There was a moment when the no-longer Right Honourable Boris Johnson wasn’t sure if he was going to survive. There was a moment when the whole good-hearted Christian community paused and prayed for Boris: he was serving as Prime Minister, and was in the midst of guiding the UK through the first months of the coronavirus outbreak. It was April 2020. Boris himself had Covid and was in intensive care for 3 nights.[1]
[#BORIS / COVID / PRIME MINISTER / DUTY OF CARE] [Credit Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash]
Dead or Alive?
There was a moment when the no-longer Right Honourable Boris Johnson wasn’t sure if he was going to survive. There was a moment when the whole good-hearted Christian community paused and prayed for Boris: he was serving as Prime Minister, and was in the midst of guiding the UK through the first months of the coronavirus outbreak. It was April 2020. Boris himself had Covid and was in intensive care for 3 nights.[1]
The nation prayed; Boris survived; and Boris credited the NHS with saving his life. He was humbled by the close brush with death and grateful for the comfort of Christian support.
As the next few years have unfolded, we haven’t seen so much of that humility or gratitude in Boris Johnson. His lack of care of himself, of people around him, and of the country he has been in charge of – has led to the extraordinary situation of an inquiry by Parliament’s Privileges Committee[2] into just what lockdown rules Boris broke. Coincidentally – the date of his oral evidence was 22 March, 3 years to the date when he actually had Covid. To quote Wikipedia: ‘Johnson was sent the Committee’s report on 8 June 2023. Recommending his suspension for 10 days … Johnson announced his resignation as an MP on 9 June.[3]’
Part of his behaviour is a lack of truth-telling and taking responsibility. There’s an irony in that he has been called the Prime Minister. Let’s pause on those two words for a moment:
Q What does ‘Prime’ mean to us?
Q What does ‘Minister’ mean to us?
Most of the 67 million people in the UK have been affected by Covid: either by the virus directly or by the effects of the different lockdowns. Although individual stories are deeply personal, there is a shared experience of the fear and horror of the sheer numbers of people who have died.
In the first year, before vaccinations, these deaths were sudden, unprepared and solitary deaths. Our communities and churches and care homes and hospitals were and still are deeply impacted in practical ways: with limited resources, staffing and finances.
As humans, we have been impacted by a long-lasting fearfulness, increased isolation, and a sort of latent, collective grief. A lament for a changed world and for premature, difficult deaths.
[#PRIME MINISTER / TRUTH / RESPONSIBILITY]
As Christians, we are so so blessed to have a heavenly Prime Minister.
This minister because of who he is, in his very nature, cannot let us down.
Those two characteristics of truthfulness and responsibility are part of the nature of our own Lord Almighty.
We’ve first-hand experience of why truthfulness matters, of what happens when lies are told, believed and followed.
In contrast, when we turn to our Lord, this is what we find.
Jesus himself famously tells us that He is ‘the way and the truth and the life’ (John 14:6).
This means that He provides us
1) with a route to follow through this life – the way
2) with directions of how to follow that way – by living in His truth
And 3) with the hope of living that life fully in this world, and so much more, finding that there is more life to come after death.
When Boris recovered, he was grateful for the prayers that probably saved him.[4]
He is one of the lucky ones, he has heard the gospel message and known the power of prayer and second chances.
It was John who recorded those words of Jesus, which we can read in chapter 14, verse 6 of John’s Gospel.
John is following on from his exposition in chapter 3, where he tells his readers no less than THREE times that whoever believes in Jesus, will see eternal life. (3:16, 3:18 not condemned, 3:36 eternal life) ‘Whoever believes in the Son, has eternal life’
Phew! What a promise!
Why does this sing out to us so much?
Why does death bother us so much?
A minister in the Assemblies of God, Michael Williams, put it very well in his recent book, (2022, page 61) Dying to Get There:
The world is obsessed with avoiding the end of our experience of life. We want more time. Ecclesiastes 3:11 explains why: ‘He has planted eternity in the human heart.’
The reason we don’t want to die is that we’re not supposed to. This verse tells us that forever is in our DNA! Death is not natural; it’s rather like an unwanted thief cutting in on the life God made and stealing from us what was always meant to be permanent. We were designed by God to keep on living and loving, which is why we are so angered and broken by death. It goes against our wiring.
How can we trust that we will find eternity in God?
The Lord Almighty takes responsibility for us. We can find the answers to that way back in Genesis, in our humble beginnings created from the earth, but created by God himself, in His image, with the breath of God in our lungs. We are His from the beginning of time, we were made for him and by him.
The witnesses of the Old Testament show what a real, feisty relationship with God can look like. Sarah – being truthful - laughs at an impossible promise of childbearing, and the Lord keeps his word. Moses’ tiny remnant of faith is rekindled by encountering God at the burning bush that does not burn. God resources him to lead the people who he ran away from, out of slavery in Egypt. With God-given responsibility.
Encounters with God in the New Testament come about as people realise that Jesus is the embodiment of God on earth, fully human, yet divinely inspired. The promised Messiah of the old Scriptures, as a living breathing minister of salvation. Salvation in this life, and salvation in eternal life.
There are also many fascinating recorded encounters with Jesus through near-death experiences and testimonies. Here’s one from Julie Papievis in her book, Go Back and Be Happy (2008, page 117):
‘I was dead and went to heaven. It was so peaceful there, full of light. I started to walk towards the narrow tunnel with this intense light flowing through it …’
[#NO GOSPEL]
But what happens when we die, as people did and still do, for example, from Covid; when they haven’t heard the Gospel?
OR when they have heard the Gospel, but not accepted it in their heads and hearts?
So many prayers are said over the ailing and the elderly; over people who die suddenly in accidents; or prematurely from diseases.
[#CULTURE]
Other cultures: Indigenous Indians of North America – had not heard the name Jesus or every seen a Bible – but they know the love, guidance and harmonious living by the teaching and presence of the Great Spirit.
Unreached people.
I’m sure this is a really easy question for you all to answer, and I’d love to hear your thoughts.
The thing is, I was at a funeral last Friday of someone who had had the gospel preached to them all their lives. They were even married for over 60 years to one of the most passionate and outspoken evangelists you could ever hope – or dread – to meet!
Colin Wilkins was 95. His wife Sylvia was the evangelist.
Colin and Sylvia used to go to New Wine United, in recent years they had prime seats because of infirmity, and they have heard the very best of the best. They’ve listened to the most tremendous worship – from Martin Smith to Chris Sayburn – and heard the most eloquent preaching. Still Colin’s head and heart remained untouched by understanding faith. He was very bright, and very logical.
On my last visit to Colin, I wanted to take him something useful. I’d been looking for a book by Donna Leon as she was recommended to me by Colin and sounded good; however, in a charity shop the day before, looking for Donna, Dying to Get There caught my eye instead. It caught my eye again and I flipped it open at page 61, where the paragraph I read to you earlier jumped out. I read it to Colin, and left the book with him. (My children thought this was very tactless!)
Colin’s wife, his daughters and grandchildren have all prayed for him to come to faith. Several ministers and friends have prayed for him for decades too. This book was not going to make the difference, but we keep trying.
Colin’s next visitor a few days later told me that he asked her to read the page I’d read to him. Something about the words were resonating with him. The transition from life to death was close for him. Was he going to transition on from that death into life again?
Q So, one of my questions is: when non-believers die – will they be dead to Christ or will they have the chance to be alive with Christ? Will they be dead or alive?
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/05/timeline-boris-johnson-and-coronavirus
[2] https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/289/committee-of-privileges/news/194194/privileges-committee-confirm-date-for-boris-johnson-mp-oral-evidence-session/
[3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commons_Privileges_Committee_investigation_into_Boris_Johnson#:~:text=The%20Committee%20reports-,Johnson%20resignation,an%20MP%20on%209%20Jun.
[4] https://premierchristian.news/en/news/article/boris-johnson-thanks-christians-who-prayed-for-him-while-ill-it-certainly-seems-to-have-worked
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