The Coverup

“If we say we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if you do sin, there is someone to plead for you before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who pleases God completely. He is the sacrifice for our sins. He takes away not only our sins but the sins of all the world”
(1 John 1:8-2:2 NLT).

To say newspaper sales in Chowchilla, CA were brisk on February 23 of this year would be an understatement. According to a news report, a man named Jack William Pacheco went around town buying up every copy he could find of The Chowchilla News.

Why the run on newspapers? Mr. Pacheco was not looking for coupons to clip. He was not buying them in hopes of them one day being collectors-items worth a fortune. Jack Pacheco was emptying the newspaper racks in an effort to conceal his arrest on drug charges, which was recorded on the front page headlines, complete with his photograph in living color.

So he filled his garage with the 500-600 copies he bought around town at $.50 per copy, thinking he could keep it all quiet, only to find out that the newspaper publishers printed 500 extra copies since sales were so good.

Go ahead and laugh. Who would possibly go to such lengths to cover their mistakes and save face? But as we laugh, let’s be honest about the times we have tried to cover our sins, hoping no one would find out what we have been up to.

As with political scandals, where the cover-up is often worse than the original crime, so it is with our “spiritual” maneuvering designed to obscure our missteps. When we try to act innocent by covering our sin, we are in effect, calling God a liar.

Thank God for Jesus, who takes away our sins.

— Bob Clark

10/11/05