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The Image of
God I’d like to begin this morning by saying something about the context of this passage. As a conquered people, the Jews were heavily taxed by the Romans. It is estimated that the total tax burden for the average Jewish person under Roman authority was as high as 40% of their income. These taxes were hated by the Jews not least because they were used to finance the cost of the Roman army of occupation. There was for example one tax called a poll tax or tribute which amounted to one denarius which was the exact amount each Roman soldier was paid per day while stationed in Palestine. This tax was the most hated of all because it was a shameful reminder that the Jews were an enslaved people. Thus it was that taxes were an extremely unpopular and politically sensitive subject in Jesus’ day. The question that the Jews were grappling with was whether or not they should pay in particular the Roman poll tax. Jesus was between a rock and a hard place. If Jesus said they should not pay the tax he would be in trouble with the Romans, but if he said yes they should pay them he would be in trouble with the Jews. It was a carefully laid and somewhat sinister trap. However, Jesus cleverly escapes their wiley trap by asking another question: “Whose picture and title are stamped on this coin?” Caesar’s they replied. “Well then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what belongs to God.” It’s a very smart reply because it can be understood on a number of levels. If you think about it, what doesn’t belong to God? In actual fact nothing of any value truly belongs to Caesar since everything we have that is good and valuable comes from God our Creator. What a liberating thought for the Jewish people! They are hardly giving Caesar anything at all! Well done Jesus. Jesus’ point is that whoever’s face in on the Roman coin owns the coin. Given that the coin bore the image of Caesar, it belonged to Caesar and so should be given back to Caesar. Likewise, we learn from Scripture in Genesis 1: 26 that humans were created in the image of God. Thus God’s image is upon us and so we belong to God and so we give ourselves to God. Let’s try a little exercise here. Those who are related please stand up. Can you see any resemblances in these people who are related to each other? Are there similar mannerisms? Is there a look, a feature, a tone of voice or a turn of phrase that draws our attention to the relationship between these two people? Often we hear said that he or she is the ‘spitting image’ of his father or her mother. The biblical statement that humans have been made in the image of God is also one that most of us have frequently heard referred to. In fact there is a whole body of theological thinking around this idea which is called imago Dei. But
what does it means? Image" (tselem) and "likeness" (demut) in the Hebrew "refer to something that is similar but not identical to the thing that it represents or is the 'image' of. We have already said that Genesis teaches us that we are made in the image of God and 1Corinthians11:7 affirms this. However, nowhere does the Bible define explicitly what it means that humanity is made in the image of God. Clearly it cannot mean that we are God or even that we look like God in all God’s magnificence and power. Rather I think it means that there is something in each of us that is reminiscent of God. We have inherited some of the qualities of our Creator as a child inherits the qualities of a parent. It is as though God’s Holy Spirit breathes through us reminding those around us of the parent-God who created us. Jesus’ response to the spies recalls Genesis and so reminds us that we have been made in the image of God our true parent. This means that there should be in our mannerisms, characteristics, behaviours, something that reminds others of God, draws their attention to God. ‘Created in the image of God’ means that we are similar to God and represent God here on earth. Genesis 1:26, "would have meant to the original readers, 'Let us make man to be like us and to represent us.' What are you doing when you represent someone at a meeting or when you represent your country in a some kind of a team. You reflect in essence their thoughts views values and abilities. This is what we are called to do for God. Jesus is pragmatic. He expects us to render to Caesar, to live this temporal, physical life. He expects us to live in the world, to pay our taxes, do our washing, educate our children and do the shopping. These are the things of Caesar. They become the things of God when they are done in God honouring ways. The issue is how we do things, how we live this life, how we allow God’s Spirit to breathe through us so that everything we do, who we are, what we say and how we tackle life reminds those around us of God’s nature. The choice does not lie in whether or not we pay our taxes, rather it’s how we pay them – with scrupulous honesty. It’s not whether we fall in love and marry, it’s how faithful and loving and caring we are in our marriages. It’s not whether or not we spend our money, it’s how we share the resources we have with others, how generous we are, how careful we are with the resources we consume or dispose of. All our decisions, behaviours and choices should reflect the God who created us and in whose image we have been made. Simply put, the God in whose image we have been made is faithful, truthful, generous, unconditionally loving and a creative force for good. We God’s Church are called to represent that God and to reflect who God is to the world. So Let us examine ourselves: are we faithful, truthful, generous, unconditionally loving and a creative force for good? Our relationship with our fellow human beings is a form in which our relationship to God realises itself. We show our likeness to God by means of our love for others. See 1 John 4:20: Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. All we do, say and decide, should remind the world of our parentage. We are the children of the Great Creator, Redeemer and Giver of life. How does this truth translate into how we live and act and think? This week is the last week in Lent before Holy Week. I would like to issue you with a challenge. Would you reflect as you journey through the week, how you are imaging God in the way you are living your life. Perhaps you might note down on a bit of paper those occasions when you find yourself offering the world a faith representation of who God is. On a practical level, I would be especially honoured if you find an occasion or situation where you feel good about the way you represented God and you felt you could share it with me by way of a quick email or phone call. This would be an encouragement to us both. We could modify the old maxim and say, not that Practice makes perfect, but rather that practice makes us better in our search for ways to represent the God in whose image we have been created and so bring glory and honour to his name. |
