This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters (1 John 3:16).

A tiny virus we can’t see is bringing our world to its knees.  We’re hearing the phrase “new normal” a lot—and it seems like we’re getting a new new normal every day.  This can be confusing, scary, wearying, but it looks like we’re going to be in a new normal—or a succession of new normals—for a while, for longer than any of us would like.

We should adopt and adapt to the counsel we’re receiving from qualified experts.   So yes to hand-washing, social distancing, working from home, and whatever else may come down the pike.

However, in the midst of new normal, we must not forget the old way—the way of the cross.  COVID-19 does not annul the Gospel, dethrone Jesus, or relieve us of needing to listen to and obey our King.  

A pandemic does not cancel love.

But we are going to need to learn how to do this in new and unfamiliar ways.  The way of the cross is always the same way, yet it adapts to the terrain we’re on.

How might we continue to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters when we’re not meeting for weekly worship, home groups, prayer groups, etc.?

On the cross, Jesus became the lowest of the low.  Walking the Jesus way will teach us to notice and attend to the littlest, the least, the last and the lost.  Where are they located in your world? Yes, perhaps all over the world—so many have it so much harder than we—but who in your right-around-you world is in some way little, low, last, least, lost?  Remember: there are ways to be low, least and last without being economically disadvantaged.

The cross is the opposite of distancing from all that is painful, ugly, unbearable.  On the cross, Jesus becomes, God actually becomes, all that is painful, anguished, ugly, unbearable and God-forsaken.  The way of the cross does not immunize us from suffering, does not give us a “pass” from the agonies that a world in the grip of Sin and Death is undergoing.  Instead, we listen, we deeply attend to the cries of the world around us; we pray, we lament, we mourn; we encourage, we serve, we give. Walking the way of the cross, we know what love is; and so we lay down our lives for our sisters and brothers.

In times like this, the Good News remains the best news anyone will ever hear: how can they hear it from you, from us?  In times like this, Jesus reigns; how can they see it, from you, from us? In times like this, we need to follow our King in his way of the cross; how will they touch it, in you and in us?