Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-april-18-2024
Colossians 1:15-23
The Supremacy of Christ
15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
For those of us who consider ourselves followers of Jesus, one of the most important steps in our faith journey is figuring out who Jesus was – and is. And as we do that, we figure out what Jesus means in the history of God’s relationship with his people. As the theologians would say, we all have to wrap our heads around our own personal Christology.
This reading from Paul’s Letter to the Colossians can give us some important guidance in that process, it seems to me. In this passage, Paul focuses specifically on Jesus – on who he was and is, on the meaning of his life and ministry, and on how following Jesus is supposed to inform the lives of those of us who do follow him. Obviously, these are all issues at the heart of the faith we claim – all aspects of our shared Christology.
We should probably stop for a minute to note that in his letters, the apostle Paul says next to nothing about the teachings of Jesus. Some of the New Testament scholars say that might be because at that time, there were a lot of people passing along those teachings, so Paul devoted his attention to interpreting the death and resurrection of Jesus – to explaining what it means to us.
If you ask most people who think of themselves as followers of Jesus what they believe about him, the most common answer you’ll get is probably, “He’s the Son of God.” That’s true in a sense, but only in the sense that it’s a metaphor. Jesus didn’t really come along after the Father the way a human son comes after his human father. Jesus was and is one of the three persons of the Trinity. He was present with God – was actually a part of God – since before time began.
This mystery has puzzled believers since the earliest days of the church. For the first three hundred years or so after Jesus rose from the grave and ascended to heaven, his followers spent a lot of time and energy trying to figure out just exactly who and what Jesus was. Some said he was a god who just seemed human. Others said he was a human that God chose and anointed to be the Messiah. Still others said he started out human and then got turned into a god. All of these ideas – and quite a few others – were suggested by people in the early years of the church. And they were all eventually rejected as “heresies.”
But eventually the Holy Spirit led the church to an understanding of who Jesus really was and is. And that understanding was based in large part on passages of the Bible like the one we’re reading today.
In this passage, Paul tells us that Jesus shows us the nature of God in ways we couldn’t see otherwise. He tells us that Jesus actually was God, present here in the world. He tells us that Jesus was present at the creation of the universe, that he took part in the process of creation, and that he was in fact the point of creation. (And by the way, that’s also what the opening verses of the Gospel of John say in different words.) Paul also tells us that Jesus somehow holds all of creation together, and that Jesus is the head of the church. And also that his followers will join him in being raised from the dead.
Then Paul goes on to say that Jesus, by his death on the cross, overcame the alienation between humankind and God that happens because of human sinfulness. Actually, Paul says that Jesus reconciled all of creation to God, which should probably color our attitudes toward the creation around us. Some Christians are dismissive of people who express concern about the environment – they label them as “environmental extremists.” But when you think of the world as God’s creation that was given to us as a gift, it’s hard to avoid thinking we have an obligation to take care of it.
There are some parts of Paul’s letters that seem ‘culturally influenced’ to me – influenced by ancient Greek and Hebrew culture in ways that raise questions about what things are still meaningful for us today. For instance, I doubt that God actually intends that any woman who worships without covering her head should have her hair shaved off. I suspect God no longer expects women to be “submissive” to their husbands. Or maybe a better way to put it is that it seems to me that God’s vision for marriage is for husbands and wives to be “mutually submissive,” both sacrificing for the welfare of the other and of the family as a whole.
But today’s passage strikes me as true for all times and all circumstances. Understanding who Jesus is and the meaning of what he did matters a lot – whether or not you cover your head in church and no matter how your order your family life.
In this passage, Paul doesn’t say everything that can be said about the nature of Jesus, but he says an awful lot. And it’s important for those of us who are trying to follow Jesus to think about these things. Because when we say Jesus is ‘the Son of God’ and somebody asks, “What do you mean by that?” if we answer that question wisely, it could actually help that person come to know Jesus in a whole new way – a way that can change their life.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for coming into the world in the form of Jesus, and for the mighty work you did, in and through him. Open our hearts and minds to come to a deeper understanding of the meaning of his ministry among us, including his life and teaching, and his death and resurrection. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
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