↓Audio link to the sermon:
(If you can’t listen on your iPhone, please update your iOS)
When people meet my daughters, they say, “She looks just like Dad!” or “Looks just like Mum!”
I’m sure many of you have been told that you look like one of your parents or siblings. However, don’t you think it would be a great compliment if someone said, “You really remind me of Jesus”? Because, that is one goal of the Christian—to be like Christ Jesus. And since we believe Jesus is the Son of God, it implies that our goal is to resemble God, to reflect his image.
This is my topic for today, the idea that “We are made in God’s image.” Let’s continue reading from the Gospel of Mark, then think about this idea of God’s image. First, let’s pray.
[Read Mark 12:13-17]
Image of Caesar, image of God
In this story, Jewish leaders tried to trap Jesus with the question “Should we pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
If Jesus said “yes,” he would lose popularity with the common people, who resented their Roman conquerors. If Jesus said “no,” then the religious leaders could complain to the Roman government about him being a rebel. Either way, it would be easier for them to get him arrested.
Jesus answered by pointing to a Roman coin and asking, “Whose image is this?” The coin had a picture of Tiberius Caesar, and he said, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” In other words, since the coin carries the image of Caesar, it rightfully belongs to Caesar. Therefore, those living under the Roman government should pay taxes. However, Jesus also affirmed that it is God—the creator and king of the universe—who deserves our worship, not a human emperor.
Sermons about this passage in Mark often answer the question “What kind of attitude Christians should have towards the government?” But today, I’d like to focus on a different questions: “What does it mean to have the image of God?”
We are made in God’s image
The very beginning of the Bible tells us that we are made in God’s image. Let’s read Genesis 1:26-27:
“Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
So what does it mean to be made in God’s image? I would like to suggest 5 answers or 5 points. It means,
- To be in God’s family
- To be like God, similar to God
- To care for the Earth
- To have value and dignity, equal to all humans
- To belong to God
Let me elaborate on these 5 points and, finally, suggest how we can become more like God.
1) To be in God’s family
Point number one: We were originally created to be part of God’s family.
Being made in God’s image means we have a family relationship with him. Jesus says we can call God “our Father in heaven.” It means we are not alone. We have a good father who takes care of his children well.
2) To be like God
Point number two: We were originally created to be like God, similar to God.
Just as we may resemble our parents or siblings, we are meant to resemble God’s characteristics. For example, one of his characteristics is that he is a creator. God’s creativeness is in us. Like him, we desire to make things that are good, beautiful, useful, ingenious, and so on.
3) To care for the Earth
Point number three: We were given the mission of caring for God’s creation—the Earth and everything in it.
In Genesis, God gave humans the role of “ruling” the earth. Here, the word “rule” doesn’t just mean having power over others; it implies caring for and nurturing the world that God entrusted to us. We do not own this world. We are just stewards looking after what belongs to God.
4) To have value and dignity
Part of looking after the Earth is to love the people of the Earth. Because we all carry the image of God, every human being has value and dignity. That’s point number four. We have equal value in God’s eyes—no matter our gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, economic status, and nationality.
Ancient religions in the land of the Bible and surrounding areas said that kings and rulers bear the image of the gods—not ordinary people like you and me. The idea that all human beings carry God’s image and have equal value arguably comes from the teachings of the Bible. It is a concept that forms the basis for the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in the 19th century observed that many European thinkers rejected Christianity but still believed in human rights. In other words, despite not being Christians they continued adopting ethics unique to the Christian faith.
The concept of doing good to each other is, of course, not only found in Christianity. But Christians’ reason and motivation for doing good is unique. We love because God first loved us. He loves us because his nature is love and he values us. These ideas are not found in the original teachings of the world’s major religions.
5) We belong to God
Lastly, number five: Being made in God’s image means that we belong to God.
Jesus said, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” Since we bear his image, we belong to him. We give money to the government, but to God we give our entire life—living in a way that pleases Him.
One way we can give ourselves to God is to let him shape our character to become more like him.
God wants to transform us to look more like him
When Adam—the first human being—disobeyed God, Adam’s resemblance to God was damaged. Humankind used to reflect the beautiful image of God, but now we are like broken mirrors. We don’t fully reflect the goodness and glory of God, only part of Him. That is why a person can be both good and evil. That is why our world has so much goodness and still so much war, poverty, and abuse.
Jesus came to show us, in human form, what God looks like. Unlike Adam, he obeyed his Father—even to the point of death. That is why Jesus is the perfect, untarnished image of God (Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3), the only one capable of truly reflecting what God is like. He said to his disciples, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
As disciples of Jesus, we seek to imitate Jesus and therefore reflect the image of God. As Jesus brought healing, peace, love, and reconciliation, we are called to do the same.
How can we do that? Firstly, we must ask Jesus to be our Savior and Lord. We cannot be disciples of Jesus and imitate him without also accepting all his claims. He claimed to be the Son of God who suffered the penalty for our sins on our behalf. When we accept Jesus as our Savior and Lord, the Spirit of God comes to live in us and begins to transform us.
Second, we should be in a community of fellow disciples. We cannot be disciples of Jesus all by ourselves. We were designed to live in community—helping and being helped. Even God is not alone. God is one, but exists in a community of three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The church is one form of community. Here, God gives us his grace to grow in our walk with him by nourishing us spiritually through the preaching of his Word and the sacrament of Holy Communion. We find opportunities to help and be helped. Church reminds us about who God is and who we want to be.
Third, we should listen to God and talk with him throughout the week, not just on Sundays. We have spiritual exercises that help us grow in the image of God. They include not only Scripture reading and prayer, but also solitude, rest, service, generosity, and fasting from the things we are addicted to.
Spiritual habits are essential for growing in the image of God
Last month, Park-sensei challenged us to spend a week or month reading the Bible often. As a teacher of Korean language, he sees that students who only study Korean or English once or twice a month won’t improve much, even after a few years. In contrast, the serious student who studies daily grows significantly. The same is true about our faith.
It is like any sport. In judo, I have to practice uchikomi (打ち込み), a movement that helps me throw opponents. Sometimes my teachers ask me to practice uchikomi up to hundreds of times in one session. It’s quite boring. But the teachers say: if you don’t practice uchikomi, you won’t do well at sparring (乱取り) or tournaments. I only practice twice a week, and that is why my level is still so low. In contrast, high school students who are much thinner and lighter than me but practice several times a week have always defeated me in tournaments.
Thankfully, our spiritual exercises are not as boring as uchikomi. But after many years, it’s normal to lose your passion for faithfully reading the Bible and praying. Still, these routines are necessary to form our character into the image of God.
And let’s remember that habits do not change us immediately but over a long period of time. Transformation takes perseverance, or as the well-known American pastor Eugene Peterson would say, transformation involves, “a long obedience in the same direction.” So, do not be easily discouraged if you don’t see change. Just as muscles take months and years to grow with sufficient exercise and good nutrition, growing to be more like Jesus is a slow process.
Spiritual habits like Bible reading alone cannot transform us. But practicing these habits gives the Holy Spirit an opportunity to transform us. If we don’t read the Bible and we only fill our minds with TV, social media, news, games, and shopping, then how will we ever change?
Conclusion
Let’s ask ourselves: Do we really want to be like Jesus? Do we want to reflect the image of God so that our family, friends, colleagues, students, or customers can see a glimpse of Jesus and want to know him?
I’ll end by updating you about the old man who lives near my daughter’s kindergarten. I shared about him last month: He often scolds people walking near the school, saying, “Walk on the right side of the road!” I was very annoyed by him and kept thinking about how to answer him.
One time, as he walked towards me, I gave him a hard, fierce stare. For once, he cast his eyes down and kept quiet. I felt SO satisfied that I found a way to communicate that his behavior is not OK. But I also realized that I didn’t have any compassion for him.
Later, each time I passed by his house, I prayed to God, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” I prayed, “I don’t know what it is like to be this old man, but it seems like he’s unhappy. Please have mercy on him.” The more I prayed, the more my hatred faded. Perhaps that was the Holy Spirit’s work in my heart, changing me as I kept praying.
Let us give our hearts to God so that he might change us and, one tiny bit at a time, change the world.
Let’s pray:
O God, whose blessed Son came into the world that he might destroy the works of the devil and make us children of God and heirs of eternal life: Grant that, having this hope, we may purify ourselves as he is pure; that, when he comes again with power and great glory, we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom; where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
(If you can’t hear from the bar above, click the blue button)
iPhone
日本語