Christ the hope of mankind

The Bible clearly states that the hope that is offered as a result of God’s love is open to everyone. God has promised that He will send His only Son, Jesus Christ, back to this earth to set up His Kingdom, which will last forever, and all of mankind has the opportunity of a place in God’s Kingdom to live forever if we truly believe in God and His promises. This promised kingdom will be a time when there will be peace, justice, and righteousness. There has always been one real source of hope that we can all turn to, and that hope is in Jesus Christ, our Saviour. God wants everyone to believe in Him and look forward to the future with this great hope.

However, throughout the history of mankind, there have always been challenges and trials to this great hope. At this particular time, our world is once again currently experiencing a period of turmoil and a challenge to our faith due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 challenge is unprecedented. It has caused enormous trauma, disrupted economies, social life, transportation, work and employment, leisure, sport, academic programmes – literally everything we are accustomed to. Churches and religious communities have not been spared either. They have been severely affected and in all likelihood, permanently transformed by the pandemic. The pre-COVID-19 world is gone, replaced by a ‘new normal’. Churches have had to adapt; and embrace new ways of doing things and to do church differently.

Many churches have turned to the electronic platforms to reach their members. Churches have had to adjust to digital worship, digital sacraments, digital sermons, digital tithes, and digital mission. From the very beginning, we have been accustomed to gathering physically for public worship. It is that moment and experience when the Church (people of God) gather in community and communion to give praise and glory to God. It is a time for celebration, fellowship, renewal of faith and hope. Pastors have for ages encouraged worshippers to ‘come to church’, but with the current closure of churches, this call has been turned around with the plea to "Please join us on YouTube".

While the COVID virus has generated the possibility of making the Church accessible to many more persons, unfortunately, it has also restricted the Church to only those who can access the electronic platform. This, inevitably, excludes the majority of poor people who cannot afford to connect on the Internet. Churches, too, are feeling the negative financial impact. With less income, churches can barely afford to survive financially. Some have diverted funds normally allocated for mission to provide electronic data to their congregants. Consequently, their mission projects are left unfunded, and their poor suffer. If anything, the COVID virus has shown us that the gap between the rich and the poor is widening further.

The coronavirus pandemic has forced churches to function in new ways of staying open and being church. The Church has learnt how to live-stream worship. This virus has reaffirmed that the Church does not live within walls, but that it is the people of God who, in the power of the Holy Spirit, live and long for God’s reign in the world. The kingdom of God is the primary mission of the Church as we continue to pray for, and work towards God’s justice, peace, righteousness, and love on Earth. The Church is a sign to that kingdom as it is sent into the world to be the presence of God.

People were meant to live according to God’s will and for his glory. Sin has created an unnatural separation between God and the people He has created. Before Christ died on the cross, He asked his followers about His identity, “Who do people say I am?” (Matthew 16:13), and made His mission clear with the words: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). In these words, Christ clearly explains why he is humanity’s one and only hope. He was the way to God. He would be the final sacrificial Lamb, paying the ultimate penalty for our sins. By His acceptance of death, He became the only way to restore God’s relationship with us. He would return things to the way God had created them to be. Jesus is the truth from God. He didn’t just communicate God’s truth; He was God’s truth. Jesus revealed the father to us. When he said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). He revealed God’s redemptive plan to us. By hanging on the cross, Jesus demonstrated how God planned to deal with our sin. He sent a Saviour to die in our place.

Jesus came to be that life-giver. He came to conquer the ultimate result of sin – death. His resurrection would be the first fruit of myriad of resurrections to come as by grace, His Spirit would breathe new life into all who would put their trust in Him. He came as life to defeat the power of death and ignite eternal life in the hearts of His redeemed children. Hope in the here and now and hope in the great forever that is to come rests on one set of shoulders. It rests on the shoulders of Jesus, who is for us today the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He offers us what we have no power to provide for ourselves, that is, a restored relationship with God, a knowledge of what really is true and a life that will never end.

– Most Rev Burchell McPherson, Bishop of the Diocese of Montego Bay