29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. 30 Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. 31 So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.
32 That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. 33 The whole town gathered at the door, 34 and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.
-Mark 1:29-32
Yesterday, in one of my Messenger groups, some of the high school guys asked some pretty deep questions about God and the existence of evil. Essentially, they asked why God would allow the coronavirus to exist. They were deeply bothered by how this pandemic is hurting people physically, socially, financially, etc.
A long time ago, a Christian thinker named Augustine asked the same questions about God and the existence of evil. His conclusion was that a crucial ingredient to love is choice or free will. When God created humanity he wanted to have the capability to love and thus He gave us the ability to choose. Inherent in that ability to choose opens up the possibility of sin, that is to choose something that is not God. That’s what Adam and Eve did in the beginning of the Bible. They had a choice to trust God or not trust God and unfortunately they choose the latter and brought sin into the world. And today, many of us continue to be like Adam and Eve choosing to trust other things rather than God.
Oftentimes we think of “sin” as just us doing “bad things.” We think sin is like us talking back to our parents, or gossiping about someone, or not reading the Bible. That’s actually missing the full picture of what sin is. It’s like saying that Covid 19 is just allergies. It’s obviously much more dangerous.
Sin is not just the breakdown of our moral behavior, it is the breakdown of all reality. Sin breaks our moral reality, it breaks our physical reality, it breaks down our social reality. Every aspect of our life is in deterioration because of sin.
But God loves us so much and that He wanted to stop the unraveling and the brokenness by our sin and disobedience. In this passage we see God healing people. God healing people in this passage is but a sign of God’s greater desire to heal all of reality.
As we’re living through this pandemic right now, we may complain that God’s plan of restoration is going too slowly, or we may wonder if it’s even happening at all. We can’t see the whole picture of what God sees, but He does tell us the ending. If you want a peek of where God is heading with His plan, go and read Revelation 21:1-8. Here’s a part of it:
‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” -Revelation 21:4-5
‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” -Revelation 21:4-5
During these difficult times, may God’s ultimate plan to restore all things give you peace and hope.
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