The Imago Dei As The Call to Justice
After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.” -Revelation 7:9
A new buzzword in the church world (at least in America, which is all I can personally speak to), is “multiethnic.” A growing number of Christians want to be part of a multiethnic church, a place with “diverse” worship, a body of believers that resembles the beautiful picture John paints for us in his Revelation 7 vision.
This is a good thing, a necessary shift in the history of Christianity. But if we view multiethnic churches as just a bunch of different people of different colors in the same room worshipping the same God, we have completely missed the call of Christ for racial reconciliation.
In Genesis 1, when God crowns His creation with humanity, He gives them His own image to bear. In fact, He says, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…” (Gen. 1:26 NIV, emphasis added). Notice that there is no singular pronoun in that sentence. A Triune, relational God created mankind, not just the singular man, in the image of diversity and community that the Trinity so perfectly models.
From the very beginning of creation it is clear: as humans, we all reflect the image of God (referred to by theologians as the imago Dei); however, we more perfectly reflect the image of God when we are in relationship with one another, especially with “one anothers” who are different from us.
We see this echoed in Paul’s mandate that the Church should live, breathe, move, and function as a singular body: the body of Christ.
“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ…The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’ On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor…But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” -1 Corinthians 12:12,21-26 (NIV)
I firmly believe this text applies not just to a single church congregation in a specific church building, but to the global Church as the full body of Christ. If we read it that way, it no longer means, “the worship director cannot say to the pianist, I don’t need you!” It starts to mean things like this:
“The white church in America cannot say to the black church, ‘I don’t need you!’”
“The American church cannot say to the church in Asia, ‘I don’t need you!’”
“The Lutherans cannot say to the Pentecostals, ‘I don’t need you!’”
Because the truth is that we do need each other to fully reflect God’s character and heart. Each of our cultures, our worship styles, even (dare I say?) our doctrines, bring to the table a strength that can fill another group’s weakness.
But to get everyone to the table, we have to first be reconciled to each other. And it seems to me that the most pressing issue dividing the church at this time is racial injustice and oppression, which we have a long and ugly history of contributing to (and even, unfortunately, leading). Which means that racial reconciliation is the most pressing call for believers to take up.
Racial reconciliation is the general call for all believers to do their part in the Body of Christ as God unites, revives, and reconciles us to Him and to each other. It is kingdom work. It is crucial that the Church is the first place in our divided world that looks like the multitude of believers in Revelation 7—but how?
The road to racial reconciliation is not sweet, peaceful handholding around a campfire singing Kumbaya. Although that may be a useful image for some when picturing the final goal, it is not the road to reconciliation itself.
The road to racial reconciliation is racial justice. We need look no further than the cross itself for evidence of this. To reconcile Himself to us, Jesus needed to first lay down His life so that justice could be attained.
Christians cannot expect the church to be a multiethnic, unified body of believers until the believers in positions of power and privilege make it clear that they will commit to seeking justice for believers who experience oppression and injustice.
That when the black church in America suffers the trauma of watching their brothers and sisters brutalized at the hands of police officers, the white church will lament and enter into their suffering with them, as 1 Corinthians 12:26 commands us to.
That when white Christians hear the cries of those who bear the deeper shades of God’s image, we would humble ourselves to do the work of learning and lamenting the twisted histories of our own church denominations that have contributed to the pain of our brothers and sisters.
That when we look to the cross, we would not only see the God who died for our sins, but also the God who chose to enter into our suffering and bring reconciliation through justice.
Then, and only then, will we be able to receive a foretaste of the beauty described in Revelation 7: where we all bear our different identity markers, and yet we all wear the white robes washed in the blood of the Lamb, declaring us equal and united with one another.
In this way, and this way only, can we truly and fully be the imago Dei.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michaela has a heart for racial justice and has spent a lot of her life pouring into that passion through reading, conversation, and friendships. At Trinity Christian College, she earned her Bachelor of Social Work with minors in theology and Spanish, while fostering community through multiple leadership positions including being a prayer ministry leader and a women’s empowerment group leader. She graduated in 2020 and is currently working full time at a faith-based non-profit organization in Milwaukee where she continues to build the Kingdom of God in the city that she loves and calls home.