Thought for Today
Genesis 1:27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Psalm 8:5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.
Ephesians 4:22 You were taught . . . 24 to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
What exactly does it mean to be made in the image or likeness of God? Looking at the Greek and Hebrew of the earliest texts doesn’t offer much help. There is nothing in the particular words used, the grammar or the construction to offer much insight into just what the image of God or the likeness of God might be. At best we are left to look around us for clues. However, when I do so, I see an amazing variety of sizes, shapes, and colors displayed in humankind.
Just to make things more interesting, scripture also offers us the experience of Moses. “Exodus 33:18 Moses said, "Show me your glory, I pray." 19 And he said, ‘I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the name, “The Lord”; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. 20 But,’ he said, ‘you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.’" For Moses to see God, God had to put Moses in the cleft (Rock of Ages) and then cover Moses with God’s hand for Moses to survive God’s presence.
Obviously, since I can look around me at humankind and survive, being made in the image of God must mean something more than physical visage. The Greek word in Genesis 1:27 is the common noun for an image or likeness, for an artistic representation. Maybe the idea was that, like us, God is bipedal, symmetric around a vertical axis? Or, is the idea totally divorced from physical likeness and imagery? Somehow, this seems much more likely to me. Somehow, the idea that God’s scalp could somehow get sunburned like mine did yesterday seems inappropriate and almost blasphemous. The idea that God’s hair would be as thin as mine now is seems even more inappropriate and blasphemous. In any case, if the idea were about physical imagery, we would be left with trying to decide whether God is right or left-handed, tall or short, thin and stout, etc.
So, what do those words in the Bible about image and likeness really mean; and, how does that relate to the words of the psalmist? Do they imply something about cognitive ability, about our capacity for rational thinking? If so, why do some have a higher IQ than others. If our being created in the image of God is solely about our capacity for data manipulation or interpretation, that would seem to imply we are all equally intelligent. Obviously, we are not.
Ultimately, we are not capable of fully comprehending our Creator God. In seminary, I learned about Gotfried Leibniz and his realization that we are incapable of reconciling the idea of an omnipotent God, a loving God and the existence of evil. How can humans, being created in the image of God, do evil things? Yet evil exists; evil is pernicious; evil is persistent and evil is seductive.
How can humans, created in the image of God, conduct warfare? Jesus told us, “Matthew 24:6 you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet.” We see wars in multiple locales right now. We hear rumors of potential wars right now. Warring is not indicative of humankind being created in the emotional image of God.
The psalmist asks God, ”8:4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?” The answer seems to be, we are those made in the image of God, those “made them a little lower than God, and crowned . . . with glory and honor.”
Maybe the answer to image and likeness rests in our ability to love and our capacity to love somehow coupled with our free will. I also learned in seminary that God can do anything except not be God. God represents the ultimate expression of free will. God created humankind as a expression of God’s love. God granted us the capacity to love, to love freely and fully just as God loves. Maybe the song is right, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love/It's the only thing, that there's just too little of/What the world needs now is love, sweet love,/No, not just for some, but for everyone.”
Stay safe, love, trust God,
Pastor Ray