Matthew 22:36–40
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
It’s no accident that Jesus put these two commandments together, especially as we begin to understand the Imago Dei (Image of God) that He has woven into our essence. In order to fully love God, we have to love what He loves. How can we say we love God but not see His handiwork in His creation? It’s impossible.
The more you capture an idea of who God is, His heart for humans, what He has done to redeem humanity, and the provisions He makes for this sinful race, you can’t help but love Him more.
Over the past couple of weeks we have seen that God created humanity, both male and female, in His image. That means there is intrinsically something special, something powerful, something beautiful in every human life. We have seen that the Fall, when sin entered the world, did mar the Image, but it did not remove it. God’s plan to create image bearers was not thwarted, but sin brought the need for redemption and reconciliation to fully experience the Image of God as He intended.
Jesus Christ came to be that perfect, exact representation of God to this world. His perfect life, sacrifice and resurrection provided the very means we desperately need to restore the image of God in us. Only in following Jesus Christ will we truly experience the abundant life (John 10:10) as Image Bearers.
The Imago Dei is in you, you are the result of a special work by God (Psalm 139:13-16). The image of God in each of us gives us our identity and brings value to our work.
Tonight we are looking at the image of God in others. This is what Jesus was driving at in Matthew 22. A right relationship with God results in a love for others. A good biblical term for it is, fruit. When deeply rooted in the love of God, your life will bear the fruit of love for your neighbor, or fellow human.
Apart from God, the sinful bent of mankind is to dehumanize and demonize others. Think of the hostility between local schools in the same community, where the competition drives them to disliking and even desiring to harm the opponents. We see this in sports and business. Then we get to extremes seen in tribalism and racism.
Inherent within us is the knowledge of right and wrong, and Romans 1 tells us that the sinful nature suppresses the knowledge of God and believes a lie. When we think back to the atrocities that have happened in our country regarding slavery, we see a particularly demonic agenda where image bearers of God were dehumanized and treated as less than human.
This campaign of American slavery dehumanized an entire ethnic group of people and rip their God-given dignity away from them. It was a dark and demonic movement, and we are still suffering from the sins of our nation’s founders today.
God’s desire for us is to see the beauty of His image in others. When we see someone different than us, it is to be celebrated, not demonized. An artist doesn’t create a masterpiece with one color, she uses a palette of colors. God has created a beautiful diversity in His image bearers, who all equally reflect His fingerprints.
It is the love for Christ that allows Christians to truly see the Imago Dei in others and drives them to spread the Gospel to the world. It drove Paul to travel most of the known world in the first century to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ.
We can be agents of the Gospel by loving others and treating them with the dignity of an image bearer of God. In this Covid-19 era, we are confronted with the importance of community and appropriate human contact due to shut-downs and social distancing. Isolation and loneliness are a breeding ground for depression and anxiety.
The simplest touch changes things. A handshake or a hug is more powerful than you can imagine.
I learned this several years ago when I was in Kenya. As we all know, HIV/AIDS has hit Africa hard. In the area we visited, they treated AIDS victims like they treated lepers in biblical times. Viewed as unclean and contagious, people are isolated, neglected and left to die. Even family members keep their distance. It is sad to witness how this poor treatment affects those afflicted.
I saw this first hand when we went to visit Eunice, a young lady with full blown AIDS. Eunice lived with her mom in Marthare slums of Kenya, just outside of Nairobi. Eunice’s case of AIDS was in the advanced stages when we stopped in to check on her. When I entered the shanty, I saw shocked by what I encountered.
Before me lay a 20 year old girl withering away on a thin mat on the dirt floor. AIDS had taken her sight, most of her hearing. Her body had wasted away to all but skin and bones. Breathing was labored.
Dave, our missionary leader, shared the Gospel with her and asked me to pray for her. I knelt down beside her and reached out to grab her hand. When my hand met hers, it was if her whole body jumped with a start, surprised at human contact. But then a sigh, followed by her frame relaxing from the comfort. I prayed and we departed.
As we left, Dave said that was probably the first time she had been touched by another human since contracting AIDS. Forever I will remember Eunice and that moment when dignity was restored to her by a simple touch. She died less than two weeks later.
The image that comes to mind when I reflect on this story of Eunice is a reminder to me of what Jesus has done for us. We were desperate and sick, skeletal and dying, isolated and wasting away, when He came into our world. He came, not just to hold our hand and pray, but to bring life and healing to us by His Word.
Why would I remember a person I only met once, for just a brief moment, who was dying from AIDS? Because she was an image bearer of God, and I hope and pray that she heard the message of Jesus and is today experience wholeness and life with Him.
Who do you need to treat with the dignity today? How can you help someone feel a little less lonely in this world? How can you see the Image of God in others?
It starts with looking to Jesus and loving Him above all else. The rest will be the fruit of His love flowing through you.
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