Recently there was a story in the local newspaper about a body that was found on a construction site in a nearby town. Turns out a 21 year old man killed his own father and buried his body on the job site. The young man was predictably charged with second degree murder. He was also charged with an “indignity to a body.” This seems a little bit strange to me. Allow me to explain: Presumably the “indignity” was the means of disposal. I can understand maybe a littering charge, I mean who really wants to be tripping over over pop cans, empty milk shake cups…and dead bodies when you are out for a walk. Its just unpleasant. But indignity to a body? Really? I have a hard time believing that the former occupant of the dead body really cared about how it was disposed of by the time the “indignity” happened. Its an empty shell. Its not a person anymore.
Do you ever wonder why it is illegal to cause indignity to a dead body, and yet it is perfectly legal and even encouraged in our society to cause indignity to a living human soul? I think that perhaps this was the causation that precipitated the the murder which lead to the indignity to the body in the first place. Genesis 2:7 NASBS
[7] Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
In the Genesis account of God creating mankind we see God breathing His life into us, animating us…making us alive. In the previous chapter Genesis 1:26, God had decided to make mankind in His very image for the purpose of relationship. The created with the uncreated. There is something special about being a human. We have been given an inherent dignity.
I’m just guessing here, but I think it would be safe to say that this young man and his father had for a long time, traded indignities to each other’s souls. They had likely each forgotten as most of us do what our true identity is—that we are all created with dignity. That each one of us is a one of a kind masterpiece created by the divine artist. And they reinforced a false identity of each other to each other. Anger grew and turned into violence which brought death, guilt, shame and “indignity to the body”.
How many times every day do we look at someone else and see them as common, less than ourselves, maybe just a pain in the ass? Do you look down on the person in disgust who just inconvenienced you by doing something stupid? Do you mutter under your breath when you see that homeless person, that it’s there own damn fault for being in that situation, that they could have made better life decisions? How about that annoying family member or coworker you just don’t like. Do run them down in your thoughts and words? Yes, these words are an elbow in my own ribs. Like all of us, I forget the value of people much too easily and one reason I write the stuff I write is to remind myself of these important truths.
How would the world around you and I look if we recognized the dignity of every person around us. If whenever we saw another human, we would pause and look at them in awe and wonder of their uniqueness and irreplaceable value as one handcrafted by the Divine artist Himself? What would the world look like if we treated everyone like that?
God saw that we had, in our imaginations, lost our true identity. He reintroduced the dignity of the human project by becoming human as well. In the “Lords prayer” we hear Jesus praying in Matthew 6:10 NASBS “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.” What is God’s will? It is the same as the greatest commandment, that we love God with all of our heart, soul and mind and love our neighbour as ourselves. God is all about relationship. This is how the world will look around you and I as we recognize human dignity. It would look like the healing of human souls. It would look like heaven on earth.