There Is Room For All Of Us Under The Cloak

“And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.” (Matthew 5:40). Cloaks are used to protect us and cover us and warm us and keep out the cold and the rain and the wind. Cloaks also help to conceal and hide. In the Parable of the prodigal son, the prodigal son took much more from his father than his coat. But what did the father do? He put shoes on his feet and a ring on his finger and the finest robe on his back. He gave much, much more than a cloak. When Joseph’s brothers took his coat and then sold him into Egypt, Joseph put his cloak around them by inviting them to live with him and eat of his bread during the famine. When someone takes away our coat, we’ve got two choices. We can hold onto our anger and resentment and every time we see that person, all we will see is the person who took away our coat. Or, we can choose to wrap them up in the cloak of our love and forgiveness. Now it is no longer us and the coat-stealers, but us and our brothers and sisters, sharing a cloak of forgiveness, which keeps the warmth in and the cold and the distrust and the resentment out. Now when we look at them wearing the nice cloak of forgiveness that we gave them, we can’t see all of the ways that they wronged us. Like a cloak of invisibility, the forgiveness that we offer, the pure love of Christ which we so selflessly embody when we choose to let go of the anger from our coat being stolen, that “charity shall cover a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). We all take it too far and let things get out of hand and become so invested in proving that we are in the right and they are in the wrong that we are willing to sue our own brothers and sisters at the law and take away their coats. But though we are dripping with a multitude of sins, though we have taken not only the coat but the skin off the back of our Savior Jesus Christ, He nonetheless covers us in His love and charity, gives us His cloak of forgiveness, wraps us up in the power of His Atonement and clothes us in His robes of righteousness and crowns us with His glory when we choose not only to repent for our own mistakes but more importantly to forgive our fellow sinners for their mistakes. There is room for all of us under the cloak.