Above: Detail from The Creation of Adam, by Michelangelo Buonarroti
Image in the Public Domain
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Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:
Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,
that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of life,
which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236
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Genesis 1:26-2:3
Psalm 24
1 John 4:1-21
John 1:14-18
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Genesis 1:26f tells us that human beings bear the image of God. This is not a physical description. No, the meaning of of “image of God” is profound.
Dr. Richard Elliott Friedman, a Jewish scholar of the Bible, tells us:
Whatever it means, though, it implies that humans are understood here to share in the divine in a way that a lion or cow does not….The paradox, inherent in the divine-human relationship, is that only humans have some element of the divine, and only humans would, by their very nature, aspier to the divine, yet God regularly communicates with them means of commands. Although made in the image of God, they remain subordinates. In biblical terms, that would not bother a camel or a dove. It would bother humans a great deal.
—Commentary on the Torah, with a New English Translation and the Hebrew Text (2001), 12
The commandment to do love to each other, especially the vulnerable and the marginalized, has long been a controversial order. That this has been and remains so speaks ill of people.
Dr. Robert D. Miller, II, a professor at The Catholic University of America, and a translator of The New American Bible–Revised Edition (2011), adds more to a consideration to the image of God. The Hebrew word of “image” is tselem. It literally means “idol.”
When Genesis 1 says that humanity is the tselem of God, it’s saying if you want to relate to God, relate to your fellow man?
—Understanding the Old Testament–Course Guidebook (Chantilly, VA: The Great Courses, 2019), 9
Biblical authors from a wide span of time hit us over the head, so to speak, with this message. If we do not understand it yet, we must be either dense or willfully ignorant.
John 1 offers us the flip side of Genesis 1: The Second Person of the Trinity outwardly resembles us. Moreover, as one adds other parts of the New Testament, one gets into how Jesus, tempted yet without sin, can identify with us and help us better because of experiences as Jesus of Nazareth, in the flesh. The theology of the Incarnation, with Jesus being fully human and fully divine, is profound and mysterious. I know the history of Christian theology well enough to understand that Trinitarian heresies originated with attempts to explain the Trinity rationally. I prefer to relish the mystery of the Trinity.
We bear the intangible image of God. Jesus bore the physical image of human beings. We reach out for God, who reaches out to us. These are thoughts worthy of every day of the year, but especially during Advent and Christmas.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
DECEMBER 25, 2020 COMMON ERA
CHRISTMAS DAY
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Adapted from this post:
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BLOGA THEOLOGICA 
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