ago, the apostle Paul asked this rhetorical question, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” And he answered his own question, saying, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39)

The word ‘isolation’ has assumed a new meaning in the context of the pandemic. We are all advised to keep distance from our fellow human beings if we want to remain safe from infection. In some situations, isolation can even be enforced. But whatever be our troubles, wherever we might be, no one has the power to isolate us from the love of God. The Christian life does not provide a protection from calamity, but it offers victory over it!

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