Moses Unveiled
Evangelical Veil Production
Pick one up now at quite a reduction!
Got all kinds of shapes and sizes,
Introductory bonus prizes!
Special quality one-way see-through
(You can see them but they can’t see you).
Never have to show yourself again.
Just released a Moses model.
Comes with shine in a plastic bottle.
Makes you look like you’ve just seen the Lord!
Just one daily application,
And you’ll fool the congregation.
Guaranteed to last the whole week long.
John Fischer, “Evangelical Veil
Productions”
Moses
came down from Sinai and placed a veil over his face to shield his audience
from its radiant beauty,[1]
or so it would appear (Exodus 34:28–35).
Paul, however, had another take, something
not readily apparent from the Old Testament story. Moses veiled his face, “so that
the children of Israel could not look to the end of that which was
fading away” (2 Corinthians 3”13). The beauty on Moses face had faded away, but
God’s servant kept up the charade.
I
can’t be too hard on Moses, however, for at times we all pretend to be more beautiful
than we are. We hide behind a façade of performance and perfection.
But no one can keep up the pretense forever. Some unsightly emotional display, some inappropriate reaction, some humiliating behavior strips us of our facade and we’re found out. Others come to know what we’ve known all along: that parts of us are still ugly and contemptible.
At
that moment of brokenness, we can hide our shame, or we can be touched at the deepest
heart–level by God’s amazing grace and remember that we are God’s beloved children,
despite the fact that we are not yet fully converted. Then, living “in and out
of the truth of our belovedness” (Buechner), we can stand unveiled before others
and before God, unadorned by pretense and hypocrisy. We can be who we are with
all our imperfection apparent for all to see instead of being the sham
Christians we loathed before.
And
we can ask our Lord every day to complete the work he has begun: to transform
us into the image of his Son, “from one measure of beauty to the next” (2
Corinthians 3:18). We can rest in the assurance that he will do so gradually (but
inexorably) until we reach heaven and home and see the radiance of Jesus’ face.
Then our dreams of perfection will become reality; we will be like him in every
conceivable way (1 John 3:2).
DHR
[1]
I have long believed that “beauty” is the best translation
of the Greek word doksan (glory). Our
English word “glory” suggests “fame” or “something shiny” and misses the
meaning of the original idea.