“Law & Order: SPU – Image Makers”
Exodus 20:4-6; John 14:5-14
The late Art Linkletter once saw a small boy drawing a picture. He inquired, “What are you drawing? The boy replied, “A picture of God.” Art told the young boy that no one knows what God looks like, to which the boy responded, “They will when I get through.” Just what does God look like? What is your image of God? How do you picture Him? How does God want to be known? How does He want people to see Him? How does God want us to ‘spin Him?’ The second commandment leads us to focus on God’s image.
Let’s look first at the ROLE OF IMAGE. It almost goes without saying that, especially in our culture, IMAGE IS IMPORTANT. Politicians, athletes, Hollywood stars - many of them hire image makers and spin professionals. Why? To be sure they have a good, acceptable public image. And while we may not hire people to help us, most of us need to admit that we are concerned about our image, about how others see us and think of us.
It is no different with God. GOD, TOO, IS CONCERNED WITH HIS IMAGE, with how others perceive Him. So He lays down the law and stipulates that no images of Him are to be worshipped. We need to understand that this was not a ban on all images. God knew that, as humans, people need help in imaging or seeing the unseen. So when God gave instructions for the setting up the tabernacle and for building the temple He carefully laid out some elaborate images the Israelites were to use. These were to be symbols, or aids, that would point beyond themselves to the reality of some particular aspect or characteristic of God. But they were not God and therefore were not to be worshipped; people were not to bow down to them or put the image itself on a par with God.
Consider just one incident in the life of Israel. In Numbers 21:6-9 we read “They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!" Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us." So Moses prayed for the people. The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.” God gave them a symbol, an image, to focus their attention upon Him. But years later God ordered them to destroy the bronze serpent because the people had begun to worship it rather than God Himself. The image no longer represented God – it became a god and thus a rival to the one true God.
I wear a cross much of the time. It reminds me of who and whose I am, that I belong to the risen, victorious Jesus Christ. That is not a problem – unless I begin to worship the cross itself. If I should forget to put it on one morning, and later that day panic because I do not have it on, it’s become an idol – a serpent gone bad. That’s what God speaks against in this commandment.
In fact, God says HE IS JEALOUS FOR HIS IMAGE – He will not let anyone or anything spoil His image. God loves us so much that He does not want any false image to turn us away from His love. How do you suppose Barb would feel if, in my wallet, I carried a picture of some other woman? Slighted. Angry. Jealous. Why? Because that picture does not point to her – in fact, it would point me and others away from her. That picture is not her image nor would it remind me of her. It would diminish my love for her and her love for me. She has a right to be jealous for her image.
Then, too, God understands that how one generation portrays His image radically impacts future generations: “I am…a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation…” Those who worship false images of God, who misrepresent God, bring judgment upon themselves and their households (keep in mind that Israelites households usually covered three to four generations). Entire generations are led astray. Is it any wonder God is jealous for His image? A false mental image of God is as bad as a false metal image.
So HOW WE FORM OUR IMAGE OF GOD IS CRITICAL. Just where do you get your image of God? What picture of God are you drawing with your life? If I asked you to share your image of God on a 3 x 5 index card, what would you do? What would you say? What would you draw? If someone asked you, “Tell me about your God?” what would you say?
Phillip was wrestling with the same thing when he asked Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” (Jn. 14:8) Phillip just wanted to see what God looked like, just wanted to catch a glimpse of His image, so he could fully believe. After all, isn’t it easier to believe in what we can see? Jesus’ answer is instructive. He points us to what I like to call REALITY IMAGES. There are some true, acceptable images of God. But only God can create images of Himself. And just what has God created? In answer to Phillip Jesus explains “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing this work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.”
JESUS IS THE IMAGE OF GOD. Do you want to know who God is? Do you want to see a picture of God? Look at Jesus. The disciples and the early church caught the idea. Paul wrote (Col. 1:15/2:9) the Jesus is “…the image of the invisible God…For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form…” The Greek word for image here is ((((((- eikon – from which we get our word icon. Jesus is the icon, the physical representation of God. Hebrews 1:3 states “The Son is…the exact representation of his being…” Jesus is the replica of God. Look at Jesus and you see God. Jesus is the accurate picture of God.
This means, among other things, that THE ONLY WAY TO WORSHIP GOD IS TO WORSHIP JESUS. (Heb. 13:15) “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that confess his name.” If any worship service here at Hope fails to focus on Jesus, we have failed to worship and have broken the second commandment. If any sermon preached here at Hope fails to point to Jesus, the preacher has broken the second commandment, for God’s heart is seen in Jesus.
When Jesus spoke to the inquiring Nicodemus, He said (Jn. 3:14-15), “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” Remember the bronze serpent from Numbers? Jesus said He was the living bronze serpent through whom God saves His people. He is the acceptable image of God and we not only worship Him but we have access to the Father through Him. Jesus shows us the heart of God. Jesus continued speaking to Nicodemus (3:16) “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believe in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus is the ultimate picture that leads us straight to God.
And let’s never forget – HOW WE WORSHIP, HOW WE PAINT GOD, WILL DIRECTLY INFLUENCE FUTURE GENERATIONS. We will either worship false images and bring judgment upon them or worship Jesus and bring love to thousands.
But Jesus is not the only image of God. THROUGH JESUS WE ARE THE IMAGE OF GOD. Genesis 1:26 teaches “Then God said, ‘let us make man in our image, in our likeness…” You and I were created to be a picture, a likeness, an image of God in the world. It’s true that because we sin we are not always a perfect image; but we are still His image. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection WE HAVE GREAT VALUE TO GOD. Let me illustrate. Would anyone like this $20.00 bill? …Okay. What if I crinkle it all up…Now who wants it? ...What if I used it to wipe my nose? How many of you would still want it? it might not be pretty or clean but it’s still worth $20.00. Its value has not decreased because it’s not perfect. So you, no matter how crumpled and dirty your life, still have value to God – you are His image.
And what’s even more exciting is that WE ARE BECOMING MORE AND MORE LIKE JESUS EVERY DAY. We often hear Romans 8:29 about how God works all things together for the good of those who love Him. Then we tend to get hung up there. But the next verse, 29, states, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son…” Why does God still pay attention to us? Because of Jesus. Why does God still value us? Because of Jesus. Why does God spend so much time working things out in our lives? So we can be like Jesus.
Perhaps this explains, at least in part, why life is sometimes so tough –God is making us into the likeness of Jesus. Some women were studying the book of Malachi and pondered 3:3 – “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.” The following week, one of the women called up a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him while at work. As she watched the silversmith work, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire, where the flames were the hottest in order to burn away all the impurities.
The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot, and then she thought again about the verse, that "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver." She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the entire time the silver was being refined. The man answered yes, that not only did he have to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on it the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left even a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed. The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "But how do you know when the silver is fully refined?" He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that’s easy - when I see my image in it." We are on our way to the fuller, more perfect image! To see the face of God, look in a mirror!
Right now, turn to a person next to you and say, “You are glorious! …God knit you together in your mother’s womb! … God made you wonderfully complex! …God did a masterful job creating you! … You are the image of God! ...You will be like Jesus!”
But let’s understand that we are the image of God not only in who we are and what we are becoming, but WE ARE ALSO TO BE HIS IMAGE IN THE WAY WE LIVE. The only image of Himself that God allows, other than Jesus, is a community of people bent on doing His will on earth. As John Calvin said, we are not to make images of God but are to be His image. Jesus was once asked, “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” Jesus said, “Show me the coin used for paying the tax.’ They brought him a coin. “Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. “Then he said to them, ‘Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” (Mt. 22:17f.) In other words, we are to give to God what bears His image. That means WE ARE TO GIVE OURSELVES TO HIM – COMPLETELY. We are His representation, His reflection, His likeness, His picture in the world. He is to shine from us, bounce off us into the lives of others. And by the way, as Lanny Donoho points out, reflections happen best when you are standing near to that which you want to reflect. So work at staying near to Jesus.
It is our task TO SHAPE THE WORLD THROUGH OUR UNYIELDING, RADICAL COMMITMENT TO JESUS. We are to love and serve God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength. And that’s radical. Yet that’s what Jesus calls for. It’s what we were created for. Are you ready for this radical commitment? In his book ‘What is Jesus Worth to You? The Radical Question’, David Platt points to several of Jesus’ statements that spell out just how radical this commitment is. In Luke 9 Jesus tells some men who want to follow Him “Trust me, even if it means becoming homeless. Follow me, even if it means letting someone else bury your dad. Love me, even if it means not saying good-bye to your family.’ That’s a radical image maker. In Luke 14 Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple.” That’s a radical image maker. In the 18th chapter of Luke, Jesus tells a wealthy young ruler “Sell everything you have and give to the poor…Then come, follow me.” That’s a radical image maker.
We are to let go of ourselves – lose ourselves – and love as Jesus loves, forgive as Jesus forgives, serve as Jesus served. Only through our unyielding, radical commitment to Jesus will He shine from us, and bounce off us into the lives of others. Do you want to be an image maker for God? As David Platt exhorts: “Let’s sacrifice it all! For the glory of Christ among a billion people who have not even heard the gospel…for the sake of men, women, and children who are starving, suffering, and dying every single day…for the millions in your city and my city who do not know Christ and are headed for a Christless eternity…for ourselves, for our churches, for our families, for our children who will come behind us…For all this and more, let’s sacrifice it all!” Then, only then we get through, will people know what God looks like.
