Joni L. Middleton, Educational Consultant
REMEMBERING DIGNITY
Asha barely remembered her village and how
she came to the city. After five years in a
brothel, she remembered waiting in the long
lines of girls and women. She remembered
the hungry faces of men who signaled for
her. She saw the judgment on people’s faces
and heard it in their words; she had no place
in society now. The little girl taken from her
family and village was gone. Instead, she was
now the one forced to sell her body; the one
no longer wanted, and the one no longer human. Her dignity now lay in ruins among the
beds of “that place.”
Asha’s battered dignity can be retold in the
stories of the poor, the marginalized, and the
vulnerable. They are often treated more as
labor tools, product makers, food preparers,
home cleaners, and sex toys than as people
created in the image of God. The church often reaches out to shine the Light of Christ
through acts of service. Yet, the call for the
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church to arise and let its light shine must
extend to the repairing of human dignity.
When people lose their validation as human
beings created in God’s image, it becomes
difficult to see the light of God’s glory shine
through them.
The biblical account of creation carries God’s
stamp of dignity. God creates Adam and Eve,
places them in the garden and commands
them to “rule over . . . every living creature that moves on the ground” (Gen. 1:28
ESV). God asks Adam to name all the living
creatures (Gen. 2:19-20) and then declares
everything good at the end of the Creation
account (Gen. 1:31). After making Eve, God
again says all of creation is good, proclaiming “the man and his wife were naked,
and they felt no shame” (Gen. 2:25 ESV).
Experiencing a healthy and whole human
experience, they begin their work naming
the creatures, tending the garden, ruling
over all God’s creation, and living their lives
free from shame. Without any of sin’s impediments, their dignity reflects God’s image back to Him.
Unfortunately, the rest of the biblical record
from Genesis 3 to Revelation 21 narrates
the story of shame and the battering of
human dignity set against God’s purposes
and plans to restore human dignity through
His Son, Jesus Christ. The contrast between
Genesis 1 and 2 with Genesis 3 is staggering. The dignified portrayal of Adam’s and
Eve’s nakedness in Genesis 2:25 against their
fear of that nakedness in Genesis 3:7-11
portrays their shame-filled loss of dignity. Not
only were they aware of their nakedness and
burdened under the shame of that knowledge, but they could only make a flimsy
attempt at covering their shame with the fig
leaves which would quickly dry up and fall off
their bodies (Gen. 3:7). Unable to hide from