“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me” (Romans 7:15, 17 ESV).
I am currently writing a paper on integral mission in Rwanda, and as I spoke by video conference with a Rwandan missionary (technology is incredible), he told me that one cannot truly understand Rwanda without understanding the genocide war from 25 years ago. Two people groups hated each other. They did not speak different languages, they did not practice different religions, and they even lived together in the same villages. This was a war of differing social classes. One group killed a million people in only one hundred days.
(Note: this genocide information is taken from “Ethnicity and the Politics of History in Rwanda” by Catherine Newbury and “An African Holocaust” by Dean White.)
As this genocide was unfolding, the world stood by and did nothing. Ten thousand deaths per day for one hundred days. Finally, the United Nations (clearly a misnomer, IMO) moved in to help the persecuted. The Coronavirus is killing far less, yet the developed world is getting involved because it affects us directly.
Our fears are nothing compared to the fears of the people of Rwanda 25 years ago, yet they got through it, are continuing to get through, and are healing together (e.g., both groups now have representation in the government). The cure for their animosity? Peace and reconciliation. They still have a long way to go, but go they will, as we will have to go, given this current virus fear.
This was a war that took almost six million lives, bordering the toll of the Jewish Holocaust of WWII. I have intentionally not used the names of the two people groups involved in this genocide out of respect for the Rwandans who have outlawed the use of those names within their country.
“For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly” (Mark 7:21-22 NRSV).
This Coronavirus is serious. It affects the lungs, so we should be taking it seriously. We see what happens when we don’t. We now have widespread panic. People are dying unnecessarily because others are not following basic instructions. (A fool has been arrested twice in Newfoundland for leaving her mandatory isolation after being diagnosed with the virus). There is no cure, and if there were, most wise people would jump at the chance to take it.
Sadly, there is a much worse virus that has been infecting the world for a really long time, and it is the virus of sin. This virus affects a more vital organ than the lungs; it affects the heart – and every single person is infected! Just as we have seen with COVID-19, many people are ignoring the virus of sin. People will recover from COVID-19, while some (a small percentage of infected) will not recover. The virus of sin affects us all with a zero percent recovery rate. Every single person is infected, and every single person is set to die from it. Unlike the Coronavirus, there is a cure, and unlike the cures for every other illness, this cure is one hundred percent (100%) effective. The cure is Jesus.
Unlike the Coronavirus, there is a cure, and unlike the cures for every other illness, this cure is one hundred percent (100%) effective. The cure is Jesus.
Sadly, as we watch many people in the world ignore the simplest of instructions to avoid the Coronavirus, there are even more who ignore the opportunity for the cure of sin. The good news is that this cure is still available and will remain available until the virus of sin takes your life – eternally.
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6 NRSV).