This past week, I’ve spent some time playing Civilization, a computer game where you found a civilization and build it up into an empire, attempting to meet certain victory conditions before the other civilizations. One of the most exciting aspects, I find, is starting a game; you are given only a settler and a soldier to found a city, and are set on a random map in a random location. The “fog of war” covers the entire map, meaning that nothing is known about the map: where the continents are, where the oceans lie, where the other civilizations are beginning. As the game begins, the race is on to quickly explore the surrounding area to discover who (other civilizations, or small city-states, or villainous barbarians) or what (oceans, or mountains, or deserts, or natural wonders) are around your civilization. This context is what helps to determine how your civilization can best be built and what victory conditions are best to pursue.

Similar to this quest to ascertain the larger context in Civilization, I have spent the past few weeks trying to understand the larger context of COVID-19 in our world. There is a plethora of news articles and research to read, explaining how we are under or over-estimating this pandemic, detailing how life will be changed or unchanged in the coming weeks, or months or years, and prophesying what course the pandemic will take and what the resulting economic and social fallout will be. My proclivity in all of this has been to consume as much information as I possibly can, hoping to digest the useful, authoritative, and accurate details all in order to try to dispel the “fog of war” and have a clear map of the landscape. (Perhaps this is why Civilization has been so enjoyable recently; it is certainly much easier to get a clear map in Civilization than it is to get a clear picture of our present context!)

This week, the refrain from Sunday’s sermon that has been clanging around my head is “See Jesus!” This is the context that Matthew is giving to his readers - see Jesus! See that this is all about Jesus! See that all of these events are meaningful and significant because of Jesus! See Jesus! This is also the context that is needed for our present time: see Jesus! There are certainly facts and figures from news articles and research that can help to understand our present context; we ought not be persuaded that these ordinary means are useless or unnecessary. However, Jesus is the One who gives the ultimate context to all of these events, and we can never lose sight of that! 

As I examine my motives for garnering as much information as possible about this pandemic, I see my primary motivation as an attempt to gain control. As I am asked to stay at home, as my job faces uncertainties and instabilities, as the health of my newborn son, of my wife and son, of my parents and grandparents are all put at risk, as I face so many unknowns and uncertainties, perhaps I can grab some measure of control if I can understand something more about COVID-19. Perhaps if I know when the infection rate will peak, perhaps if I know when a vaccine will be available, perhaps if I know how well New Mexico’s infection rates track with New York, or Lombardy, or Wuhan, perhaps then I will exercise a measure of control over my life again. The one certainty, however, is that there will be no certainty until we have a retrospective. 

Into this uncertainty and lack of control, I see Jesus! Jesus, who is “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the Church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:15-20). It is into Jesus’ preeminence and sovereignty that I can place my trust and control. When things feel as though they are spiraling out of control, when it feels as though all control has been lost, I can rest easy knowing that I never had control and that Jesus has always had and still does have the control! Into this chaos, I see Jesus! 

My friends, see Jesus, in whom all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell! See Jesus, in whom the glory of God shone! See Jesus, who was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief! See Jesus, who has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows! My friends, see Jesus!

~Josh Spare