The Story that Shapes Us 1: Created in His Image, Crowned with His Blessing

This podcast is brought to you by Walnut Grove Lutheran Church in Langley, DC, in the hope that it will draw you closer to the one who loves you most.

One of the most famous paintings of what is called the Dutch Golden Age is the 1642 painting by Rembrandt called The Night Watch.

This painting over the years, though, has experienced some challenges.

In 1975, a man took a butter knife and attacked the painting, slicing it in several places.

After a restoration that took about four years, it was repaired, but if you look closely, you could still see the marks of the attack.

And then in 1990, someone else sprayed acid on the picture.

And fortunately, though, it damaged the varnish, but not the painting itself.

Again, another restoration, and again the painting was restored.

Then in 2019, after years of planning and research, a major restoration of the painting was undertaken called Operation Night Watch.

And this one is done within a glass enclosure in the Rijksmuseum, the National Museum of the Netherlands in Amsterdam, where the painting is hung, so that people can watch the restoration process as it happens.

The Night Watch painting is a masterpiece wounded, a masterpiece restored.

And in many ways, this world in which we live is like that painting.

Beauty and brokenness exist side by side.

There's the breathtaking complexity of creation, and yet at the very same time, there's the undeniable evidence that something has gone terribly wrong.

And that same mixture of beauty and brokenness exists in our very own bodies.

Our bodies are marvels of design, and yet we are fragile.

Our hearts are capable of great love and great harm.

We long for goodness and yet we stumble into selfishness.

We, all of us, are masterpieces with scars.

And so the question arises: how can we and this world ever be restored?

And to answer that question, we are going to return to the beginning of the story that shapes us.

And our passage for today, Genesis 1, 24 to 31, focuses on the sixth day of the creation account in Genesis 1.

But to get a better view of what's going on here, let's zoom out and give ourselves a quick overview of what is happening in the entire chapter of Genesis 1.

It starts with these profound words.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

God is the creative genius behind all that we see, which is good in the world.

He existed eternally before all things.

And it was through his incredible power that all things, both visible and invisible, came into being.

And the very next verse gives us a framework for understanding what God was doing in his work of creation.

We read, Now the world, now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

What is being described here is the earliest form of creation, which God brought into existence out of nothing at the very beginning.

And God tells us that its chief characteristics were that it was formless and empty.

So over the next six days of his creation, God transforms his creative work.

In the first three days, he brings form to what is formless by separating light and darkness, sea and sky, oceans and dry land.

And then in the next three days, he fills the empty spaces in his creation.

The sun, moon, and stars fill the heavens.

There's birds in the sky and fish in the sea.

And God creates animals of all kinds on the land.

And after each step and God's creative process was complete, we read, and God saw that it was good.

God is like a painter working on a masterpiece, who at the end of each day of painting takes a step back, views his creation with thankfulness and love, and says, It is good.

But God's best and highest creative work is yet to come.

We read, 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 image.

In the image of God, he created them, male and female, he created them.

Scholars have long debated what it means to say that God created humans in his image.

For example, N.

T.

Wright describes it as being like in ancient times when the image of a God was placed in a prominent location in the temple where they were worshipped.

And this image was a reminder to all of the God that was being worshipped in that place.

And we can say that God's creation is his temple.

And human beings were meant to be his image in his temple.

So ideally, all the rest of creation would look at humans and see them as representing God.

We still see some remnants of this in the world today.

So, for example, my dog Bear thinks I'm God when I have cheese in my hand.

And the rest of the time he thinks he's God.

Also, another thing that can help us is that there were ancient civilizations in which the king and only the king was thought to represent God and was called the image of God.

But here in Genesis, God is telling us that all human beings, both male and female, are his royal representatives over all the rest of creation.

And as God's royal representatives, we have a job to do.

We are to rule, but not in a greedy or destructive manner.

Instead, we are to rule as God does and be loving, compassionate caretakers of his creation.

As Victor P.

Hamilton wrote in his Genesis commentary, even in the Garden of Eden, he who would be Lord of all must be servant of all.

Everything was perfect in God's creation.

God and the first human beings lived together in intimate fellowship.

Everything functioned according to God's original design.

And the world was filled with God's shalom peace.

Illness, suffering, and death were unknown.

In Genesis 1, we have a picture of how the world was created to be.

And God Himself attests to this when He says, when we read, God said, Saw, God saw all that He had made, and it was very good, very good note.

And there was evening and there was morning the sixth day.

Now sadly, the peace and perfection of creation was attacked and terribly damaged when an evil intruder tempted the first humans to rebel against their good and loving creator.

And ever since the world has been marked by death and destruction, hatred and suffering, alienation from God, and warfare between human beings.

God's beautiful creation was broken and no longer functioned as God had intended.

How will God restore what has been damaged?

That brings us to Palm Sunday.

Palm Sunday shows us the one who lived it out.

On that first Palm Sunday, Jerusalem was filled with thousands of pilgrims for the Passover festival.

And when they heard that Jesus, the one who had raised Lazarus from the dead, was coming, they rushed out to meet him.

They welcomed him as king, shouting, Hosanna, Lord save us.

And they placed palm branches and their cloaks on the road before him, kind of like we would roll out the red carpet for a special guest today.

And the people were right.

Jesus is a king.

He is the Messiah king God promised long ago to send to restore and renew all creation and bring it back to its original purpose.

And now he was making his grand entrance into the world.

But Jesus was not the kind of king that people thought that he was.

He was not a great general who would lead a vast army to drive out the occupying Romans and give God's people their own land again.

You see, Jesus didn't ride a war horse into Jerusalem that day.

He rode a donkey, which is an animal of peace.

People did not understand what kind of Messiah or King Jesus was, and nor did they foresee the path that Jesus would take to accomplish creation's restoration.

Paul later writes these words about Jesus: the Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

Now, while the image of God in the rest of humanity had been so tarnished by sin that at times the reflection we cast looks more godless than godly, Jesus perfectly reflects the image of his Father.

As Jesus said to his followers, if you really know me, you will know my Father as well.

From now on, you do know him and have seen him.

As Jesus rode down that mountain on that day so long ago, he was everything that the rest of the creation, the world's creation around him was not.

Jesus was perfectly aligned with his heavenly father and reflected him without blemish or imperfection.

Jesus was fully functioning as God originally intended human beings to function.

And Jesus loved God's creation just as much as his father did.

And so Jesus rode down that Mount of Olives to give his life, to restore all of creation, including us.

You see, Jesus rode into Jerusalem, knowing what waited for him there.

Many in the crowd who were shouting praises to him now would soon be yelling for his crucifixion.

His royal welcome would be replaced by betrayal and beating.

Now surrounded by palm branches, a symbol of life, he would soon be stretched out on a cross, a symbol of death.

No one else in history has ever ridden willingly toward their own execution out of love for their enemies.

Why does Jesus do it?

He does it because he knows that only love can heal the world.

Only love can restore the image of God in us.

Only love can renew creation.

Referring to that veil of unbelief that initially obscures our understanding, Paul writes, So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord.

And the Lord, who is the Spirit, makes us more and more like Him as we are changed into His glorious image.

Jesus doesn't just forgive us, He restores us.

He cleans the mirror of our soul so that we can better reflect God's healing love into the world.

So what does this look like?

In 1941, a Polish priest named Maximilian Kolb was in Auschwitz.

One day a prisoner escaped, and the Nazis selected ten prisoners to be starved in retaliation.

When one of the ten cried out, My wife, my children, Kolb stepped forward and volunteered to take his place.

After two weeks with no food or water, Kolb and three other prisoners were still alive.

The soldiers wanted to empty the bunker that they were in, so they gave each of the four prisoners injections of carbolic acid to kill them.

It is said that Kolb calmly raised his left arm and waited for the injection that would end his life.

Kolb's sacrifice was a faint echo of the greater sacrifice Jesus has made for all of us.

But it shows what restored humanity can look like.

Love that reflects the heart of God.

Most of us will never face a moment like Kolb's, but every day we face smaller ones that are still important.

Like choosing gentleness instead of anger, offering forgiveness instead of resentment, caring for creation instead of consuming without thought, serving someone who cannot repay us, speaking hope into someone else's despair.

These are the places where the restored image of God shines.

Dear friends, Jesus rode into Jerusalem nearly 2,000 years ago to save us, forgive us, and restore us.

And he will come back to this world at the end of time to heal and restore all things, including us.

And in the meantime, he invites us to let him polish the mirror of our souls so that his image reflects more clearly through us, and we can better reflect God's healing love into the world around us.

So how do we do that?

Well, Paul gives us a practice to follow.

He writes, finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy.

Think about such things.

Jesus is the ultimate in truth, nobility, and purity.

He is the true image of God.

And so here is the challenge that I'm setting before you for this week.

Fill your mind with thoughts of Jesus.

Let his life, his love, his humility, his courage shape your imagination.

And as you do, he will renew you day by day so that you better reflect him and his love into the world around you.

Amen.

Let's pray.

To be our Savior.

Thank you for coming in peace and humility to save us with your love.

And we pray, Lord, that in the new life you give us through faith in you, you would help us by your spirit to better reflect your image and your love, your mercy and your grace into the lives of those around us, so that they may also know you and your great love for them.

In your precious name we ask this, and all God's people said, Amen.

If you have enjoyed this podcast and would like to support the work that we are doing at Walnut Grove Lutheran Church of leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus, please go to WGLC.org slash donate.

Any gift that you would like to give will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you and God bless us.