A good cover-up

Full disclosure: My father and I work in the same church building. A couple of times he has forgotten to put away his cleaning cart. This is because he chases rabbits and cleans things not on his list. It is also because he’s 92.

On both occasions I just put the cart away and that was that. It’s called covering for the other guy. I’m sure he does it for me too.

I was thinking about this business of “covering” others. In the present political season we’ve seen a variety of coverings, from the cover-up of malfeasance with wiping cyber paper trails, to the covering of pay-for-play access involving shadowy foreign dignitaries by use of ostensibly philanthropic foundations, to the smoothing over of candidate gaffes by silver-tongued defenders.

Covering gets a bad name, understandably.

But many years ago a good man drank a little too much fruit of the vine and ended up spread eagle on the floor of his tent, in an undignified manner. One of his sons thought it hilarious, and called the other two to take a gander. These nobler sorts did not dare dishonor their father but placed a garment on their shoulders and walked backward into the tent to cover his nakedness. God agreed with the two coverers over the one exposer. Noah’s son Ham was cursed while Shem and Japheth were blessed.

So some covering is bad, and some is good. How can we know the difference, and which kind we should practice?

It goes to the matter of the coverer’s heart. And the Lord sees the heart: He “sees in secret” (Matthew 6:4), and “[discerns] the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12), and when He returns “will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart” (1 Corinthians 4:5).

Ah, the heart! Now we have descended into that dark and clammy region of the Homo sapiens’ being where Jesus deepens the law’s demand rather than making it more lenient in the new dispensation. “You have heard that it was said to those of old [some outward action]. … But I say to you [some inward motive]” (Matthew 5).

Francis Schaeffer noted this deeper requirement in True Spirituality:

“But having gone deeper, we find that we will be observing them for a completely different reason. … It is no longer merely a matter of holding to an accepted list in order that Christians will think well of us … eventually the Christian life and true spirituality are not to be seen as outward at all, but inward. The climax of the Ten Commandments is the Tenth Commandment in Exodus 20:17: ‘Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house … wife … manservant … maidservant … ox … ass …’”

In other words, what are you thinking when you cover—or don’t cover—your neighbor’s fault, mistake, or oversight? Is the deep impulse of your heart that you wish him well, or that you wish him ill? Are you thinking, “I will leave his cleaning cart in the middle of the aisle, with the dirty water bucket in plain sight of the boss, so that he will get in trouble and I will get his job”? Or are you thinking, “I don’t want him to be embarrassed, so I will do this small thing for him, which is not a sinful or immoral thing, and I will cover his harmless lapse”?

(A father and son in the woods are running from a bear. The father says, “Son, it’s no use; he’s faster than us.” The son says, “I don’t have to run faster than the bear; I just have to run faster than you!”)

God’s Word says, “You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother. And if he does not live near you and you do not know who he is … it shall stay with you until your brother seeks it” (Deuteronomy 22:1-2).

“You mean I have to love my brother that much?” you ask. “His wandering ox and misplaced cart are his mistake but I must cover for him?” Indeed. “Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12).