Caesar’s Image versus God’s Image: An Ancient Reflection on Matthew 22

“So let us always reflect the image of God in these ways:

I do not swell up with the arrogance of pride;

nor do I droop with the blush of anger;

nor do I succumb to the passion of avarice;

nor do I surrender myself to the ravishes of gluttony;

nor do I infect myself with the duplicity of hypocrisy;

nor do I contaminate myself with the filth of rioting;

nor do I grow flippant with the pretension of conceit;

nor do I grow enamored of the burden of heavy drinking;

nor do I alienate by the dissension of mutual admiration;

nor do I infect others with the biting of detraction;

nor do I grow conceited with the vanity of gossip.

Rather, instead, I will reflect the image of God in that I feed on love;

grow certain on faith and hope;

strengthen myself on the virtue of patience;

grow tranquil by humility;

grow beautiful by chastity;

am sober by abstention;

am made happy by tranquility;

and am ready for death by practicing hospitality.

It is with such inscriptions that God imprints his coins with an impression made neither by hammer nor by chisel but has formed them with his primary divine intention. For Caesar required his image on every coin, but God has chosen man, whom he has created, to reflect his glory.”

- Homily 42 from the Incomplete Work on Matthew

Creativity

Here is Rembrandt’s painting entitled Artist in His Studio. It has been said that he is pausing to reflect upon pure canvas untouched at this point by his paintbrush. With his weight on his back leg, he seems to be pondering what it is exactly that he will deliver to his audience. The white-ness of the canvas is reflected in the light radiating from its surface. It almost is the light itself. Rembrandt has positioned the painter in the background at such a distance that the size of the canvas dwarfs him. Creativity is needed for creation and in this painting of a not-yet-painting, the area of creation seems to outsize the artist.

Humans are creators. Not creators ex nihilo (out of nothing) but creators of what has been given us. Like the painter, we aren’t the makers of the canvas, we are the users of it. We think, reason, believe, and love our world(s) and thus mold them through our sub-creation (term coined by J.R.R. Tolkien). We mold, brush, and fashion the stuff of this world in the same manner as God because we are the image of God.

Any thoughts on the implications of humanity being the image of God?