Am I My Brother's Keeper

This was originally published on March 21, 2020, when this blog was being hosted on a different blog host provider. 

Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?” And the LORD said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground.

-Genesis 4:8-10

Man, this passage of Scripture really kicks you in the seat of the pants right about now. I’ll admit that there’s a part of me that thinks that our reaction to this pandemic is a bit extreme and maybe even a severe overreaction. Today is the first day that I’m on mandatory self-isolation at home and that means that I’m now being forced to not go to my job and earn money for my family to be able to survive. Outside of my natural disposition to look for the governments attempt to overreach in their power and take liberties away from us (which is definitely going on right now, whether you agree with it or not), this is a time that it’s not that weird to wonder if shutting down the economy (and, maybe, injuring it to the point that we will need to rebuild an entirely different kind economy) is really the right thing to do. But then…

“am I my brother’s keeper?”

… Well, am I? And, who is my ‘brother’?

In response to that second question I’m going to turn to Romans 12:10:

Love one another deeply as brothers and sisters. Outdo one another in showing honor. (CSB)

This, at the very least, includes all fellow believers. So, what do I do with that? In light of loving my brothers and sisters in a way which consistently attempts to honor them more and more, can I really question the necessity of social distancing and government mandated quarantine based on my selfish desires and fears? My mind is drawn to the Biblical account of Abraham haggling with God for the sake of the people in Sodom & Gomorrah (Gen 18:16-33). If, for the sake of the righteous, we can overt disaster, is it not worth it? The question which follows is, ‘who is righteous’? Well, first of all, nobody is…There is no one righteous, not even one. (Rom 3:9) But what of Romans 5:1…

Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (CSB)

Our faith in Jesus, our Messiah, has imputed His righteousness onto us in the same way that the faithfulness of Abraham was all God needed to save Lot and his family from the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah. But what of the numbers Abraham discussed with God? What if there were 50, or 45, or 40, or 30, or 20, or even 10 righteous? Would God have called off the destruction for the sake of even 10? His answer is yes (Gen 18:32)! Surely, then, for the sake of my brothers and sisters who have taken on the righteousness of our Messiah I can inconvenience myself for a few days so that they can avoid an excruciating death, can’t I?

I’ve seen serious pneumonia. I’ve seen death from pneumonia. I’ve seen someone painfully gasping for what little air they were able to take in because of the pneumonia in their lungs. As painful as it was for me to watch, it's exponentially less painful to watch than it is for the person who’s trying to get that oxygen. I still tear up just thinking about it. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. Even if I catch this virus and am completely asymptomatic, and it would do no damage to me at all, my loving response to those around me has to be to do whatever I can to limit the chances that someone who would not be asymptomatic would get it. Jesus said, “No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). And Jesus didn’t just say it, He did it. We’re not talking about laying down my life so the least I can do for my friends (and brothers and sisters) is to stay at home and distance myself from an at-risk populace for a short time. If that means my wallet thins out a little bit and I don’t have all the extravagances that I’m used to for a little while, my brothers and sisters are worth more to me than that. So, yes, I will be my brother’s keeper.