Image Is Everything
February 1, 2009
INTERFAITH RELATIONS – William G. Gepford, American-Arab Relations
“Image Is Everything”
We now live in an age of “imaging.” We no longer take X-rays, we do imaging to determine what is “going on inside.”
In many hospitals, the X-ray room is now called the “magnetic resolution imaging” (MRI) section! And digital Cameras are catalogued according to their “imaging” ability, meaning their ability to take sharper and more inclusive pictures of the world “outside.”
The Bible, also, is constantly presenting us with images that often escape our understanding. Jesus said, “(one) who has eyes to see, let (them) see,” meaning that you may have physically seen one thing, but did not catch the deeper spiritual meaning, or image.
In Mark 12, there is the story of the silver coin. When asked by several religious leaders this question, “Give us your ruling on this: Are or are we not permitted to pay taxes to the Roman Emperor,” Jesus said, “Show me a silver coin.” When one was produced for him he asked them: “Whose image (that word again!) is on this coin, and who’s inscription?”
The man who had challenged him answered, “Caesar’s!” Jesus replied, “So give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” The answer made them more perplexed, depending on what they thought they saw. But for two thousand years, Christians have argued over what the answer meant.
What is Caesar’s and what is God’s? Are there two different spheres of life, one ruled by Caesar and one by God? Should we submit to Caesar’s authority in the “material” world, while adhering to God’s in the “spiritual” world? How do we discern the boundary?
As they surely would have known, since all humans are created equal in the “image of God,” the image on the coin was that of God’s. In this interpretation, the claim of the Divine Ruler (God) to rule over an emperor includes the political realm. Because God rules over all rulers, and because God calls forth from every human being a unique face of God, therefore each human being must follow God – not Caesar.
When we suggest that our particular image (language, culture, food, clothing, etc.) should be uniform for all, we are rejecting cultures that are unique, diverse, precisely because they carry God’s infinite image. This is what Jesus was trying to say. Later, at Pentecost, we learn that every spiritual revelation is unique (Acts 2) and we should listen far more closely to each other’s wisdom. Each is the face, image, of God that is different and diverse.
On the positive side, every interfaith gathering, to the extent of its inclusiveness, is a reflection of the diversity of God. And on the negative side, for example, if we torture the image of God, do we make ourselves into images of Caesar?
Image, in the last analysis, just might be everything!
