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Jace Pibil

ENC

16 November 2020

How God is Still Working Through COVID-19

Introduction

Martin Luther, a Christian in the 16th century, was asked what the proper response was,

as a Christian, to plagues that commonly hit towns. The question addressed whether it was

appropriate to flee that town to stay alive. Mirjam Schilling “a virologist at the University of

Oxford and a DPhil student in theology,” Joel Gamble, “an MD student at the University of

Toronto and postgraduate student in theology at the University of Oxford” and Nathan Gamble,

“a bioethicist and internal medicine resident at the University of Alberta” collectively discuss

what Luther’s response was. Luther, who at the time was sick, “wrote that Christians are under

divine obligation” to stay and risk their lives as well as care for the weak and sick while the rest

of the town fled to avoid a plague (Gamble and Schilling). When a plague hit Luther’s town of

Hittenburg in 1527, Luther stayed and “chose to venture his life on caring for the sick” (Gamble

and Schilling). This theme of taking joy in suffering for the sake of helping others and “valuing

others above yourself” is common in Church history, particularly when Christians are faced with

hardships (​New International Version, ​Phil. 2.3-4). This principle has lost its meaning in today’s

culture because there are not a lot of opportunities to give up your life for someone every day.

But then the global pandemic, COVID-19, hit the United States in early 2020. The whole world

stood still, and normal life was put on hold. A new normal was soon to set in and the comfort of

the past was left behind as people were stuck at home because of government lockdowns. Still to

this day, there is a lot of suffering going on in the world from not being able to see friends or
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family and especially the loss of loved ones. But if history proves anything, it is that during times

like this Christianity flourishes and God gets a lot of attention. But why is this? In this paper, I

will look at some of the reasons why Christianity blossoms during times of suffering and

hardship and how this is still true and can be applied today during COVID-19. Through an array

of sources, I will explain what God is doing during the coronavirus through the joy of suffering,

God’s redemption of sin, and the hope Christians have.

I am a Religion Major and plan to enter into a Christian ministry-type career after I

graduate because I am a follower of Jesus and want to devote my life to “making disciples of all

​ att. 28.19). The summation of Christianity is that 2,000 years ago, God loved us
nations” (​NIV, M

enough to send His beloved Son in the person of Jesus Christ to take the wrath of God, that we

deserve because of our sins, on the cross for us to be reconciled with Him. This is what the

Gospel, or good news, means: we do not get to face the wrath of God on Judgment Day because

Jesus already paid the fine of death when he was tortured and suffocated to death on a cross

(Rom. 6.23). Jesus suffered the most shameful death ever imaginable and rose from the dead just

like he said he would. This event changed the rest of history and followers of Jesus put their faith

and trust in whom he said he was. I trust Jesus with my life and made him the Lord of my life in

March of 2020 exactly when COVID-19 hit America.

The Joy of Suffering

Amy Elizabeth Panton, Ph.D., provides a reason for why we can trust in Jesus when we

see so much death and suffering during COVID-19 in her excerpt “COVID-19 and the Body of

Christ: A Christian Response” which is within a scholarly article. Panton highlights that through

all of the suffering in the world, Jesus, who is God, can relate to it all because he suffered too.

Specifically, Jesus suffered on the cross where he took the wrath of God for our sins. When the
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numbers of the death toll of COVID-19 are displayed, “we know that Jesus too has been there,

alone in the tomb,” away from everything he knew (Xiong, et al). This shows that Jesus can

relate to our pain and suffering during COVID-19 and why Christians can still find joy because

they can look at their Savior who died and suffered for them. Christians can take comfort in

knowing God is relational and is not just looking down on them from His throne. God took off

his crown and entered his creation and died for them just to have the most intimate relationship

imaginable and Christians can take joy in this. If Christians really think about how much God

loved us by sending His only Son in place of us, they would be able to understand and enjoy the

source of love. As a result, Christians are able to relate to Jesus in our pain and suffering because

he himself “did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many”

(​NIV, ​Mark 10.45).

Alan Stanley explains what suffering looks like for people who are not physically

affected by COVID-19 and what the response is as Christians in his article “Understanding the

Pain of Identity Loss Brought on by COVID-19 Through the Lens of Genesis 3 and 11.”

“Stanley spent 15 years in Australia, 10 of those years as a pastor, and all of them lecturing in

Bible College, and since 2013 as Director of Post Graduate Studies and lecturer in New

Testament and Theology at Brisbane School of Theology” and he wrote an article of what pain

looks like for someone that is not physically sick with COVID-19 (Stanley). Stanley declares

that “COVID-19 has stripped many of us of all but essential needs” with essential needs being

“essential to the provision of life.” The things that bring us happiness and activities that we put

our hope in have left us, and this brings a sense of pain Stanley calls “identity pain.” The thing is,

we like to define what is good, or essential, to our lives, whether that is playing golf or anything

we pursue to give us happiness (Stanley). Therefore, these things we think are essential
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eventually do not bring us joy and we become discontent if we do not have constant access to

them. This became a reality once COVID-19 hit and many people felt this “identity pain.” As it

turns out, this is the origin of the first sin committed by Adam and Eve and Stanley highlights

this. Genesis 1-3 explains the creation of the world and how God made Adam and Eve. God

created Adam and Eve for each other and gave them every essential need, including each other,

​ en. 2.17).
and God told them not to “eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (​NIV, G

But Adam and Eve “saw that the fruit of the tree was good . . . and pleasing to the eye, and also

desirable for gaining wisdom” (​NIV, ​Gen. 3.6). Adam and Eve thought they knew better than

God and ate from the tree, disobeying God. This is what resulted in the fall of creation and why

we have a sinful nature because Adam and Eve thought that this fruit was an essential need even

though it was not. This is a prime example of idolatry and why so many people are in pain during

COVID-19. Things that people think are “good” are stripped from them during COVID-19 and

they feel a loss of “identity pain” (Stanley). Most people who were affected by COVID-19 can

relate to this whether that is from a loss of jobs, “inability to travel,” etc. (Stanley). But there is

good news for Christians and for people looking for eternal satisfaction, God is eternal

satisfaction and in Him, people will find their joy. The Holy Spirit strips away the idols that we

put in place of God (Stanley). This is ultimately how Christians enjoy God the most and how He

wants us to enjoy him. If Christians are fully satisfied with God, they do not need anything else.

This is why Christians have joy when their idols are taken away because of COVID-19.

Next, Jordan Millhollin, “BS, Theology, Medicine, and Culture Fellow at Duke Divinity”

uses Wendell Berry’s speech, “Health is Wholeness” and the Bible to discuss how separation

from each other during COVID-19 has caused suffering. Then, Millhollin describes what the

loving Christian response to this should be in his scholarly article “Separated but Whole:
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Pursuing Health and Redefining Community amidst COVID-19.” Millhollin recognizes the pain

and suffering that comes from being separated from our communities during COVID-19. There

is a “sense of wholeness is tied to community” and once this is removed this results in a

“removal of health” (Millhollin). Millhollin says there is good news, even if Christians are

separated physically, the Church is still one Body like Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27.

This is good news because God is all-loving and “all things are held together by love” as Paul

describes in Colossians 3:14 (Millhollin). This results in “perfect unity” and even if COVID-19

separates Christians physically, “nothing will be able to separate [them] from the love that is in

​ om. 8.39). God’s “divine love recognizes the brokenness of this world, yet
Christ Jesus” (​NIV, R

still chooses to involve itself” (Millhollin). The prime example of this is the cross of Christ and

God loving us enough to die for us so that we can have wholeness in Christ's community through

God’s love. COVID-19 challenges Christians to “love each other [better] despite the ongoing

crisis” (Millhollin 22). If people still feel loved, by people and especially the Creator of the

universe, then how steadfast their joy should be!

God’s Redemption of the Least Likely

There is a unique phenomenon in Christianity of God taking the least likely things and

redeeming them for His perfect glory. A prime example of this is a Roman crucifixion, one of

the most “humiliating and tortuous” methods of execution ever invented by humans (Kollman).

Paul Kollman “is [an] associate professor in the department of theology at the University of

Notre Dame” and he describes this exact example of the improbable glorification of the cross in

his article “Exaltation of the Cross.” On the surface COVID-19 has brought a lot of pain and

suffering, as the totals of the world death count are almost at 1.5 million as of 30 November

2020. But, if God can redeem the cross, then He will be able to redeem anything, including
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COVID-19. As for the cross, at first glance, it was “a sign of shame and end of hope” (Kollman).

To see how Jesus’ disciples felt after they saw their Lord die on a cross, Kollman highlights

Luke’s gospel when Jesus was on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24. Without the two disciples

knowing that it was Jesus talking with them, the two disciples described how distraught they

were. These disciples “had hoped that [Jesus] was the one who was going to redeem Israel” and

lost all hope because it was the third day after Jesus had died and Jesus said he would rise on the

​ uke 24.21). Then Jesus revealed himself to them and proved to them that he was
third day (​NIV, L

God by raising himself from the dead and making the Cross of Calvary his victory over death.

Kollman highlights this by recognizing “that Jesus’ agony and apparent death meant . . . his

glorification and victory.” Even if COVID-19 takes away everything from Christians, they still

have Jesus as their Savior and he is victorious over coronavirus and can redeem the destruction it

brings because he conquered death.

God has already redeemed parts of the coronavirus in some specific ways. Jim Denison,

the founder of the Denison Forum, a nonprofit Christian media platform, discusses how God has

been working in ways that he has seen personally. Specifically, Denison has been encouraged by

the response of people and how they are trying to help each other. He has seen “an outpouring of

financial generosity” in “unprecedented” ways and has witnessed “Churches and agencies that

would never have cooperated two months ago working together to save lives” (Denison). God’s

creation is being more unified through the pandemic than ever and people are caring for each

other through these terrible times. Then, Denison discusses Lazarus’ death in John 11 and how

Jesus wept over the death of his close friend; in the same way, Jesus weeps with us over the

tragedies of coronavirus and “is with patients who suffer and families who grieve” (Denison).

The God of the Bible is relational and can relate to our pain because he suffered too. But during
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COVID-19, “God is doing more than hurting with us—he is redeeming this tragedy in amazing

ways” and Denison has witnessed that (Denison). That is what is so beautiful about Jesus and the

cross, it is the redeeming aspect of Jesus’ resurrection and how Jesus conquering death also

redeems Christians’ souls with it.

To add on, Tom Kouijzer, “a Marist Priest” and “Ph.D. student in the Faculty of

Theology [at] St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth” builds on the “writings of Michel de Certeau, a

French Jesuit, and multi-disciplinary thinker” and discusses the significance of the topic of death

in normal conversation in his article “The COVID-19 Crisis.” De Certeau highlights how

Western culture, before COVID-19, rarely discussed the topic of death and how Western culture

almost avoided it because they cannot fathom or understand it. Many people think negatively of

death and struggle to find anything good within it, so that is another reason why people avoid

discussing it. The reality is, when COVID-19 hit, “it re-introduced death into our everyday

language and experience” (Kouijzer). As a result, this gives people an opportunity to ponder their

worldview more critically. De Certeau argues that this forces us “to accept the limits of our

understanding” and this is a perfect invitation to God. God is all-knowing, or omniscient, and

Christians can put their trust in Him even when they do not understand things like COVID-19

and death (Kouijzer). While COVID-19 looms death over our heads, God can welcome it and we

know that God is still working through it and will redeem it. “As Christians, we have no reason

to fear the unknown” because God is right by our side (Kouijzer).

The Hope Christianity Offers

The Oxford Language Dictionary definition of hope is this: “a feeling of expectation and

desire for a certain thing to happen.” There are countless things people put their hope in that

eventually fail. But Christianity offers a Rock in the person of Jesus, who will never fail. John
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Piper, one of the most prominent Christian leaders and voices of the Christian community, wrote

a book in response to COVID-19 called ​Coronavirus and Christ. ​In this book, Piper highlights

the hope Christians have and why they can trust God, their Rock, with their lives. Piper’s book is

very Christ-centered and relates to the Word a lot. An example of this is when Piper highlights

the sovereignty of God in passages such as Matthew 10:29-31 and the hope this brings to

Christians (Piper 41). Matthew 10:29 asks “are not two sparrows sold for a penny?” and how

“not one of them will fall to the ground outside of your Father’s care” or will. This goes to show

how much God cares for us because we “are worth more than many sparrows” (​NIV, ​Matt.

10.31). This highlights the sovereignty of God and how much He cares for us. Not one sparrow

​ att.
falls without Him letting it happen. He even knows how many hairs are on our heads (​NIV, M

10.30). Piper then goes on to explain God “holds absolute sway over this world” and everything

does “His sovereign will” (Piper 41). If the Creator of the universe is in control of our lives, our

hope in Him should be unwavering. The King of the universe “is my rock and salvation; he is my

​ salm 62.2). This same theme is the reason why Piper

wrote his book and he highlights the hope Christians have in a sovereign God, even during a

pandemic.

In an interview with Dan Jordahl, campus director of the UCF Navigators, a nonprofit

Christian organization, I asked him about how Christians can still find joy in suffering and what

this means as Christians. Immediately, Jordahl brought up Romans 5:3-5. In this passage, Paul

writes that Christians rejoice in suffering and how this “suffering produces perseverance;

​ om. 5.3-4). Jordahl explains how

Christians can cling onto the hope they have during seasons of hardship to know that, for him,

“God is using it to produce something in [his] own life” and that he “can believe that . . . God is
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sovereign and in control and He is working these things for His glory and my good.” Now, this is

a beautiful hope Christians have and this gives good reason to have joy in suffering. During the

hardships of COVID-19, Jordahl was vulnerable enough to explain how he has struggled with

anxiety, fear, shame, and discouragement “as much if not more than other people” as a result of

COVID-19. But Jordahl clings to the hope he has in Jesus and the hope and joy that is present

while suffering. This gives him the strength to faithfully lead the Navigators safely and

effectively.

In a blog post by John Acrea, a retired parish priest, he describes the hardships and

anxiety COVID-19 has brought his life and the hope Christians have in God in the midst of these

hardships. Acrea is himself at-risk of dying from COVID-19 because he is 84 years old and has

lung and heart problems. Acrea explains the emotions that come from COVID-19 that he has felt

and feels like the rest of the world feels; feelings like anger, loneliness, and fear. In the midst of

this, Acrea urges people to pray for “the virtue of hope.” Acrea throws out a simple definition of

hope being “a feeling based on our faith that things will turn out alright.” Christians have this

hope in three ways: God takes care of us, with God we should not be afraid, and God provides

Christians hope when they seek after Him (Acrea). God promises His people hope because He

“knows the plans [He] has for [them] . . . plans to give [them] hope and a future” and Acrea uses

this as his scripture-based evidence of having hope (​NIV, J​ er. 29.11). The only reason Christians

have this hope is because of the work Jesus did on the cross and only if you receive Him will you

be called a child of God (John 1.12). In the context of the Jeremiah verse, God was talking to

unfaithful exiles. He even told them their generation will not come out of exile. This is not what

they wanted to hear and was certainly not what they wanted. But God, at the same time of their

disappointment, still revealed that He will keep His promise and the unfaithful exiles will still be
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able to feel God’s love. Even if COVID-19 is not what people want and we may be sitting within

its effects for a long time, God is still faithful and still has plans to work through it just like the

context of Jeremiah 29:11 implies.

Analysis

A common thread emerges from these perspectives. The theme is that Christianity stands

out during times of hardships because Christians have joy in the midst of it, they are confident

that God will redeem it because Jesus conquered death, and they have hope that God is sovereign

and in control of their lives. This is the same during COVID-19 and each of these three

viewpoints offers people to discover that God is relational. God is not looking down on His

creation, but He hurts with us, laughs with us, and weeps with us. This is how God is all the time

and especially during COVID-19. Jesus came as God incarnate in order to save His people from

the destruction of sin and that they would be set free from sin by him (John 8.35-36). God used

the cross, of all things, to show us His perfect love. God “did not spare His own Son, but gave

him up for us all” so that we can live for all of eternity knowing and loving Him (​NIV​,​ ​Rom.

8.32). Think about it, we see the cross everywhere and it is the main symbol of Christianity. A

brutal execution machine is used as the prime example of God’s glory. Isaiah even prophesied

that Jesus’ body would be “marred beyond human likeness” and “his appearance [would be] so

disfigured beyond that of any human being” (​NIV,​ Isa. 52.14). If God can take this and make it

for His glory, Christians can cling to the hope of God redeeming COVID-19 and take joy in that.

Discussion

If this is your first time hearing the Gospel or if you have been a Christian your whole

life, ask yourself what you have clung to during COVID-19 and the satisfaction you have felt

from it. If you have not been satisfied, think about what God did for a chance for you to have a
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relationship with Him and the steadfast joy, redemption, and hope this brings. If you have been

satisfied with God as your Rock, then join Paul and do everything “for the sake of the Gospel”

during COVID-19 and take part in suffering for its sake (​NIV, ​1 Cor. 9.23). This could be staying

home if you have symptoms, being intentional in loving those who are struggling in any form, or

just sending a text message to encourage one another. Our response should be like Martin

Luther's not being afraid of death, knowing God is sovereign and in control of our lives, and

being bold and brave, risking everything to show God’s love!

For a thought out biblical response to COVID-19, Annette Brownlee provides a biblical

way of continuing the Great Commission of making disciples of all nations during the pandemic

in her article "A Christian Response and Witness in the Time of COVID-19." Brownlee is a

“Chaplain, Professor of Pastoral Theology and Director of Field Education at Wycliffe College”

(Brownlee). Brownlee provides three practical ways that Christians can biblically respond. The

first way is to obey officials and follow their guidelines because these are meant to protect us.

Christians are also commanded by Scripture to obey these authorities because they “have been

established by God” after all (​NIV, ​Rom. 13.1). Secondly, Brownlee urges Christians to pray,

specifically for the healthcare workers risking their safety and their family’s safety. But,

Christians can pray about anything and anyone that is on their heart. Lastly, care for people more

affected than us (Brownlee). Here is that same idea of dying to ourselves and suffering for the

sake of others and the Gospel. COVID-19 is a perfect opportunity for this and Christians should

not shy away from this but take joy in it.

Works Cited
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Acrea, John. "God Is Our Hope in This Pandemic." Blog post. ​Diocese of Des Moines.​ 02 June
2020. Web. 02 Dec. 2020.
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Brownlee, Annette. "A Christian Response and Witness in the Time of COVID-19." 18 Mar.
2020. Web. 13 Oct. 2020.

Denison, Jim. “COVID-19 Is Not God's Judgment.” 21 Apr. 2020. Web. 30 Nov. 2020,
www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2020/april-web-only/covid-19-is-not-gods-judgment.html.

Jordahl, Dan. Personal Interview. 27 Oct. 2020.

Kollman, Paul V. “Exaltation of the Cross: How the Paradoxes of the COVID-19 Pandemic
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COVID-19." ​ABC Religion & Ethics​. Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 17 Mar.
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Piper, John. ​Coronavirus and Christ.​ Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020. Print.

Stanley, Alan P. “Understanding the Pain of Identity Loss Brought on by COVID-19 Through
the Lens of Genesis 3 and 11.” ​Stimulus​, vol. 27, no. 3, 2020. ​EBSCOhost,​
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The Holy Bible: New International Version.​ Zondervan, 1984.

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