Social Distancing – What would Jesus do?

Matthew 8:2-3
And a leper came to Him and bowed down before Him, and said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

I spoke to a pastor recently and asked the simple question, “Did Jesus practice social distancing?”  It is not important who the pastor is, as most pastors would have given a similar answer.  However, the answer is important and worthy of our consideration.

The answer was, “Not to my knowledge, but I am pretty sure he didn’t preach in the midst of a global pandemic.  We are simply following government guidelines”.

Leprosy was much more than a global pandemic.  A global pandemic is something that kills many people, but it passes. Leprosy was an age-old disease, with not only government guidelines, but the law of Moses which laid down social distancing guidelines.

The answer to what Jesus would do can be found in how he dealt with lepers he encountered.  He went above and beyond what was required and touched the leper in the scripture above.

In following government guidelines, we insist on social distancing, masks and what else?  When the government insist on vaccine passports, are Churches going to exclude those who do not wish to take an experimental new medical procedure?

Well, that is already happening.  The Bishop of Durham has already banned the unvaccinated from Christmas services in Durham cathedral.

We are fast coming to a point where Church leaders are going to have to decide whether to obey God or man (Acts 5:29), and we will find that the further we go down this road, the more difficult it will be to turn.

But to return to the idea of a global pandemic.  A pandemic is a disease that kills thousands of people and to catch it is very often certain death.  Covid-19 has a recovery rate of over 99% and the total death figures for Scotland are much the same as in previous years.

However, those who are convinced by the government narrative, don’t even want to know about those figures.  They just don’t fit with what they ‘know’.