You Wear His Coat Very Well
By: Blesson (August 29th, 2008)
There is a magnificent story in Marie Chapian’s book “Of Whom the World Was Not Worthy”. The book told of the sufferings of the true church in Yugoslavia, where so much wrong has been perpetrated by the politicized ecclesiastical hierarchy. That which has gone on in the name of Christ for the enriching and empowering of corrupt church officials has been a terrible affront to decency.
One day an evangelist by the name of Jakov arrived in a certain village. He commiserated with an elderly man named Cimmerman on the tragedies he had experienced and talked to him of the love of Christ. Cimmerman abruptly interrupted Jakov and told him that he wished to have nothing to do with Christianity. He reminded Jakov of the dreadful history of the church in his town, a history replete with plundering, exploiting, and indeed with killing innocent people. “My own nephew was killed by them,” he said and angrily rebuffed any effort on Jakov’s part to talk about Christ. “They wear those elaborate coats and caps and crosses,” he said, “signifying a heavenly commission, but their evil designs and lives I cannot ignore.”
Jakov, looking for an occasion to get Cimmerman to change his line of thinking, said, “Cimmerman, can I ask you a question? Suppose I were to steal your coat, put it on, and break into a bank. Suppose further that the police sighted me running in the distance but could not catch up with me. One clue, however, put them onto your track; they recognized your coat. What would you say to them if they came to your house and accused you of breaking into the bank?”
“I would deny it,” said Cimmerman.
“‘Ah, but we saw your coat,’ they would say,” retorted Jakov. This analogy quite annoyed Cimmerman, who ordered Jakov to leave his home.
Jakov continued to return to the village periodically just to befriend Cimmerman, encourage him, and share the love of Christ, with him. Finally one day Cimmerman asked, “How does one become a Christian?” and Jakov taught him the simple steps of repentance for sin and of trust in the work of Jesus Christ and gently pointed him to the Shepherd of his soul. Cimmerman bent his knee on the soil with his head bowed and surrendered his life to Christ. As he rose to his feet, wiping his tears, he embraced Jakov and said, “Thank you for being in my life.” And then he pointed to the heavens and whispered, “You wear His coat very well.”
Fascinating aint it? While the story highlights us to be fully cognizant to wear our coats conforming to the glory and worth of the one whom we worship. It also illustrates another powerful principle. Psalms 115 makes a powerful point “Worship is a powerful way for transformation; it transforms us to become more like the one whom we worship and put our trust in”. To illustrate - those who trust and owe their allegiance to illegitimate pleasures ultimately find their lives to be futile and ebbing away, just like the pleasures behind which they were running after. For those who worship violence, violent will be their lives. Those who believe life to be an illusion or purposeless existence will ultimately be found struggling for meaning in their life.
Hence it necessitates a deeper search for truth and verification of the same before we commit our allegiance and worship. Its not just all about the smoke, bells and smells, its much beyond what is being offered and the honesty with which it is offered, it necessitates that we look further and in to a more deeper level than the flowers and their colors, before we close our eyes and bend our heads for worship.
What is it that is transforming you? Whose Coat are you wearing?
Tags: Beliefs, Believers, Christianity, Church, faith, Followers, Holy wars, Jehad, Jesus, Jihad, Love, Maya, Meditation, Offerings, Religion, sex, Transformation, Worship, Yoga