A word about this post

I wrote the first version of this in July 2007.  When I opened this I was surprised by the fact that I had these thoughts so long ago.  Some of the ideas found here are the focus of my PhD.  There I have argued that it is not ability or inability which makes us human beings.  Rather it is Jesus who makes us human.  In this article my focus is on personal identity.  Again it is not my abilities, my accomplishments or even my relationships which give me my identity.  It is my union with Christ which answers the question “Who am I?”

Introduction

Disability rights groups prefer the term “people with disabilities” over “disabled people”.  Nancy Eiesland[1] makes a very significant statement.  “This usage underscores the conviction that an individual’s disability is just one of many personal characteristics, rather than be synonymous or co-extensive with that person’s self.”  Disability does not define the whole person, yet a person with a disability must come to understand who they are.  ‘Who am I?’ is the question posed by this paper.  What defines a person and is disability or ability part of that definition?

Defining the human self

An appropriate place to begin is with what all human beings share in common.  It is clear that this is not skin colour or a common language.  It should be equally clear that what makes a person human cannot be a particular ability.  For example, it has been suggested that language is the defining characteristic of a human being that separates humans from animals.  While it is true that most humans have spoken language, it is not true of all human beings.  To begin with very young infants do not share language as a characteristic nor do many deaf people, nor those with severe autism.  Some people who have had a stroke lose their capacity to speak and do not thereby cease to be human beings.  Speech cannot be used to define what makes a human being.  This process could be followed for any human ability – walking on two feet, superior intelligence to the animals, colour and depth perception etc.  Since some humans do not have these abilities they cannot be used to define what a human being is.

Related to the idea that humanity is defined by a particular ability is the common practice of a person defining himself or herself by what is accomplished or owned.  This becomes very evident when a man loses a job or when a woman becomes an empty-nester.  What that person did is no more and often this precipitates an identity-crisis because the thing being done is what has been used to define the person.  What people own is related to what people accomplish.  There is a common underlying perception that ownership of things conveys value to the owner.  Thus loss of these possessions can bring about depression.  If a person was once able-bodied and then acquires a disability or a long-term illness, the issues surrounding defining the person according to accomplishments surface.  The things which the person was once able to do may not be possible anymore and the person may seemingly lose identity if accomplishment is no longer possible.

Another way of defining the person is through relationships.  It is not unusual for people to define themselves, at least in part, through their relationships.  I am the wife of my husband and the mother of my children, I am the child of my parents and a friend to my friends.  Sadly these relationships can be a negative way of defining the human being because they are in flux.  The childless couple may define themselves by their lack of children, the lonely person by her or his lack of friends, the orphan by the absence of parents or the single person by the lack of a spouse.

The image of God

But there is another way of understanding humanity and human identity.  The Bible has a particular focus on human beings.  Humanity is the pinnacle of God’s creation, being made in the image of God.  The sin of Adam and Eve marred the image of God in humanity but did not obliterate it.  Jesus is the complete unmarred image of God (Col1:15).  He displays all the characteristics of God and thus he images what a true human being is.

Now the Bible gives no description of what Jesus looked like other than that he was male and Jewish.  There is some description of Jesus’ abilities – he could see and hear, and walk and talk, and he worked miracles.  Yet we do not know how intelligent Jesus was or whether he could play an instrument or if he could sing tunefully.  We are not sure if Jesus was near-sighted or if he limped or if he was allergic to some food.  So much is not said about the human Jesus and there is no way that we can ever know these things.  Because we are not told it seems likely that these things cannot be used to define what made Jesus the image of God.

What we can say is that those who believe in Jesus are taken into him and have the image of God renewed.  Rom8:29records that the purpose of God is to transform those whom he calls into the image of the Son of God, who is the image of the invisible God.  It is ‘in Christ’ that a person becomes truly human because ‘in Christ’ that person becomes the image of God without the destructive and degenerative influence of sin.

Jesus the definer of humanity

Then Jesus is the one who defines what it is to be a human being.  Being a true human being is being found ‘in him’.  Being found in Christ is not dependent on ability or disability.  Being transformed into the image of the Son does not necessarily involve being changed into the physical likeness of Jesus or being endowed with his level of intelligence or being given his abilities.  To understand this concept we need to consider further how the identity of Jesus is defined.

Jesus as Son of God

The biblical picture is clear that Jesus is the eternal Son of God.  Philippians 2:6 assures us that Jesus was eternally equal with God.  Yet he entered into the womb of Mary through the overshadowing work of the Holy Spirit.  As he took on human flesh through this humble entrance to the world he was declared by the Spirit to be the holy Son of God (Luke 1:35).  As Jesus grew he came to see himself in relationship to his heavenly Father (Luke 2:49).  His actions were the actions of the Father (John 5:17).  Jesus did nothing that was not in accord with the will of the Father (John 15:10).  Jesus defined himself through his relationship to his Father.

The cross

But the situation on the cross was different.  Jesus was without ability or accomplishment there.  He cried out, “I thirst” (John 19:28).  In contrast to the ability he once had as the one who claimed to be the giver of living water (John 4:10), at that point Jesus had no abilities.  Nor could he accomplish anything.  What can a man on a cross accomplish?  Such a person strives only to take the next breath and that takes all the energy he or she possesses.  What is more each breath becomes harder and harder to take in.  There is no thought for the future because the future is pain and death.  Crucifixion puts an end to accomplishment.

When Jesus hung on the cross his identity as Son of God seemed to be in question.  The chief priests and scribes could not believe that this crucified man was the Son of God.  They mocked him, saying: “He trusts in God.  Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” (Matt 27:43).  When Jesus was close to death he passed through a point at which he no longer perceived himself as Son of God.  “About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’ – which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Matt 27:46).  Instead of calling out to his Father, he was reduced to referring to ‘God’.

However, his death revealed what was not obvious while he was dying on the cross.  The testimony of the centurion after his death was, “Surely this man was the Son of God” (Mark 15:39).  In a paradoxical way the identity of Jesus as Son of God is demonstrated by the cross.  This is not obvious to those who do not look through the eyes of faith.  But Jesus is most powerfully Son of God as he dies, because he is the one who trusts the Father when that trust seems least warranted.  He is most human in his exercise of faith in the most dreadful circumstances of his life, because his humanness is demonstrated in his willingness to obey his Father no matter what the cost.

In a similar paradoxical way my identity as a human being may be seen as I identify with Christ in my limits, my lack of accomplishments and my loss of relationships.  In other words, in being united to his death on the cross I find who I am.  I am found in Christ.  As the apostle Paul puts it: “I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20a).  So in answer to the question posed by the title of this piece – “Who am I?” – I am ‘in Christ’; my humanity and my identity are found in union with him.