Zombies, Plauges, and the Compassion of Christ!

Hershel Greene; The Walking Dead

For those of you who have not caught the zombie virus yet, here is the quickest synopsis of AMC's  The Walking Dead that I can manage; The world is much as we know it, that is until, as usual, a zombie virus outbreak. People, lots of people, get infected die then come back as zombies. People get bit or scratched by zombies, die, then they too become zombies. People die of the common cold then come back as, yup you guessed it, zombies. If you haven't picked up on the common theme, basically people are becoming mindless flesh eating zombies creating a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by zombies and survivors. The show follows one group of survivors who daily strive to stay alive and create some semblance of normality in a world gone mad. A man named Hershel Greene eventually joins this group, a man of faith and a farmer, he was former veterinarian, who at first struggles to keep his faith in the midst of the madness but quickly emerges as a leader and beacon of compassion and humanity in this savage dog-eat-dog world. While taking refuge in an abandoned prison a flu virus begins to kill the survivors within its walls. Hershel's veterinarian training comes in handy but because of fear of more deaths the sick are quarantined and Hershel is not able to treat and comfort them, or else risk his life. Being the creature of conscience he is, Hershel can not sit idly by while people are suffering that he might be able to comfort, though he has no cure. He determines to enter into the quarantine to administer an elderberry tea in hope of reducing the fevers of the ill. Another leader of the group and Hershel's daughter try to stop him saying that its just too risky, Hershel might get sick and then the group would be worse of with him gone. Hershel stops at the door to the quarantine and turns to confront those who would stop him saying;

"You walk outside, you risk your life. You take a drink of water, you risk your life. Nowadays you breath and you risk your life. You don’t have a choice. The only thing you can choose is what you’re risking it for.” Then turning back around he enters into the quarantine. 

In the third century, the ancient world was hit with a devastating plague (though let me state that nowhere do sources say it wasn't a zombie plague). There were many casualties, but perhaps the greatest casualty was that of the human spirit of compassion. In attempts to keep themselves from joining the dead and dying, many people threw infected family members out into the streets to die alone. It was the Christians in the community who took it upon themselves to care for the sick risking their own lives in the process. It's very likely that many of these brothers and sisters contracted the illness and died as a result. I am confident however that were you to ask those Christians who died as a result of risking their lives to comfort the sick, they would have no regrets. They were following the model of a radical self-sacrificing compassionate savior who they loved more than all the health and wealth of this world. 

Jesus was not one to throw the sick out into the street to spare himself. We know that he was able to heal from miles away (Luke 7:1-10), yet he choose to heal the sick, the blind, the "unclean" by touching them (Matt. 8:1-4). We know that Jesus was able to call back people from the dead by the word of his mouth (John11:38) yet in an incredible demonstration of compassion, when he saw the widow mourning over the death of her only son he went and touched the body of the boy and gave him back to his mother alive and well (Luke 7:11-17). 

2 Corinthians 1:3-5 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too." 

How has God comforted you? I'm sure many of us can think of many times when we felt the warm embrace of our Heavenly Father in our time of need, weather an inner sense of peace, the kind words of a brother or sister, or in some other way. 

The verse above says that God comforts us in all our troubles so that we are able to comfort others in any trouble they are experiencing. 

How have you comforted others with the same comfort you have received?  How have you shown compassion to others with the same compassion shown to you by God? This is a topic that Jesus takes very seriously, we all who are in Christ long for the day when we see our savior face to face and hear him say "Well done my good and faithful servant". But what if you heard this instead; 

"Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me...Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me" (Matt. 25:41-43,45). 

You have faith in God, good! Even the demons believe that God exist and shudder in fear (James 2:19). But unless our faith compels us into action, it is a dead faith that cannot save (James 2:14-26). Martin Luther once said, "We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone". Faith results in action. 

Herschel and the early Church demonstrated their faith in God by risking their own lives to bring the comfort and compassion that Jesus modeled to "the least of these" in society with no regard for their own security or safety. 

Nowadays we walk outside our homes, we risk our lives. We drive down the highway, we risk our lives. We eat and drink, we risk our lives. We breath the air and we risk our lives. We don’t have a choice. The only thing we can choose is what we are risking it for. 

May we put everything on the line and expend our lives loving God and loving others with reckless abandon.