Plagues and Pandemics

Plague. Pandemic.

A lot has been said about developing tests to check a person’s antibodies, to see if they have had Covid-19. Other types of test determine if a person currently suffers from Covid-19.

The unanswered question about the first type of test’s efficacy is whether having had Covid-19 once, carrying antibodies to it, will immunise a person from contracting it again. That is the potential problem with vaccines, too: for how long will a vaccine render a person safe from catching the disease?

The world has suffered an on-going pandemic of sin ever since Eve bit into the forbidden fruit. We don’t really need a test to see if we have ever been infected by sin: we know that it is endemic in humanity. We are all sinners.

Jesus came to earth to become the vaccine against sin. One vaccine. We each need to receive the vaccine just once. But sin remains rampant and we all are exposed again and again every day. Without a daily booster shot, received when we draw near to God and invite him to draw near to us, we will become not only infected but infectious. I said daily, but maybe hourly is more accurate, or even minute-by-minute. We need the cleansing blood of Jesus to wash away the sin living and replicating within our hearts and minds; we need his Holy Spirit to equip us to recognise and resist temptation, to recognise and fight spiritual attacks on all fronts.

We need Jesus. Now more than ever, as the pandemic of the corona virus runs rampant globally in parallel to the pandemic of racism; gender discrimination; child abuse; war; religious persecution; and idolatry: worship of money and fame, power and prestige.

I’m pulling in for my booster shot now. I need Jesus.