Image of God

Imagen de Dios Oración de Imagen

Image of God

Image_of_God_in_the_Parables

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find;

knock, and it will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds,

and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

(Luke 11:9–10)

Stephen W. Hiemstra

What is the image of God pictured in Jesus’ parables? While the Bible makes clear that God is not stingy with his love, love is not his only characteristic. God revealed himself to Moses as: “A God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” (Exod 34:6) These five characteristics could be compared mathematically to a five-dimensional figure, not limited to the four dimensions—height, width, depth, and time—that describe the universe we inhabit.

God’s transcendence works like this fifth dimension, and it is more complex than many envision. God inhabits a dimension beyond ours that opens us to see the world with new eyes. For this reason, we can never fully comprehend God, but he invites us to try. When we do, the forms that lead us to him, like the parables and worship, no longer constrain us. They simply launch us into this new dimension available only through faith.

Mercy

The nature of God’s mercy is clarified in several parables.

In the Good Samaritan, we learn that mercy requires a visceral reaction: Our hearts lean into mercy more than our heads. God is emotionally involved in our lives and our salvation. In the Unforgiving Servant, we find that our forgiveness comes with the obligation to extend mercy to those who sin against us.

In the Barren Fig Tree, we learn that God’s patience has limits. A good heart needs to be cultivated. Such cultivation takes a lifetime, so it should not be delayed. In the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, we find a sovereign God who favors humble believers.

While the Hebrew word for mercy is only used to describe God, Jesus’ parables describe God’s characteristic within a human context.

Grace

The nature of God’s grace is displayed in several parables.

While God’s grace is an undeserved blessing, Jesus’ parable of the Hidden Treasure suggests that our response to grace is important (Matt 13:44). A gracious blessing is of little use if we hide it away and make no use of it.

Responding to God’s grace is important in understanding the Parable of the Lost Sheep. Lost sheep are more likely to be found if they listen for the shepherd’s voice.

In the Parable of the Doctor and the Sick, Jesus graciously treats sin as an illness (Luke 5:31–32). This re-imaging of sin removes sin’s guilt, shame, and curse to heal our hearts and our relationships.

The Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man in Luke 16 displays grace in life and in the afterlife. The fault of the rich man is that he failed to give thanks to God for his blessings in this life and fails then to prepare for the afterlife.

In each of these parables God uses grace strategically to encourage, lead, and grow us in the context of relationship, as in the Parable of the Two Sons (Luke 15:11–32).

Patience

The importance of God’s patience is obvious from several parables.

In the Parable of the Two Builders, we find patience associated with good planning and expert workmanship. Likewise, in the Parable of the Sower, we see that farming requires patient planning and a willingness to invest time and effort in a crop that is hidden from the outset.

In the Parable of the Talents, we learn to take risks to advance the Kingdom of God while we wait patiently for the Lord’s return. In the Parable of the Ten Virgins, we again see the need to plan patiently for every contingency.

The importance of patience and planning for the future in the faith suggests why Christians have always valued and invested more in education than other groups.

Love

God’s love has many facets that are the focus of several parables.

Jesus introduces the Parable of the Good Samaritan as an example of offering love to an enemy (Matt 5:43–46). The parable pictures love allegorically as reconciliation of the long-divided, Davidic Kingdom under the umbrella of God’s love.

If the Parable of the Good Samaritan shows love as a conduit to reconciliation, the Parable of the Two Brothers displays love as a catalyst for adolescent growth and maturity. This is a context reminiscent of God’s request of Abraham: “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” (Gen 12:1).

In these two parables, love is not a static description of adoration so much as a dynamic strategy for growth, reconciliation, and restoration.

The reckless love of the Shepherd for the Lost Sheep is most meaningful when we realize that we are all lost sheep. The fish illustrated in the Parable of the Dragnet highlights the cost of such reckless love and serves to shock us out of complacency.

In Christ, love is an open-handed affection with an eye on the future.

Faith

The divine image of God lends stability to our lives that cannot be obtained any other way. In the Parable of the Two Builders, God is the rock on which our foundations are made secure. The rock of our salvation is a metaphor both for a disciplined lifestyle and for scientific study. In the Parable of the Callous Judge, we are advised to study the wisdom of the world.

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector reminds us that God is both transcendent (the object of our prayers) and immanent (able to hear our prayers). Even though God is beyond our comprehension, he loves us enough to always remain available.

The Parable of the Physician takes the form of a proverb and simply describes the role of a doctor in healing the sick.

Seekers Find

Jesus’ parables reveal a God who is intentionally available to those who seek him. The parables invite the listener to enter the narrative and engage with God one-on-one to expand our understanding of faith. My Old Testament professor, who studied poetry, described scripture generally as laconic, offering descriptions with a bare number of words (Niehaus 2019, 97).

Laconic stories trigger our imaginations as we fill in missing details with our own experiences, like the husband and wife who constantly complete each other’s sentences. The parables work this laconic magic better than any other part of scripture, pointing us to our transcendent God in new ways with each additional reading. Still, it comes as no surprise that we cannot easily summarize God’s characteristics with any one parable or synthesis of several.

References

Niehaus, Jeffrey J. 2019. God the Poet: Exploring the Origins and Nature of Poetry. (Kindle) Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.