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A headline in the Seattle Times for August 27, 2005, read, "Humans Monkey Around in London Zoo Exhibit." The article featured eight men and women on display in an exhibit labeled Humans.
The sign at the entrance of the exhibit read, "Warning: Humans in their Natural Environment." Inside the bear enclosure were the young, barely clad captives cavorting in their bathing suits and fig leaves.
Adult visitors smiled tolerantly, but children wanted to know why those people were in there. A spokeswoman told the reporter that was exactly the question the zoo wanted to answer. "Seeing people in a different environment, among other animals," she explained, "teaches members of the public that the human is just another primate."
So there you have it. Strip off our street clothes, stuff us into bear cages, tack up a sign, and you’ve proved your point. A human is "just another primate." Monkey, chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan. Just one of the ape-boys, that’s me.
Wrong.
That we have certain features in common with the apes is undeniable. That we are primates, only that and nothing more, is emphatically to be denied.
The psalmist has another take on the human condition, marveling that God has made us a "little lower than the heavenly beings," placing all other living things beneath us.
As far as the scriptural record is concerned, though, the strongest case for humanity’s special category is not a logical argument, but a dramatic offering. It is the proof of the cross. If Jesus is the Son of God, and if he really did go to the cross to save people, and if he really does want us to be with him forever, then we dare not think of ourselves more lowly than we ought. This is an offer he never made to the primates, only to people.
Reduce us to the beast within, and then we deserve to be caged like the animals; but let our God-breathed souls be released and we can take our seats at the Lord’s table, where places are reserved for his friends. Not his pets.
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