Special Six-Week Series:
Suffocating the Imago Dei
by, Jarrett Meek, Founder/Pastor/Executive Director
Shining In George Floyd’s eyes, as he struggled beneath the suffocating knee of an officer of the law, was the image of God. God’s eyes shined in George’s eyes, God’s heartbeat in George’s heart, God’s breath moved in George’s breath- until George’s life was extinguished.
Amaud Arbery ran because he loved to run. He ran on legs, with lungs, with a heart given to him by his Creator. Two white men chased him down in their pickup truck with guns. Confrontation, struggle, shotgun. The Imago Dei bled out in broad daylight on a Georgia street.
Breonna Taylor slept, safe in her own apartment. Rest is built into the fabric of creation, because our Creator worked six days and then rested. Day turns to night, summer turns to winter, and Breonna Taylor, even as she rested, displayed something of the image of God- until officers, in careless disregard, broke in and shot her to death- by mistake.
“The whole concept of the imago Dei, as it is expressed in Latin, the ‘image of God,’ is the idea that all men have something within them that God injected. Not that they have substantial unity with God, but that every man has a capacity to have fellowship with God. And this gives him a uniqueness, it gives him worth, it gives him dignity. And we must never forget this as a nation: there are not gradations in the image of God… We will know one day that God made us to live together as brothers and to respect the dignity and worth of every man.” - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” - Genesis 1:27
So much of Christian theology is established in the first three chapters of Genesis. Who is God? Who are humans? Any serious study of the doctrine of mankind includes the concept of Imago Dei. Like so many other core Christian doctrines, the foundation that is laid in Genesis is then expanded and applied in the rest of scripture. When Jesus connects the two Greatest Commandments, He is saying that loving God and loving neighbor are inseparably intertwined. If you don’t love your neighbor, who you can see, how can you possibly love God, whom you cannot? You see, our neighbor is stamped with the Imago Dei. When Jesus says “whenever you’ve done it to the least of these, you’ve done it to me”, He is challenging us to see the Imago Dei in our brothers and sisters and act accordingly toward them. Likewise, if we ignore or minimize our brothers’ suffering, we ignore and minimize the suffering of Jesus. The doctrine of the Imago Dei places a unique and immense value on the life of every human being. Racism strips a life of this value. It is not only an affront to our neighbor, but it is an affront to the God whose image He bears.
Weeping, gut-wrenching pain, hearts ripped into a million shreds, black hearts bearing the burden of centuries of injustice and oppression in the land of the free. Cold, white knuckles grasping power, defending the indefensible, excusing the inexcusable, elevating ideology to justify the unjustifiable. Heaping scorn on people protesting oppression from a comfortable place of privilege. Smoke-screen arguments, intentionally misunderstanding issues to uphold agendas. Ideologies of white supremacy permeating churches and institutions- insidious, clandestine, unrecognized by those who reap its reward. Is the White, Evangelical Church really still on the wrong side of racial justice? Latino brothers and sisters- where are you? You receive racism, do you also inflict it on others? Refugee friends- will you receive mercy one day and judge your neighbor without it the next?
Let me ask you where you stand. WHERE DO YOU STAND? As for me and my house, we will repent of the hidden sin in our own hearts. As for me and my house, we will choose to see and value the image of God in each person. As for me and my house, we will plant our feet firmly in solidarity with our black brothers and sisters and join them in the cry for justice. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Over the next six weeks, we will dedicate our Adelante Express to exploring themes related to the concept of the Imago Dei and racial justice. We invite you to follow this series and explore what it means to love our neighbor and see the image of God in them.
