Cover Me

It is slightly uncomfortable to live in a world governed by subjectivity.  It is very uncomfortable for our vulnerable flesh.  Not one of us escapes the potential use and abuse of subjective neighbors.  And not one of us escapes the temptation to use and abuse someone else.  

There was a man from Galilee who also experienced the discomfort of vulnerable flesh.  “For I was hungry… .I was thirsty… . I was a stranger… .I was naked… .I was sick… .I was in prison,” Matthew 25:35-36.  Christ made statements of His humanity.  He fully identified Himself with the vulnerability of our flesh to good and evil choices.  In His humanity, He was tempted to choose between good and evil and He was subjected to the good and evil choices of others.  

Christ will not exploit our condition.  In our vulnerability to subjectivity He will never put us to shame.  He brings us out of this world and its exploitations.  He seeks to gather us to Himself and cover us with His mercy.  “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet,” Luke 15:22.

And since we know that flesh and blood individuals live so uncomfortably in this world, since we are aware of their exposed humanity, since we know Christ, this is what we ought to do: clothe them!  We ought to respect their boundaries.  We are not of the way of this world.  We do not expose, exploit and put to shame.  Just as God has covered us, so also, we cover others.  We seek to bring them out of this  world and its exploitations; this world that oversteps, usurps and manipulates.  “My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins,” James 5:20.  This world walks into any individual and takes, exposes the victim and puts to shame.   It lures the unconscious into sinning so that it can take advantage of the exploitations of sin.  But, we, the covered, deliver individuals from sin and cover the manipulated flesh.  

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me,” Matthew 25:35-36.