"Just as there is a partnership between the Gospel itself and mercy to the nearby poor, so there is a wonder partnership between Christian being the merciful church at home and Christians planting the merciful church abroad.  Neither is a wasted life.  Indeed the authenticity of each depends much on the authenticity of the other.  It is inauthentic to presume to send what we don't have.  And it is inauthentic to have a treasure and not send it." - John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life, the Majesty of Christ in Missions and Mercy

What if Jesus had never been born?  Do you think it would make a difference?

For as long as I can remember, my mother worked at a hospital in Denver called Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center.  I have always been curious about the name.  Growing up, I had no clue what that meant.  I just knew that my mom was a nurse and she helped people.

As I grew I wondered, “Do people go to this hospital because they are Presbyterian?  It is a special hospital for Presbyterians?”  No.  I wondered, “Does my mom work for this hospital because she is a Presbyterian?”  Again, the answer was “No.”

Eventually, I figured out that the hospital was established by the Presbyterian churches in Denver.  What I learned much later was that Christians have had a historically significant influence on medical care through the centuries.

In the year AD 250, over 1750 years ago, cultural and religious attitudes in Rome were so uncaring that when a person got sick most of people would:

“thrust aside anyone who began to be sick, and kept aloof even from their dearest friends, and cast the sufferers out upon the public roads half dead, and left them unburied, and treated them with utter contempt when they died”  (Works of Dionysius, Epistle 12.5, quoted in Under the Influence, Schmidt, pg. 152).

But Roman Christians had a different attitude.  Listen to the perspective of the church,

“[V]ery man of our brethren, while in their exceeding love and brotherly kindness did not spare themselves, but kept by each other, and visited the sick without thought of their own peril, and ministered to them assiduously and treated them for their healing in Christ, died from time to time most joyfully … drawing upon themselves their neighbors’ diseases, and willingly taking over to their own persons the burden of the sufferings of those around them.” (Works of Dionysius, Epistle 12.4, quoted in Under the Influence, Schmidt, pg. 152).

Christians have been at the forefront of medical care for the last 2000 years.  From the beginning, the difference could not have been so stark. Romans  drowned sick and disabled babies.  Christians cared for them. 

The first hospital was built by Christians in AD 369.  Christians have continued to be at the forefront of advancement in medical care.

Florence Nightingale, a Christian nurse during the Crimean war in England, made a significant contribution to the cleanliness and effectiveness of nursing.

Or consider the Red Cross.  Did you know the Red Cross was started in 1863 by Henry Dunant, a convicted Christian (and Calvinist)?  You may know that Clara Barton cared for injured soldiers during the Civil War in the Fredericksburg area.  Later she would start the American Red Cross.  She herself was significantly influenced by Christian convictions. As historian Philip Schaff said, “Were it not for Christianity, there would be no Red Cross” (Schmidt, 166).

And what event took place 2000 years ago that would change the calendar system from BC (Before Christ) to AD (Anno Domini)? 

We could work through every area of culture – the calendar, science, healthcare, education, economics, philosophy, psychology - every one of them has been radically transformed because of the life of Jesus Christ.   

Two thousand years ago something happened that changed the whole course of the world.  The world has not been the same since.  In fact, without that single event the world would have a radically and completely different look.  Like a table of dominoes, this event started a set of events that has been progressing and growing ever since.

Our world and our secular institutions do not acknowledge the central role that Jesus Christ has had on its history.  Americans fail to realize that our nation would not exist as it does today if Jesus Christ had not lived, been crucified, and risen again.  We can even seek to know more about our own vocation.  As we grow in that knowledge we can be both more thankful and more helpful in telling our world about the great things Jesus has accomplished. 

Jesus holds history together.  Indeed history is Christ’s Story, it is His-Story; it is the story of God’s providence as the kingdom of Christ expands through the nations.  Do you see Him on every page of history?  Do you see His loving hand in every worldly blessing you enjoy?  Do you see His hand even in the most difficult of political situations?

We can take hope in all situations.  The end of history is already planned out.  We know that all things are working together for the glory of Jesus Christ and even hospitals are the establishment of His kingdom.  As the angels sing in heaven, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). 

We must also look for areas where Christ may still be working in the world.  Maybe it is the alleviation of some suffering or the planting of more churches.  Just as God saw a problem and sent His Son to solve it, as God’s people we have a special role in solving problems around us.  This is the way we see the kingdom of God grow.

- April 2008