As the tensions, panic, and severity of the coronavirus seem to be ramping up over the past 48 hours, Martin Luther is certainly someone who comes to mind in circumstances like this. Luther, the man who fired the theological shot that was heard about the world, was a man who also went through a legitimate plague.
In August of 1527, the infamous Black Plague visited Wittenberg where Luther lived. What was his take on the plague that had knocked out far more than our coronavirus? Was it to downplay the disease in light of God’s sovereign provision? Was it to overreact in fear and hysteria? No. As you might see, Luther has one of the most balanced responses in circumstances like ours.
In his helpful overview of how Luther responded, Marvin Olasky from World Magazine has shown how Luther might react were he to be alive today. Here is a helpful excerpt:
Luther’s step one was to follow Christ’s statement, “‘As much as you did to one of the least, you did to me’ (Matthew 25:40). If you wish to serve Christ and to wait on him, very well, you have your sick neighbor well at hand. … This is said as an admonition and encouragement against fear and a disgraceful flight to which the devil would tempt us so that we would disregard God’s command in our dealings with our neighbor and so we would fall into sin of the left hand.”
Luther went on to say: “Others sin on the right hand. They are much too rash and reckless, tempting God and disregarding everything which might counteract death and the plague. … They do not avoid persons and places infected by the plague, but lightheartedly make sport of it and wish to prove how independent they are.”
Luther concluded, “It is even more shameful for a person to pay no heed to his own body and to fail to protect it against the plague the best he is able, and then to infect and poison others who might have remained alive if he had taken care of his body as he should have. He is thus responsible before God for his neighbor’s death and is a murderer many times over. My dear friends, that is no good. … Shun persons and places wherever your neighbor does not need your presence.”
For the full article, click here.