“But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?” – Galatians 4:9
Over the past few months or so, people have all been waiting anxiously for things to go back to normal. We have spent a couple of months (give or take depending on where you live) adjusting to life from home, living in a quarantine era. Now things have begun to slowly open back up in some parts of the country. For so many people, the hope that helped them endure through this time has been the thought that eventually things would go back to normal. But we now come to a time when a realization is beginning to hit people: things are never going to go back to the way they once were.
The reality is that our world has been forever changed by this pandemic. Even if tomorrow we were able to go back to businesses like normal, go back to work, go back to school, etc., even if everything went back to the way they used to be, the way we see and understand the world around us has been changed by the experience of living through a pandemic. This has been a complete paradigm shift, so that even if things went back to “normal,” we would not be able to see things the same way. We can’t go back to the way things were, because that would be like trying to unsee something. It can’t be done.
Grief comes in all kinds of forms, and we experience grief from all kinds of loss, not just a loss resulting from death. Having come to this realization that the world can never “go back to normal,” there is going to be grief as a result. People are going to struggle with the grieving process for quite some time, because discovering a new norm after so much change can be very uncomfortable. But the process of moving towards adjusting our lives toward a new reality is an uncomfortable process, and rightly so. So how comfortable are you with being uncomfortable?
In the book of Galatians, we find the early church amid a similar struggle with transition and change. The Gospel has spread throughout the region, and Paul has made amazing progress on bringing the Gospel to the Gentiles. As more and more Gentiles become followers of Christ, the church is beginning to struggle with Judaizers coming to the Gentiles and preaching that following Christ means living according to the Jewish traditions and law. Now, let’s take a moment to understand the struggle of everyone involved.
Let’s start with the Judaizers. When we read Galatians and read about these people coming and trying to bring the new Gentile converts into Judaism, it can be very easy for us to villainize them in our minds. But, let us understand. For many of the Jews who began following Jesus, they had been raised in the Jewish tradition for generations, and in some ways, it was the only life they had known. If you go back through the Jewish history throughout the Old Testament, as they were conquered, taken into exile, lived in captivity and slavery, having the temple destroyed and being taken into a foreign land among a foreign people, it was their devotion to God through their obedience to God’s laws that sustained them through it all. Living according to the Jewish tradition was engrained into their very identity.
After Jesus came and lived his ministry, died on the cross, rose from the grave and ascended into heaven, the followers were left with a difficult question: what does it look like to live out our faith in Jesus? Since most of the followers during those early years were Jews, it is understandable that much of the same traditions became a genuine expression of their faith in Jesus. But as more Gentiles came to follow Jesus as well, things began to change. Now, imagine having a way of life engrained in you for generations, but then that way of life begins to drift away in the shifting waves of this new movement. Perhaps you can empathize with the Judaizers struggling to cling to the way things used to be.
On the other side of the argument, you had Paul preaching the Gospel and declaring the freedom we have in Christ. Paul, as a Pharisee, had been part of the order and structure in which Judaism was so engrained. After his conversion, Paul wanted people to experience the freedom he found in Jesus, and he was resistant to putting new rules in place, and by doing so creating the old toxic system of control through guilt and shame in this new church. I believe that Paul feared that such a system could be detrimental to the growth of this young and developing church, hence his fervent response to the Judaizers: “If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!” (Galatians 1:9b).
And now we come to the church, caught in the middle between these two views. We know that there are some believers who were swayed by the Judaizers: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.” (Galatians 1:6). Some people may not understand why anyone would be turned towards a system with more rules and regulations. But let’s take a minute to think about it.
For those early Gentile converts, they were coming into a new church with little to no system of structure. They were born into freedom through the grace of Jesus Christ, but what does it look like to live out that freedom and faith? No one really had an answer to that question, because it was still being worked through by the church through struggle, trial and error, and figuring it out as they go. While that freedom can seem very attractive, the uncertainty and lack of distinct structure can also be quite terrifying and uncomfortable for people. Perhaps you can empathize with feeling anxious and frustrated with uncertainty? Understanding that, perhaps you can understand why some of those early believers would jump at the first offer of stability and concrete structure to come along (i.e. the Judaizers).
Here is the thing. Our world has been changed forever by this pandemic, and there is nothing we can do to put the genie back in the bottle. Even now as things continue to slowly open back up, things seem to be in a constant state of flux and change. If you are anything like me, trying to navigate the constant change and uncertainty of what tomorrow might bring is exhausting. But here is the thing: life is always filled with uncertainty, change, and unexpected struggle. The pandemic may have brought all of that into a more acute or concentrated experience for people, but life has always been an adventure filled with twists and turns, long before Covid-19 ever reared its ugly head.
So, as we come to terms with the ever changing and shifting landscape of our world today, how are you going to find your new norm? Are you going to be like the Judaizers, desperately trying to preserve the way things used to be and denying that things have changed in any way? This comes with a fair amount of dangers, because as the world changes and shifts, without your permission, trying to recapture an old life that has already passed by can lead to frustration and bitterness. Perhaps you can be like the early church, desperately grasping for anything that promises stability in an uncertain time and world. This also comes with some dangers, especially when you place your hope in things that ultimately let you down or even burden you with unreasonable expectations (either for yourself or of others). Or, perhaps we need to follow the example of Paul. In a time of uncertainty and an ever changing landscape of life, perhaps we need to allow ourselves to accept the discomfort of change, and to put our faith and trust in God, knowing that His goodness can be our stable rock and anchor amidst uncertainty and change.
So, in a world that has changed forever, allow yourself to journey through your grief, with all the pain, discomfort, and struggle that comes with the journey, and trust that the journey does eventually lead to a place of acceptance and life. And as you journey through the grief over the way things used to be, keep in mind that you are not alone; God journeys with us through the storms of life, guiding and leading us to a place of rest and healing, even if only for a season. As we seek to find a place of acceptance in an ever changing world, remember that the past is there for us to learn and grow from, but we should not allow the past to distract us from the present life God is calling us to live.
May God continue to guide and lead you, and may he lead you to sheltered harbors to weather the storms of life. Amen.