Broken Image

I know I said we would not be touching on politics and religion when I first started the podcast.  I will not force my co-hosts to speak on it, but I cannot remain silent any longer.  A couple years back, I hit rock bottom with a major mental break and had to turn back to Christ before losing everything.  Beginning to study apologetics and God’s word in general brought me back from the brink of disaster.  I have been a believer as long as I can remember, but for so long I had been struggling to break free from God’s grasp to do what was right in my own eyes (Deuteronomy 12:8).
[John 10:27-29 NASB20] "My sheep listen to My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. "My Father, who has given [them] to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch [them] out of the Father's hand.
The mental image I have is struggling to get out of His hand and He squeezes a little to remind me who He is in order to bring my focus back to Him.
Anyway, my goal in this blog post is to give a summary of the Biblical view on disability. My study in God’s word has revealed much about the importance of what we do on the podcast and disability advocacy in general.  One foundational concept is what theologians call “imago dei,” a Latin phrase that means “The image of God.”

So let me lay the foundation for you:

[Psalm 139:13-14 NASB20] For You created my innermost parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, because I am awesomely and wonderfully [made;] Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.

God is creator of ALL THINGS and He does not make mistakes.  Before sin corrupted all of creation, God Himself, who is perfect and therefore has the highest possible standard for good, said that His creation was “very good.”  Most of the verses in the creation account laid out in Genesis ends each day with God reviewing His work and calling it “good.”  It is not until after mankind was created that God called it “very good.”  This means that human life has great inherent value above all other created things.
[Genesis 1:31 NASB20] And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

But Adam sinned, and through that all of creation was ruined.  God’s creation was a perfect house of cards of immense size, and Adam’s actions bumped the table.  This is where disability comes from.  Isaiah 35:4-6 mentions several disabilities specifically that will be restored in the end for believers.  This implies that they are caused by the fall of mankind in general.

And an important note, which I will discuss further later: more or different types of sin are NOT the cause of specific maladies.  Disability is not a result of a specific individual’s sins, but due to the effect that sin has had on all of creation.

[Luke 13:4-5 NASB20] "Or do you think that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed were worse offenders than all the other people who live in Jerusalem? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."

With that foundation, let’s move to the main topic:

We’ll once again head to Genesis, because the concept of Imago Dei is first mentioned here:

[Gen 1:26-27] Then God said, "Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth." So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

So what does that even mean?  To be made in God’s image or likeness??
Jesus gives my favorite analogy in the oft misquoted and misunderstood discussion typically referred to with the synecdoche “render unto Caesar.”

[Matthew 22:15-22 NASB20] Then the Pharisees went and plotted together how they might trap Him in what He said. And they sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and do not care what anyone thinks; for You are not partial to anyone. "Tell us then, what do You think? Is it permissible to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?" But Jesus perceived their malice, and said, "Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites? "Show Me the coin [used] for the poll-tax." And they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, "Whose image and inscription is this?" They said to Him, "Caesar's." Then He said to them, "Then pay to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's." And hearing [this,] they were amazed; and they left Him and went away.

Ancient coins were made in a similar manner to modern coins, minus the industrial level machinery.  Dies were carved out by hand, a negative of the intended result, and then smashed into a flat piece of round metal to create embossed image and text.

Image source: Reading the legends of Roman Republican coins - Scientific Figure on ResearchGate. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/a-Illustration-of-the-coin-manufacturing-process-b-Three-Roman-Republican-coins-of_fig1_261960125 [accessed 17 Jan 2025]

The above scripture is often used by individuals to say that we should always pay our taxes.  Putting aside my personal opinions on the validity of taxation, this is still just a surface level understanding of the passage.  Jesus says the coins have the image of Caesar on them.  He then says to give what is Caesar’s (bears his image) to Caesar and is God’s (bears his image) to God.

Who bears God’s image?
According to Genesis 1, we do.  We ALL do, as we are all descended from Adam [Genesis 5:1-32, Genesis 3:20, Romans 5:12, Acts 17:26, Luke 3:23-38, etc].

And just like ancient coins, the image is never perfectly portrayed.  There are always imperfections.  Some are more obvious than others.  Some of us were born with no legs and must learn different methods of locomotion and have difficulty with tasks that the typical person takes for granted.  Some were born with unobservable mental challenges, who struggle with task initiation and working memory.  And some just have a bad temper or negative outlook on life in general.  These are all perfect examples of imperfect images. 

But God had a plan for all the imperfect images.  Even the ones that appeared most broken.

There are a surprising number of references to disability in scripture. 

[Exodus 4:10-11 NASB20] Then Moses said to the LORD, "Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue." But the LORD said to him, "Who has made the human mouth? Or who makes [anyone] unable to speak or deaf, or able to see or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?

Moses was a slow speaker but an excellent writer (sounds familiar).  I often ponder whether he was autistic.  But that is not only a hefty amount of conjecture but also slightly off-topic.

Despite Moses’ weakness and imperfection, God used him to do great things.  Many miracles were performed through Moses.  One example which isn’t given much notice: the entirety of Deuteronomy was a sermon given by Moses.  Yeah, the same dude that argued with God a few books earlier about being a spokesperson when he wasn’t eloquent or quick with speech.

Another example exists in Numbers:

[Numbers 16:28-33 NASB20] Then Moses said, "By this you shall know that the LORD has sent me to do all these deeds; for it is not my doing. "If these men die the death of all mankind, or if they suffer the fate of all mankind, [then] the LORD has not sent me. "But if the LORD brings about an entirely new thing and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them with everything that is theirs, and they descend alive into Sheol, then you will know that these men have been disrespectful to the LORD." And as he finished speaking all these words, the ground that was under them split open; and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, and all the people who belonged to Korah with all [their] possessions. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly.

This example is a bit extreme, but proves the point.  And Moses gets a pretty cool quip out at the start of the quoted text.  “By this you shall know that the LORD has sent me to do all these deeds; for it is not my doing.”  It’s pretty obvious that Moses has no power on his own to open the ground to cause hundreds of people to plummet to their doom.

To teach us that the value inherent in mankind is not absent in the disabled, our Lord Himself uses a blind man as an example:

[John 9:1-3 NASB20] As [Jesus] passed by, He saw a man [who had been] blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?" Jesus answered, "[It was] neither [that] this man sinned, nor his parents; but [it was] so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

Jesus goes on to heal this man’s blindness so that the work done in the man may be seen by others.  Who may then also come to faith.  True faith changes people.  The work done by the holy spirit in a regenerated believer is undeniable and noticeable.  This brings glory to the only entity in existence truly worthy of praise (God, if you hadn’t guessed).  Disabled individuals are that way by design, as strange as that may sound.  I’m not saying that all disabled individuals will be healed in order to give glory to God.  On the contrary, it is often the opposite that is the case.  A most notable example is Paul’s “thorn in the flesh.”  There is much conjecture about what it is exactly.  Some suggest he was blinded when he saw the light from heaven when the risen Christ spoke to him on the road to Damascus.  Others have surmised that it is some sort of physical malady such as a limp.  Some say it was of a more spiritual nature.  Regardless of what the poetic language actually means, the lesson remains the same.
[2 Corinthians 12:7-9 NASB20] Because of the extraordinary [greatness] of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me--to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
This verse is one of the ones I chose to be on my metal water bottle.  The one I plastered with scriptural and theological stickers to counteract the many examples I see of worldly values being displayed on others’ water bottles while I am working at a university as a disability advocate.  I tried to find ones relevant to my position and this one fits the bill.  God uses the weak to show just how strong He is. 

I will list some examples for you to check for yourself.  Consider it homework.  Not all of these examples are directly related to disability, but they are all examples of God using people greatly despite their weakness or personal suffering.

Gideon (Judges 6-8), Hannah (1 Samuel 1-2), David (1 Samuel 17, 2 Samuel 11-12), Elijah (1 Kings 19), Peter (Luke 22, Acts 2), Timothy (1 Timothy 4:12, 2 Timothy 1:6-7).

To wrap up, here’s the verse you may have noticed on the site’s footer.
[Luke 14:13-14 NASB20] "But whenever you give a banquet, invite people who are poor, who have disabilities, who are limping, [and] people who are blind; and you will be blessed, since they do not have [the means] to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

We all have a part to play in the kingdom of God, either as part of the kingdom or as outsiders.  All have a chance to reserve their seat at the banquet.  But it’s RSVP only.  Jesus paid the entry fee in advance, you only need to respond.
Will you?