Image Problem

Exodus 25:10-22

Phrases that spoke to me today:
• make two cherubim of beaten gold for the two ends of the cover
• in the ark you are to put the covenant which I will give you
• there I will meet you

Applying the Word to My Life:
When Stacey and I went to Ukraine, we were depending on a woman we had never met to connect us with a place to stay and people to work with. We had a name and a café where we were supposed to meet her, but no picture. We walked in, looked around the room, saw a woman sitting by herself, and hoped we had found the right person. A picture would have been really useful at that moment.

Fortunately, we had guessed correctly. We sat down, talked, and began working through what we would be doing together. By the end of that first meeting, she was no longer just a name and a set of instructions; she was someone we had actually encountered. Before we left, we took a picture together to remember the beginning of that relationship.

That picture didn't create the relationship or replace the person. Before we met her, an image could have helped us recognize her. Afterward, it helped us remember someone we now knew.

A few chapters before today's reading, God tells Israel, “You shall not make for yourself an idol or a likeness of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below,” what many of us grew up hearing as the ban on “graven images.” The next line matters: “you shall not bow down before them or serve them.” Then here, God Himself tells Moses to make two golden cherubim and place them over the Ark of the Covenant. He even tells Moses how they should be positioned, with their wings spread over the cover and their faces turned toward one another. Whatever that commandment means, it can't simply mean that religious images are forbidden.

The distinction is what the image is doing. An idol takes the place of God, and people bow down to it. A sacred image points beyond itself toward Him. The cherubim aren't gods, and Israel is never told to worship them. Instead, God tells Moses that from between those images, above the ark, “There I will meet you.”

An image isn't a substitute for the person. It helps us recognize and remember the person it represents.

That's why Catholics use crucifixes, icons, statues, and other sacred images. We don't believe the wood, paint, plaster, or metal is God. A crucifix turns our attention toward Christ and His sacrifice. An image of Mary reminds us of a real woman who said yes to God. An image of a saint reminds us that holiness was lived by an actual human being.

The image serves the encounter. The problem with an idol isn't that we can see it; the problem is that we begin treating something created as if it were ultimate.

When I look at that picture from the café in Ukraine, I remember the uncertainty of walking in, the conversation we shared, and the relationship that began there. The image carries my attention back to a real person and a real encounter.

Sacred images are meant to do the same thing. They help us remember whom we have encountered and turn our attention toward God.

My Response for Today:
Today I'll let one sacred image turn my attention toward the person it represents.