What Are Human Beings?

What are human beings? Are we the crowning point of all Creation? Are we a virus infecting the earth? We may be neither of these things. These are the questions that inform how we think of other human beings. The Biblical command to love our neighbors appears to require qualifiers in many people’s thinking. Many of these qualifiers were summed up in the question the scribe asked Jesus in Luke chapter 10, “Who is my neighbor?” The question prompts Jesus to tell the parable of the Samaritan who takes care of the man who was left for dead. We often miss the point of the story. Jesus is not telling the scribe the Samaritan is his neighbor. Jesus asks who was the true neighbor of the man in need?

My time in ministry has put me in the position as a witness to how human beings regard other human beings. My work-life has also given me an understanding that human beings often know better but find good excuses for behaving badly. We allow ourselves to destroy other people over theology, ideology, racial identity, economic policy, national identity, and always, always in the name of the greater good for everyone else.

A Human Sister on Earth

When I worked for Levi’s, my first placement in the Cherry Street plant was alongside some Romanian refugees. They were Pentecostal Christians who left Romania, many of them just before the world-changing events of 1989. After I was transferred to the marking facility, I saw one of my former co-workers, Sylvia, as she was going to the clinic. My new co-workers saw us speaking. When she left, I went over to the other marker-makers and asked, “How old would you say that woman was. They pretty much agreed Sylvia was between 50 and 55 years old. I shook my head. Sylvia was thirty-five. When my shift-leader asked what happened, I explained that her appearance was the result living under ideological persecution of a religious minority.

I have seen first and second-hand what Israelis do to Palestinians, what happened to Jews during the holocaust and the Russian pogroms, the memorials to the Trail of Tears, and we still live with the results of Black slavery. Two years ago, I learned one of my Black colleagues was told by a member of his church they had to be careful because someone “might put a bullet through your head.” Thus, indicating we have big problems.

Our Human Brother in Heaven

How do we as Christians overcome this problem? We often look at individual solutions. If enough people do something, we will all be better off. We sometimes hear, if we buy less or recycle more, the world will be better. Yet, there is one individual who makes a difference. Jesus Christ is our brother in heaven who showed us that all people are his people. Hebrews calls Jesus our brother. “For this reason, Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.” (2:11b)

What difference does this make? A lot more than we might think. I have a few good friends who will say, “We are family.” It is a commitment on their part that no matter how angry we may get with one another, we are together, we are still friends. Calling Jesus our brother makes an ethical difference. How we regard other people is how we regard Jesus. This is the root of the ethic that has motivated many people to defy conventional wisdom and sometimes the law. One state tried to make helping people crossing the southern border illegally a felony. They tried a man under this statute who left water out in the desert for people who crossed the border.

A jury decided that people die out in the desert of thirst and exposure to the heat. And that it would be inhumane to forbid someone giving water in that situation. Honestly, if someone gave water to a dog in those circumstances, they might just be considered heroic. But forbidding giving water to a migrant in the name of the law of the land is anti-human. Jesus says, “And whoever gives even a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple – truly I tell, none of these will lose their reward.” (Matthew 10:42)

God Identifies

The letter of Hebrews begins, “God has spoken to us through his Son.” The writer uses the past tense, but he does not mean God has stopped speaking through his Son. The problem is we talk about justification, salvation, and righteousness and forget the Sermon on the Mount, the parables, and other things Jesus says. Because Christians have turned to thinking in terms not used by Jesus, we only think about what matters to our lives now.

My son got hurt at my dad’s house one afternoon. I was in the emergency room with him when I realized the time for my shift was to begin. I called my supervisor to tell her what was going on and that I would be late if I got to work at all. Her immediate response was, “How will you make up your time?”

The loss of life at Impact Plastics makes me regret not saying something about working class people on Labor Day. They could not have done what I later did by telling my boss off the next day. My supervisor apologized for her callousness. She was thinking about how the operation of the facility would be disrupted and not about the injury my child suffered. She considered herself a Christian which may have helped her understand what I was saying. The facility was not worth my son just like whatever they do in that factory was not worth the lives of those employees.

It Won’t Be Easy

It will not be easy. Yet, Christians must again regard other human beings as being in the image of God and being loved by God. It means taking human need into account before everything else we have been taught to think is necessary – ideology, economy, what our segment of society thinks we should be doing first. It is not easy when we see the forces aligned against regarding human need as the higher value. Jesus took on our flesh so we could all be in his image.