The story is told that in the seventh century, when invading Persian forces rode their horses1 into Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, they saw the mosaics on the walls of the church that depicted the visit of the Magi and recognized their Persian outfits. Though it was their practice to destroy every church in the Holy Land that they came upon, they spared the Church of the Nativity for the sake of their recognition of themselves in the images of the Magi. 2
Advocates for diversity frequently speak about the danger of “othering” people. This is the risk that we are said to take when we regard “other people” to be different from “our people.” We open ourselves up to the possibility of marginalizing them or worse. Acts of aggression against others require us, on some level, to regard our victims as “the other” and not among “the ones who are us.” The story of the Persian cavalrymen in Bethlehem seems to bear out this point. They spared the building because they saw themselves in it. The supposed challenge then is to work to recognize ourselves in every person we encounter. It seems like a way forward.
The weakness in this approach, however, is that it depends on our assuming an uncritical view of human culture and human behavior. As I encounter people around me, my aversion to “othering” risks obliging me to condone everything that I witness. Any observation that one might make which examines or questions the traditions and practices of another seems to court the disaster of “othering.”
Christian theology offers a way through this “othering” conundrum to surer ground. The creation account in the Book of Genesis teaches that human beings are made in the image of God.
Now, lots of ink has been spilled in the interest of defining “the image of God” as well as seeking to decide whether this image is damaged or lost to us through the fall into sin. But no interpretive approach argues that the image of God has been rendered irrelevant. According to Genesis, the image of God is at the essence of what it means to be human, even if we struggle in our own lives to be true to our essential selves.
The call, then, is not to recognize ourselves in those around us as did those ancient Persian horsemen, nor is it to paper over real differences in practice and perspectives among human beings. The call is to recognize the essential nature of our neighbor as being made in the image of God, even as we are. This frees us to ask honest questions, not only of our neighbor, but also of ourselves because nothing we (or they) can say or do will deny the fundamental nature of our creation or that of the neighbor we are seeking to understand. All human beings are worthy of our service and respect because all are full participants in creation.
We don’t see ourselves in other people, we see God’s image in them.
Blessings this Epiphany Season,
Pr. Jim
1Riding your horses into other people’s holy places and so desecrating them was a show of intimidation.
2Sadly, the Christian community in Bethlehem fell upon hard times in the 13th century and an unrepaired roof allowed the weather to destroy the artwork that had saved the building 600 years earlier.
This devotion was originally written by Rev. James A. Wetzstein in January 2016.
Image: The Church of the Nativity as it is at present. The dark area above the columns is the area that would have featured the mosaics including those referenced in this devotion.
Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BethlehemInsideCN.jpg#/media/File:BethlehemInsideCN.jpg
