While traveling in England some time ago, we stopped in a village and learned of a sad event that took place there many years ago, in 1665. In that year, a tailor who lived in this village of Eyam had some fabric delivered from London. He placed the fabric by the fireplace to dry, and within a few days he became ill and died. No one knew the cause of the illness. Very soon others in the village became ill and died too, and still no one knew why.
As more and more people died, all of the remaining villagers came together for a meeting. They agreed that no one would leave the village and expose people from other villages to this mysterious illness. They also realized that they would very likely die if they stayed in their own village. However, they were willing to stay there and give up their lives so that the mysterious illness would not spread to other villages.
This reminds us of the Bible verse, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:1313Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)).
Any supplies delivered to the disease-stricken village were left outside the village boundary. The villagers left coins for payment in a container of vinegar, hoping this would prevent the disease from spreading.
It took more than a year for the disease to stop spreading among the villagers, but by then about two-thirds of them had died. It was later found that this disease was the great plague which was spread by fleas from infected rats, and as the rats moved from place to place, they carried the fleas with them. The fleas had been in that fabric which was delivered to the tailor.
You and I have the terrible disease of sin, and Romans 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23) gives us the bad news that “the wages of sin is death.” Most of the people who got the plague died from it. However, it is certain that you and I as sinners face an eternal death because of our sins.
But we have good news to tell you! The Bible tells us of God’s beloved Son who gave His life so that we could live. Even more, He bore God’s punishment for sin in His own body and died so that you and I could be cleansed from our sins by His blood that was shed on the cross. He did this so that any boy or girl or grown-up may come to Him to be freed from all their sins and know that they have the promise of eternal life in heaven.
Have you been cleansed from your sins?
“Scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:78).
ML-07/11/2004