Written for Martin Luther King Day
Today I am republishing something I wrote in 2021.
A Dim Image
Four years ago Bennett Jones, a hardcore narcotic addict, was paralyzed in an auto accident while driving intoxicated. The other driver, a young mother, was killed.
The 34 year old white man now permanently resides in a nursing home. He has no control over bowel or bladder. Others must clean him and change his soiled diapers. A bag taped to his lower abdomen collects urine through a surgically placed hole there.
A few days ago Bennett was admitted to the hospital for treatment of infected bedsores penetrating to the bones in his lower back. These gaping, festering wounds will require debridement, antibiotics, and major surgery.
This hospitalization will cost around $50,000, requiring unpleasant duties from busy nurses and great skill by overworked surgeons. All of us are devoting time to care for a man whose problems are self-inflicted.
Up Close and Personal
For the first several days in the hospital Mr. Bennett was courteous and cooperative, though he often screamed in reported agony and demanded narcotic pain medications. Last night, when the nurse noted that he was almost unarousable, the covering doctor stopped the meds, out of concern for lethal over-sedation (and abuse). Once Bennett roused from his stupor, he flipped.
I was warned that he has been verbally abusing and spitting at his caretakers. Even so, I try to make it a point to get physically close. My knees touch the side of the bed, as I ask:
“Mr. Jones, I’m sorry you had a rough night. How are you? ”
His eyes are glassy and angry. I can smell the rotting wounds, as well as the feces smeared over his legs and bedsheets (he refused to let the nurse clean him). The urine collection bag is leaking, as well. His speech is slurred, but he still manages a shout, filled with rage and laced with profanity:
“You get your knees off my bed!”
This is going to be a challenge.
A Pitiful Puzzle
What are we to make of such a shell of a man? Intoxicated, broken, bitter, utterly selfish, Bennett seems in some ways subhuman. Truly he has forfeited much. He has lost the companionship of his family and friends. Society has renounced him. Now he is losing even the goodwill of the medical team caring sacrificially for him. There are groans when his name comes up on rounds.
Despite all this, he still has something infinitely valuable that cannot be taken away from him. It was given to him by someone very powerful.
To understand what that is and to appreciate this pitiful creature, we have to go back to the beginning. Not just the beginning of his quadriplegia, or even his addiction. Not even back to the environment he grew up in. How far back? Let’s try starting with the day he was born.
When dealing with a challenging patient, I like to imagine the day of his or her birth. Bennett’s mother groaned in pain to deliver him, then cooed with pleasure when her child was born into the world. She felt such pride and hope as she gave him a name – Bennett Jones!
That vision puts him in a different light. But even that light becomes a shadow when I am actually in the room dealing with him. No, we must go back even further than birth to appreciate him. He has an identity even more fundamental than his name and a story that began even before his conception. To understand him and, indeed, everyone we encounter, even ourselves, we must go further back, to the beginning of the human race.
Birthrights
Genesis 1:27 is a foundational truth in the practice of medicine and the practice of living.
“God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
This pronouncement about the nature of humanity explains why men, women, and children are so precious. We – and in this case, specifically Bennett Jones – inherently possess value, because the one who is supremely valuable fashioned us in His image.
Our worth derives from God’s worthiness. This tenet helps to reconcile a difficult, but clearly valid, reality. On one hand, without God, we humans are totally depraved. At the same time people, whether spiritually connected with God or not and whatever their backgrounds, are capable of great beauty, generosity, and nobility.
Uncomfortable List
Naturally it is easier to see the truth that humanity bears God’s image when dealing with beautiful, talented, or nice people. But the universal veracity of Genesis 1:27 means that the following groups bear God’s image:
- Tyrants
- Serial killers
- Those of all races
- Adherents of all religions
- Members of all political parties
- Homeless people
- The comatose
- Members of the press and media
- Racists
- Corporate CEOs
- Obnoxious fans of the other team
- Our enemies
- ALL PEOPLE
I suspect that I was able to step on just about everyone’s toes (including my own) with this list.
Learning by Instruction
Sometimes God’s image in another person is so marred by sin or medical infirmity that it is beyond my ability to discern. The mark of a holy God is hard to make out in Bennett Jones. Such an unfortunate creature seems to have lost all but the barest shadow of any divine imprint.
How easily I can revert to cynicism in relating to him. But the enlightening word of the Bible in Genesis 1 is there to admonish me to treat him with respect for the sake of his (and my) creator.
Learning by Example
The light of Scripture can shine by example, as well as decree. It has lessons to teach me every day not only in what it says, but in what it shows.
I am sure that the Palestine of Jesus’ day, like all cultures (including my own medical culture), had a rich vocabulary of derogatory labels for undesirable people. In fact we can read words written by one of those very men, a fellow named Matthew, who happened to have the disreputable job of tax-collector.
Matthew writes of his own first encounter with Jesus in Matthew 9:9:
“As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man called Matthew, sitting in the tax collector’s booth; and He said to him, ‘Follow Me!’ And he got up and followed Him.”
Did you catch the power of that word used to describe Matthew? Jesus saw a man! Not a tax-collector, Roman sympathizer, crook, or scumbag – but a man.
Jesus, the homeless preacher from the country, did not envy Matthew his riches or even despise his greed. Christ saw an image bearer of His divine nature, spiritually poor and in need of a savior and restoration to true humanity. That sounds like Bennett Jones. It sounds a lot like you and me.
Surely as Matthew penned this passage he was flooded with gratitude that Jesus could see beneath his rich, external trappings to the impoverished soul beneath. The powerful statement of Genesis and the pointed example of Christ in the Bible cut me to the quick whenever I am tempted to dismiss another person, even when that dismissal is as seemingly innocuous as referring to a patient as “the gallbladder in Room 8012.”
A Poor Substitution
Jesus spoke with favor regarding “the least” people. Traditionally those in minorities, the homeless, and the poor might be among those regarded as the unworthy, “least” in our culture. It is heartening that this is starting to reverse. I meet many young people today with an admirable acceptance of marginalized people. But though noble, even that is not enough.
Sometimes I think we simply switch or invert our distorted view of the imago dei in humanity. To embrace those once considered outcast is commendable. But at times we can be tempted merely to substitute another group – the rich, the powerful, the privileged, the other political party, etc. – into the disdained, subhuman category.
The most important person for us to see the image of God in is the one we are most tempted to despise and dismiss. To do that requires the power of God. We need Him to teach and show us His image in others. It is also a volitional work of submission and faith on our part. At least for my part I think I need to go further.
May God help us to see and respect his image in everyone.
Dr. Bill Maynard