Image Part 4: Reclaiming the Image

Jesus gives an interesting answer to an impossible question. When entrapped by the Pharisees and Herodians with the line "Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" Jesus calls for a coin.

This question was intended to sift Jesus, to see whose side He was on, so I'm sure the air was thick with anticipation. One side was going to rejoice that they'd found His weakness. When the coin comes, Jesus focuses solely on the image. Instead of determining whose side He was on, Jesus turns the tide like Maverick putting on the breaks for the MiG to blow by, and it becomes a question of whose side the question-askers were on.

"Whose portrait is this?" Jesus asks. He draws everyone to look at the image on the coin. It is clearly Caesar's. "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's..." and then the most fantastic part "and to God what is God's."

Jesus is reclaiming the broken image. Claiming ownership over all those who would have known the Genesis story by heart. God's image, though broken, was still part of everyone who heard Jesus' voice, and He was making a declaration that they should give themselves back to God.

In effect Jesus is dismissing this thing they have put so much value in. The Herodians with their identity in Rome and government support and protection. The Pharisees with their identity in following the rules and cleanliness. Jesus wants them to shed those false selves. See this coin, it belongs to Caesar, what's the big deal. Give it to him.

The false identities, attempts to cover the broken image, are self effort - products of the old, sinful self. Jesus is not trying to change their behavior here, He is reclaiming their image.

The image of God implies ownership and security. Jesus takes the shame away so we don't have to cover it by proving our own worth. Through Jesus we don't have to worry about Rome (or Washington), our spouses faults, body image, money, popularity, education, church size - we can stop pretending that our value and acceptability comes from those things.

That is freedom. That is rest. That is available only in Christ.

What are you seeking to be freed from?

In what ways do you struggle to let Christ reclaim the image?

Image Part 3: Covering Up the Broken Image

The moment they partook in the fruit that was forbidden by God they realized their nakedness. Everything changed. One moment their greatest worry was finding a new place in the garden to experience the beauty of all God made and the very next moment they realized that they stood naked before one another. That perfect image was broken and the first couple experienced shame.

Their vulnerability was on display and it was overwhelming. As they each looked at the other, instead of security, they were filled with questions and doubt. Shame entered the picture - the fear of not being loved nor accepted - and the result was an uncontrollable urge to make themselves more acceptable to the other.

So they sewed together fig leaves. To cover up their nakedness. The openness in which they lived with each other was now hidden behind a protective layer of chlorophyll. It might as well have been a wall.

New questions must have flew through their mind - Does this person love me? If s/he really knew me, deep down, they would run away. They are just using me. - Trust was in doubt. Instead of oneness, there was fear.

But this was not the end. Far from it - there are footsteps in the garden - God is coming! We must hide. Shame caused Adam and Eve to lose touch with the image. It was broken, and so was their relationship with the Creator

Rather than trust, there was now doubt about God's goodness, doubt about whether He really wanted what was best for them. With the Creator, the realization of nakedness was even worse - fig leaves were not enough - they needed to run away and hide among the trees. To cover their broken image, they hid from the one who created it.

We do the same things. In our relationships, instead of sewing together fig leaves we pursue social status, wear new clothes, are seen with the right people, have the right job, recycle, work out, believe what others do, are overtly sexual, etc. These things cover our shame, we think, and make us acceptable. Creating a barrier so that others will not know the real us, because to do that would open us to not being loved nor accepted. There is less risk with the fig leave. If we are rejected, then either I can fix my leaf or blame it on the inadequacy of the other.

Confronted by God, we run. We ignore. We blame and curse. We question God and his motives and ways. Throwing everything we can between Him and us.

The trees are all around us. Religion looks nice, but it is a forest to cover our nakedness. We create our own standards and truth so that we can make ourselves more acceptable, covering our broken image from our Creator.

The false self we create serves a dual purpose - it is a barrier to others knowing us, and a way to hide from God. In our broken state, the false self is our attempt to fix ourselves. Fig leave and forest.

In your relationships, what are the fig leaves that you struggle to overcome?

How do you mimic Adam and Eve's flight into the woods with God?

Image Part 2: Shattering the Image

Hand crafted in the image of the Creator, experiencing no shame, the man and woman were left to tend the garden God had placed them in. For an unknown amount of time, the two of them lived in this idyllic state. Until the Lie.

A serpent appears on the scene with the ability to talk. Myself, I hate snakes. Since I can never remember if it is "yellow on black, better step back" or "red on black, friend of Jack" or "red on yellow, you're a dead fellow", I just play it safe and avoid them all. Much more so a snake that could talk.

But that bit of wisdom was not available to our happy couple and they engage the crafty serpent in conversation. This serpent is intent on spreading a Lie; God held back on them, He really did not have their best interest at heart and could not be trusted. They were really less valuable then they were going around thinking. There was something they were still lacking if they were going to be complete.

The Lie was that there was something in addition to God that would make them whole.

Sound familiar? The enemy convinced God's image bearers that they were incomplete and not fully acceptable. It is the same Lie that all of us at some point believe. It is the source of our false self and it comes in a million forms. "I am not wanted." "I am not lovable." "God is nowhere to be found." "I am unnoticed." "I am defective." This list could go on and on.

Instead of being met with Truth, the Lie was met with acceptance. Rather than comparing what they heard with God's fixed truth, they verified according to another standard. Looks good. It is edible. It will make us more acceptable. Sin was born.

The image that God so meticulously made a part of Adam and Eve was shattered. It could not remain in tact alongside the violation of God's rule.

We still bear the image, but it is horribly broken. Our attempts to make ourselves more acceptable causes us to lose touch with the image. Consequences that the first couple will see immediately, and we'll look at in the part 3 of the image blogs.

What Lie do you try to satisfy in order to make yourself more acceptable?

Image Part 1: Created in God's Image

As I have been pondering identity and formalizing my thoughts on the topic, I've been drawn back to the beginning. Back to the garden in which God saw that everything He made was good, but looking around something was still missing.

Out of a pile of dust on the ground, God formed man. Still, that was not enough, the creation needed something special, something of more value, something that in the end was going to have him up the ante from good to very good. So, God made man just not another creature, but an image bearer of the Creator Himself.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. - Genesis 1:27

Mankind was created to bear the image of God. It is part of our being and is what makes us human. This image given to Adam and his bride, Eve, gave them the capacity to accomplish their purpose to rule over the creatures and subdue the earth.

It is the image that gives us special value within the creation. How is a human different than a dolphin, cat, hamster or spider? People were crafted in the image of God, while the others were not.

The special gift of God's image also gave special standing in the creation - united with God, having a relationship with Him and serving Him, while at the same time stewarding the creation.

Because of the untarnished image of God, there was perfect identity in God. The man and his wife had a perfect sense of self, their purpose and position, and the source of their value. At the end of the creation account, the last thing we are told about them, the last glimpse that we get of the perfect couple is that they were naked and felt no shame.

Naked not just in form but also in their openness, vulnerability, unity with each other and with God. With the result of this nakedness, this abandonment to absolute truth, was that there was no resulting shame.

Shame is the fear of not being love nor accepted. Adam and Eve felt none between themselves or with God. Intimacy without fear. No fear of rejection. No fear of abandonment. No craving separation.

At this point, there was no doubt about God's love for them. That in the end, God had their best interest as His own.

At this point, there were no barriers to giving or receiving love from the other human. No self-protection. No protective walls. No coping strategies. No shame. Only a perfect sense of self.

No wonder God's assessment was that this was very good.

What are some ways you see God's original goodness in the creation?

How would you expect to respond in a relationship in which there was no shame?