Jesus and the great mask debate – worst meme, best advice

“I love you, my brother, but the enemy has blinded even the elect on this whole matter.”

And last,

“[H]alf of the population is blinded…I know [this] from 2 positions: (1) honest medical doctors, scientists and medical experts who have no conflict of interest – $$$, and (2) God speaks to me and gave me His direct input.”

I’ve seen videos of random people who talked like this, but never came across anyone in my semi-actual (i.e. Facebook) life until now.

Part of me wants desperately to say something sarcastic and withering, but I won’t – for two reasons: George would receive it as persecution and consider himself blessed; and also because I want to actually engage with Georges, not immediately alienate them. Treat them with respect, as I want to be treated.

Will it work? Probably not. Is it a waste of time? Intelligent dialogue is never a waste of time – and I believe the Georges of this world are intelligent.

Not a binary

George, you said, “the enemy has blinded even the elect on this whole matter,” and “half of the population is blinded” (I’m guessing you’re referring to the vaccinated half). You have neatly divided the population into two groups: the Right and the Wrong. And you put yourself in the Right group. That’s something we all tend to do, and we tend to make rightness an all-or-nothing affair.

I’d like to suggest that maybe this issue is not binary. Isn’t it possible that both sides have some good points, some good sources, and some good conclusions? By the same token, maybe we both have some weak points, weak sources, and poor conclusions.

Here’s a corollary : none of us really knows whether Jesus would wear a mask. We don’t know what Jesus would do in a pandemic.

We like to think Jesus would behave just like us because we like to think we’re right. But that’s a pretty brazen assumption, so we flip the script and say we’re behaving like Jesus – without actually knowing how Jesus would behave.

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The danger of certainty

George, your certainty might feel to you like bold faith, but is it, really? When you claim you “know” what Jesus would do in this context, you appear neither humble nor teachable – and those are key elements of Christian faith.

I’m not saying you’re outside God’s will just because I happen to disagree with you – but that your certainty might be a troubling sign. A couple of examples from Scripture:

• Jesus scolded the Pharisees throughout his ministry for burdening people with rules that weren’t from God. They thought they were in God’s will, but they never self-evaluated. They were so far outside God’s will that Jesus called them “blind guides” and “generation of vipers” (Matt. 23). They never did listen.
• Simon Peter screwed up again and again. When Jesus scolded him, he listened. Thankfully, Peter had the humility to recalibrate again and again.

If you feel that God is teaching you directly, as you said, then Jesus’ life and words are no longer your guide.

We are not Jesus – we are Jesus’ disciples. We want to become more and more like him. We must be teachable.

Criticism can be useful

The fact that you and other anti-maskers/anti-vaxxers are being criticized – not just here, but everywhere – is a sign that you should examine your position, not dig in your heels. Listen to your critics and search the Scripture. Maybe a tweak is necessary (likewise, we pro-maskers/pro-vaxxers need to constantly hold up our beliefs to Scripture).

That’s humility, that’s being teachable. None of us should assume we’ve arrived at a permanent state of wisdom.

Keep in mind American Christians’ track record. We’ve been dead wrong many times, and very slow to correct our errors. Recall (for starters) our support for the genocide of Native Americans, and the enslavement, lynching, and degradation of black human beings. Knowing our utter failure in these arenas, we ought not be too self-assured. Ever.

Power

George, you seem to really yearn for Jesus’ power to be revealed in miraculous ways. You speak with great fondness of snake-handling and poison-drinking and “power over all the power of the enemy.” You seem to be big on the Wow Factor – flashy miracles that would draw all people to become Christians.

A few points from Scripture to consider:

• According to Matthew 13:58, Jesus’ miracles didn’t generate faith, but followed after faith.
• Jesus never turned away a leper who asked for healing. But we have no record of him going to the leper colonies and healing everyone. 
• The bulk of his ministry was spent in teaching and modeling servanthood. One might even say “he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Phil. 2:7). Power – the Wow Factor – was not Jesus’ primary M.O.

If you believe Jesus was God Incarnate, then of course he would have been impervious to infection anyway, so he wouldn’t need a mask or a vaccine. But “doesn’t need a mask” isn’t the same as “refuses to wear a mask.”

In fact, we know that sometimes Jesus obeyed rules even though he didn’t need to. For example, in Matthew 17, Jesus complied with the Temple tax, even though he did not believe he was required to pay it, so as not to offend.

Bottom line, we can’t be sure how this servant-teacher/miracle worker would have responded to Covid-19.

We can at least admit that to one another. Nobody needs to say, “if you disagree with me, you don’t know Jesus.”