Beloved Children, Living Icons
“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” – Mt 3:17
The story is told of a Hassidic rabbi who asked his disciples, “What is the greatest sin of all?” They argued among themselves—one group said idolatry; another, violation of the Sabbath; one said desecration of God’s name; another, murder. The rabbi listened silently, and when the debate ran its course, he told them that they were all wrong. “There is no greater sin than for you to forget that which is written in Scripture . . . ‘You are the children of the Lord, your God' ” (Deut 14:1). Ultimately, the rabbi said, that forgetting “is the root of all the many sins and all the various wrongdoings which you mentioned.”
We forget all the time. We forget that to be a child of God is to be made in his image and likeness. We forget to look on each other with reverence, knowing that we are all living icons. We forget that we are all cherished by the God who created us. God beholds us and sees his beloved creation. God listens and hears the blood of Abel calling out from the tilled soil in which Cain labored (Gen 4:10).
Jesus, like us in all things but sin, never forgot that he was God's beloved Son. That was why he had the power to still the stormy sea, to heal the sick and raise the dead, to give sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf. That is why he could forgive, with his dying breath, even those who did not ask for forgiveness. By the shedding of his blood, and not the blood of another, Jesus reversed the sin of Cain.
May we, who were buried with him in our baptism, be raised by the power of God to walk in newness of life.
Rachelle Linner, Give Us This Day