COLUMN: COVID-19 and Palm Sunday are all part of the plan
Roughly 1,987 years ago today, a man named Jesus from a town called Nazareth entered the city of Jerusalem with the crowd crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” John 12:13 (ESV). Today, we remember the occasion as Palm Sunday.
A week from today, we will celebrate the resurrection of the risen Lord. On Friday, I will take a break from covering the spread of the virus to focus on Good Friday and Easter. This is a week that should draw our attention.
But this week will be different from prior Holy Weeks. This year, most of us will not go into churches, but onto the internet to worship online. The world is upended. In our living memories, we have not experienced anything like this.
The world may seem undone and worrying, but consider one point. We do not know precisely the year in which Jesus entered Jerusalem. The historic record notes that he did and that he was crucified. Christians believe he rose again from the dead. But Jesus could not have entered Jerusalem a week before or a week after or a year before or five years after the day he entered Jerusalem as a king. His entry and its timing was part of a master plan put in place before time began. In the same way, this virus could not spread without God allowing it and it could not spread when it did except as part of a master plan we do not understand and cannot see.
The unbeliever will see this all as random act — a butterfly flapping its wings half a world a way that caused a storm above your house. The Christian knows God created the butterfly and placed it there half a world away that it might flap its wings.
The unbeliever will see that as us all just puppets. There are, however, no strings attached to you or me. But there is an all knowing, fully sovereign God, who has a plan for all of us and sets us to it and blesses us with our own volition. The unfolding of the world is a surprise to us, but not to him. All things are part of a plan that glorifies him and reveals his majesty to us.
In the Book of Amos, God declared that “I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, and carried away your horses, and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me.” Amos 4:10 (ESV). That God is the same God who, through his providence, sent the second person of the trinity to his death in Jerusalem this week 1,987 years ago.
Some will say that makes God malevolent. But those who live by faith must trust that God is on his throne. He has plan for you, for me, and for human history. We may not know what role this pandemic plays in that plan. We may not know what role we play in that plan. But we can be assured all of this will glorify him and will work for the good of those called according to his purposes. He sits on his throne in control of all things. So do not let your heart be troubled and do not be afraid. God’s got this and he’s got you too.
Erick Erickson is host of The Erick Erickson Show on News-Talk 940 WMAC