Landon is wearing a cape these days. Three nights ago he requested to sleep in it and was permitted to do so. He looks at it longingly when he is forced to don his school uniform during the weekdays. Capes were meant to be worn by important people – superheroes even! If Landon is personally made to forego the cape, he wraps it upon his stuffed bear and lives vicariously through it in his mind while he is at school. Upon returning from the eight hours of his intolerable education he immediately gets back to more important matters which will only be rightly accomplished if he is wearing his black cape. He puts it on, I imagine he hears a hush fall across the home and trumpets regally announcing that the Landonator is soon to commence to some honorable, immortal deeds. This boy is the entertainment of our home but I felt my conscience being provoked within me as he darted about from couch to chair, sliding on the hardwoods down the hall in an imaginary display of self-importance. I started thinking that this was cute for a first grader but that, if we are being honest, we adults might have a couple of capes in our own closets that need to be addressed.
What do you wrap yourself in to feel significant? You are likely not entirely different from the rest of us. You likely have a well-stitched cape or twelve that fit you nicely. You put it on in the morning, check it for rips and tears in the afternoon and wash it on the gentle cycle at night. I want to suggest today that it’s not just children who play the role…we are occasionally cape-wearers too.
Capes, what capes? Our relationships with others make us feel important, stable, secure. We have careers or incomes or ministries that cause us to suspect that we can become high-flyers. Capes of good-looks, impressive education or sharp minds set us apart from the commoners in Gotham. The school we went to, the church we belong to, the gifts God has allowed us, the neighborhood we live in or something as silly as the car we drive can flow out behind us as we sprint headlong in life. I’ve seen homeschool parents compare their capes with Christian school parents that dare public school parents to get into the measuring contest. I’ve met some KJV-only capes kick sand in the face of those capeless NIV carriers. What would we do without our cloaking capes? Let me tell what we would have to do: we’d have to stand naked before God and find our sole sufficiency in the grace of Jesus Christ. Those who clutch their capes have a hard time with this reality.
I want to declare to you today that you are either fully accepted in Jesus Christ or comprehensively rejected apart from Him. Every potential caped-crusader should remember that he or she is lavishly accepted in Christ before the throne of God. He finds us in our stained and scarred spiritual-nudity and graciously wraps us in the merits of His own Son – why would we sense the need to be further wrapped in a lesser identity? Why cling to a cape when you’ve been clothed by Calvary? As you go about your day today, take your time to see if you’re eyeing a cape. See if you need anything else so intensely that you can’t sense approval without it or don’t feel empowered in its absence. Don’t cover up your failures, your weaknesses, your recurring sins, your bad attitudes or your judgmental ways (those who carry capes constantly look at the capes of others). Go boldly before the throne of grace and learn their that you do not stand in need of accomplishments, accolades or applause in order to sense security in life or with God. Perhaps meditate on this closing verse and see if you can be comfortable with its implications. It may be time to rid your spiritual wardrobe of all those things that make you feel important. Your importance is wrapped up in Another. Is that still okay with you?
“And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” – Hebrews 4:13 {ESV}
You are so right. Even Superman took time to be Clark Kent !!
I think I could have done with a cape at the gym today
No cape of my own – but the robe & covering of Another:
God of the covenant, Triune Jehovah,
Marvels of mercy adoring we see;
Seeker of souls, in the counsels eternal
Binding Thy lost ones for ever to Thee.
Not now by words bringing death to transgressors,
Grace unto life the new covenant brings,
Jesus our Surety, our Kinsman-Redeemer,
Round us the robe of His righteousness flings.
Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head.
Bold shall I stand in that great Day,
For who aught to my charge shall lay?
Fully through these absolved I am
From sin and fear, from guilt and shame.
Why do I not know this Hymn? What is its name and who wrote it?
It’s two!
“God of the covenant” is by Jessie Webb (1866-1964) and has four verses in our book;
https://users.stargate.net/~bmames/ht0232_.htm
“Jesus, Thy blood & righteousness” is by Nicholaus von Zinzendorf (1700-1760) and has six verses in our book (1, 2, 6, 12, 15, & 24 out of the 24 at cyberhymnal)
https://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/j/t/b/jtbloodr.htm (TURN SPEAKERS OFF FIRST!!!)