N.T. Wright, God and the Pandemic: A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and its Aftermath. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Reflective, 2020.
At first there was fear. Then gradual adjustment. And now all too many people are becoming careless about the safeguards governments have put in place to protect us from Covid-19. Through it all, thinking Christians have been trying to make sense of the pandemic, the year 2020 will be known for. So it was welcome news to hear that well-respected New Testament scholar, N.T. Wright, had written a little book on how Christians should respond to the pandemic.
Wright advocates several constructive responses. First we need to join God in lamenting a world in which pandemics occur. Jesus wept at Lazarus’ tomb. And so should we. With Paul in Romans 8 we join in the groaning of the Holy Spirit which sometimes is too deep for words. Secondly, we need to pray. “[T]he followers of Jesus are called to be people of prayer at the place where the world is in pain” (p. 42). Thirdly, we join Jesus and his early followers in being “signposts” of God’s new creation, attending to the sick and the dying (p. 65). And finally, we need to acknowledge that we simply do not understand why this pandemic has occurred. This is the lesson of the story of Job – lament, complain, state your case, but in the end simply leave it up to God (p. 14).
Wright is also concerned about countering some responses that are all too popular. He warns Christians not to get caught up in “speculating” that the pandemic is a result of sin (p. 17). Nor should Christians see the pandemic as a unique opportunity for evangelism (pp. 5, 52). He agrees that in the Old Testament the prophets clearly and repeatedly saw natural calamities as coming from God, as a punishment for sin (p. 8). But with the coming of Christ everything has changed. “Jesus himself is the ultimate sign” (p. 17). “[T]he Jesus-events, the messianic moment” are “the ultimate call to penitence “ and therefore we must not “over-interpret” other events like pandemics as God’s judgment on people for sin (p. 21). Wright uses Jesus’ story about the vineyard tenants to drive home this point (Mark 12:1-12). In this story the vineyard owner sends several messengers to get his share of the produce of the vineyard, but each of them is killed by the tenants. The owner finally sends his son, but the tenants kill him too. “After that there can be no more messengers. The application is obvious. Jesus is saying, No more warning signs after this” (p. 22).
Now I believe there is something right about Wright’s cautions. Wright reminds us of the story of Jesus’ encounter with a man born blind from birth (John 9:1-3). This was not due to sin, Jesus said, but that God’s works could be seen in him (p. 17). And then he heals the blind man. Wright concludes that we need to put Jesus “at the centre of the picture and work outwards from there” (p. 19). He is also surely right in in saying that Jesus represents the ultimate call to repentance. I also agree that we need “a Jesus-shaped picture of suffering” (p. 51). And we should not spend a lot of time looking backward as to the cause of our suffering, but instead look forward asking what we can do to care for the sick and the dying. God wants us to be participants in bringing about the new creation (pp. 32, 34, 42, 65).
While agreeing with all this, I have one concern. I believe Wright overstates his case with regard to rejecting any suggestions that the pandemic might be a form of God’s judgment for sin. As we have already seen, Wright uses the story of the vineyard tenants to argue that after Jesus, there can be “no more messengers” and “no more warning signs.” Wright argues: “From now on, the summons to repentance, and the announcement of God’s kingdom on earth as in heaven, come not through wars, earthquakes, famines or plagues. (Or domestic accidents.) They come through Jesus” (p. 23). I’m not sure this necessarily follows from the story of the vineyard tenants. This seems to me to be a hasty conclusion.
If there is one theme that runs from Genesis to Revelation it is that God does speak to people and even punish nations via catastrophes because of their sins. Wright does admit that the prophets of the Old Testament interpreted the Babylonian exile as a punishment for sin (p. 8). “There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked” (Isa 48:22). Wright recounts the blessings and the curses in Deuteronomy, but again this theme is found throughout the bible (p. 8). Jesus talked about a broad and narrow way, and a wise and foolish man, each with decidedly different consequences (Matt 7:13-14, 21-28). Paul says the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). Paul also affirms the principle that we reap what we sow (Gal 6:7). Wright is forced to admit that the book of Revelation with its dramatic account of the destruction of Babylon seems to return to the Old Testament pattern of punishing sin by famines and plagues (p. 37). So I have a problem with Wright’s rather hasty dismissal of God no longer being able to inflict catastrophes on nations because of sin.
Having made this minor point, I quite agree with Wright that we need to “read” catastrophes like Covid-19 in the light of Jesus’ death and resurrection (p.29). But this can surely go hand in hand with the admission that God can still speak to us and judge us via natural catastrophes. Of course, we need to be very careful when and how we say this sort of thing. Nor should we completely rule out evangelism during times of a pandemic. Catastrophes have a way of making people face up to their own vulnerability which makes them more open to the good news of the gospel. Though here again, we should avoid exploiting the pandemic for evangelistic purposes. And Wright’s point is well taken that we shouldn’t need “fresh reasons” to tell our neighbours the good news (p. 52).
Jesus must always remain central to our message and to our response to the pandemic. I thank Wright for his timely reminder of this important truth, and his helpful constructive analysis of appropriate Christian responses to the pandemic.
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