Matthew 4:6-7
“If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Did you ever read the account of when Jesus was tempted by the devil and wonder what would have happened if Jesus had given in or fallen victim to the devil’s tactics?
Before anyone cries heresy and blocks me on social media, let me clarify. Jesus was the sinless Son of God and there was never a risk that this would really have happened. It’s simply a thought experiment. If Jesus had chosen to respond to the devil’s taunts (If you are the Son of God…) the way many of us might (What do you mean if? Watch this!) and thrown himself down from the highest point of the temple, what would have happened? Would an angel army have rescued him, even though his decision meant that the critical mission had already failed?
It’s a purely hypothetical question and we can’t be sure. Thankfully, Jesus saw through all the traps the devil tried to catch him in, but this one in particular really grabs my attention. Not only did the devil question Jesus’ identity, but he quoted scripture in order to do it. Obviously Jesus knew his Bible well enough to recognize this misuse of the text and counter with another verse. Would God the Father have rescued his Son from going splat in the temple courtyard? We will never know, because Jesus knew better than to put God to the test.
The passage quoted by the devil in this scene is Psalm 91:11-12. Psalm 91 is so interesting and relevant for many reasons, and I encourage you to look it up and read the whole thing, but pay attention to verses 5-7:
You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
Violence? Pestilence and plague? Thousands dead? Check, check, and check. It’s like the psalmist is foretelling 2020. But we will not fear these things because they won’t come near us, right? God promised, right?
It has been suggested that taking precautions to slow the spread of covid-19 is faithless, and a sign of living in fear. For example, being careful to wear masks when we go into public places, or continuing to avoid large group gatherings such as church services, is a sign that we do not trust God enough. If I understand the argument correctly, we should rely only on God to protect us from the virus, and if he doesn’t it would be because it’s our time to die anyway. In other words, it doesn’t matter what I do, I won’t die until God wants me to. And if God is ready to call me home, nothing I do will prevent it. It sounds pious and spiritual, but it is a form of thinly veiled fatalism that has no place in Christian theology.
The description of the interaction between Jesus and the devil shows us that not every philosophy or logical reasoning that is based in the words of Scripture is automatically godly. Jesus knew the “master plan,” and he knew that it was not his time to die, so in theory he could have hopped off the roof of the temple. But his response, also firmly grounded in Scripture, is an example for us as well: Do not put the Lord your God to the test.
Avoiding taking simple precautions to protect yourself and others from the spread of covid-19 is a new form of snake handling. Though the practice is now illegal in most states, some Christian traditions still teach that people can test for the presence of the Holy Spirit by handling poisonous snakes. If the snake does not bite you, it is because God has protected you. The Holy Spirit is in you. If it does bite you, then the believers gather around and pray for you. If you recover, it is because God wills you to continue living. If not, then they believe that God has shown his will by allowing you to die.
I realize I may be stepping on some toes here, but grocery shopping without a mask is neither proving your faith nor protesting against tyranny. If there’s even a chance that covering our faces in public might help to protect someone else, shouldn’t the followers of Jesus be 100% behind that?
Of course there may be reasons people are unable to follow suggested guidelines to help prevent the virus from spreading. We should not judge the individuals around us, nor assume that we know the reasons behind each person’s choices. You have flesh and blood – you are not my enemy. Nor am I yours.
This is not to say that we should surrender to fear. Taking reasonable precautions is not the same as living in bondage to fear of the coronavirus. The mask I wear to go grocery shopping is not a sign that I lack faith or the ability to think for myself. It would be wrong to assume those things about me, just as it would be wrong of me to assume that everyone I see without a mask is callous or selfish. Just because you saw it on a meme on Facebook doesn’t make it true.
It is vitally important that we examine the source of the fatalist ideology that is creeping into our theology in new ways during this crisis. We know that the enemy knows the words to Psalm 91. Perhaps we need to take a cue from Jesus and respond with the words of Deuteronomy 6:16: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”
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