Holy Fool

“Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us….’
    
    So God created human beings in his own image.
    In the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.”

(Genesis 1:26 ed. & 1:27, NLT)

Unless we are a hermit living on a remote mountain peak, or perhaps deep in the desert; chances are we have any number of relationships with other human beings.  Whether it be work, school, friendship, maybe a love interest.  We interact with other human beings every day.  During the course of those interactions we have all kinds of choices in how we are going to handle ourselves.  Do we make a joke?  Do we laugh at the other person’s attempt at a joke?  Do we greet someone with a wave, or a handshake; maybe even a hug or kiss?  Do we help them with their project? If the other person says something distasteful or hurtful do we retaliate with words or thoughts of unkindness?  If they are threatening do we strike out, hoping to wound them more than they wound us?  Do we harbor a jealous thought and try to undermine their success in the workplace or in society?

So, given all of these ways by which we engage in relationship, what does it mean to be created in the image of God, how does that shape our responses?  Even more, how should we relate to other human beings knowing that they too have upon them the stamp of God’s handiwork, the imago Dei?

When we consider the creation account of humanity we find that in our earliest essence we have been set aside as something special within God’s creation.  Rob Bell points out, “We have a spiritual dimension to us that animal’s don’t have. Some call this consciousness, others an awareness of ‘more’, others call it transcendence.”1 We are at a level that is higher than the animals of this earth.  We are more than physical beings.  Racism and oppression are often justified through a mythology of soullessness, if we let ourselves believe that a fellow human has no soul then we are no longer bound to treat them humanely or with justice.  This inability or unwillingness to see God’s image on all of humanity was evidenced in the holocaust, and Rwanda; Cambodia and the former Yugoslavia.

You may protest though, “I have not committed an act of genocide, or racism, or slavery!”  And yet, there are many ways in which we refuse to allow ourselves to see the image of God upon our fellow humankind.  When we enter into judgment of another, so as to justify our own righteousness we have made the other person into an animal, a being of lesser worth.  Jesus once said, “if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment!” (Matt. 5:22)  Regardless of what another person has done, they are still bearers of the image of God, in which they have been created.  If God has decreed from the dawn of creation that humanity is his sacred trust, beings of infinite worth and beauty, for which he suffered and died to give life, who are we to contradict or usurp his will so as to pronounce a sentence of death?  When we take the life of another human being in our own judgment, whether in actuality or metaphorically through slander or oppression, we are equally guilty of having denied the other person their right as the image bearer of God.

Rather than judgment, our default position to others should be one of love.  As Greg Boyd notes:

Love is the central command in Scripture and judgment the central prohibition.  Indeed, judgment is the “original sin” in Scripture.  This is why the forbidden tree in the center of the garden–the prohibition around which life in the garden revolved–was called the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.”2

As Christian’s we are not to be known as the great judgers of humanity, rather as the great lovers of humanity.  We are to be as passionate about humanity as Jesus ever was. By looking for the image of God upon our fellow humans it can’t help but make us rethink our interactions.  There is nothing we can do that will cause God’s love to stop for us, and nothing that will cause him to remove from us his likeness.  Can we willingly judge another as less than human, or less worthy of life, or worse than ourselves, knowing that in their face we are seeing a reflection of God’s love for all mankind?

The way of the peacemaker, of the lover of humanity, is the most dangerous one of all.  Rather than using violence to protect our rights, we must not be afraid of loosing everything, including our right to live, to shine Christ’s light on the heart of our murderers and to reveal God’s mercy for all men.  Our calling is no less dangerous than that of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross.  We must love recklessly those that would kill us; knowing that Justice, and salvation are God’s alone.

1 Bell, Rob. 2007. Sex God. Zondervan. Grand Rapids, MI. p 57

2 Boyd, Greg. 2004. Repenting of Religion. Baker Books. Grand Rapids, MI. p 9