Year C. Christ the King November 25,2001 Colossians 1: 11-20
Title: “The “image” of God.”
After the customary thanksgiving to God following the letter’s opening remarks, Paul tells his readers that he constantly prays for them that God will give them knowledge of his will in verse nine, and the power to carry it out in verses ten and eleven, and that he is grateful, as they should be, for all he has done, is doing and will continue to do in verses twelve to fourteen, through Christ. He quotes an early Church hymn to Christ verses fifteen to twenty, because it fits so well with the themes he has mentioned- redemption, forgiveness and entrance into Christ’s kingdom- in verses thirteen and fourteen. Verses one to sixteen, sing of Christ as the agent of creation; verses eighteen b to twenty, as the agent of redemption and reconciliation; and verses seventeen to eighteen a, form a transition from the creation motif of verse seventeen to the redemption motif of verse eighteen. Christ, then, is the agent of the entire purpose of God from creation through redemption into the fullness of the new creation. He is not only God’s agent; he is God himself.
In verse twelve, giving thanks. Paul has just prayed that the Colossians have patience, refusal to let difficult people determine their behavior or response, endurance as a refusal to let difficult times determine their behavior or response and joy, the end result of patience and endurance. He continues by stressing the response they are to have to the Father for giving them these virtues and much more. God’s action and attitude toward them can be summarized as grace and their action and attitude toward him can be summarized as gratitude.
In verse thirteen, he delivered us transferred us. Using the Exodus as a paradigm of God’s grace, Paul emphasizes that, even though its fullness lies ahead, in eternity, God’s deliverance has already begun to transfer us into his eternal kingdom. This foretaste of glory is a genuine experience, not merely a legal or theological fiction or technicality. Once the Hebrews left Egypt, darkness and slavery they started enjoying the Promised Land, light, and freedom even though they had not fully arrived. The same is true with Christian Baptism.
In verse fourteen, redemption. Christ secured this. He purchased our freedom at the price of his life. This once-for-all ransom is appropriated individually at Baptism.
Forgiveness of sins: Only here and in Ephesians, do the Pauline letters characterize redemption as “forgiveness of sin,” preferring instead, “justification.” Redemption was not from political, economic, military power, but from the power of sin, past, present and future.
In verse fifteen, the image of the invisible God. The hymn proper begins with this verse and continues through verse twenty “Image” Greek eikon; English icon stands for two ideas; representation and manifestation. An “icon” or “image” was no plastic model of an object. It was thought to participate in the substantial reality of the object it represented. Christ, as God’s image, was not a copy of God, but his embodiment. All humans were made in the “image” of God, but only Christ reflected, represented, manifested, the true image because only he did not sin.
The firstborn of all creation: This is a scriptural way of saying Christ was actually prior to all creation without explaining how that is so. As “firstborn” he would also be heir to it all.
In verse sixteen, in him were created all things In Genesis God created “in the beginning.” Here he created “in him,” Christ, called “the beginning” in verse eighteen. Christ is the “sphere,” within which the work of creation takes place. Now many believed that their were super-human, supra-human, angelic powers, both friendly and hostile to humans, which ruled other realms, dimensions, spheres of the universe invisible and inaccessible to humans. The hymn does not argue about all that; it simply states that all these powers are under Christ. If they exist at all they came into being through his creative power and exist for his purposes.
In verse seventeen, before all things in him all things hold together This verse recapitulates verses fifteen and sixteen, namely, Christ, as agent of creation as well as creator, is both pre-existent and presently involved in the maintenance of what he created. No matter how far our imagination may take us back we can never even imagine a time when Christ was not. More than that, he is “before,” all things in the sense of superior to them and not merely temporally prior to them. This clarifies the meaning of “firstborn.” Christ is supreme over all creation, a position held only by God himself. Christ is God.
In verse eighteen a, the head of the body, the church. If, as some think, “the church” was added later to the original hymn, perhaps by Paul himself, then the original meaning of “body” would be the cosmic “body,” the entire cosmos. Since “body,” was used by the Stoics, and indeed many other schools of thought, to signify the body social and the body politic, common interdependent social life, it would be a small step to have it refer here to the Church, the body, social and spiritual, of Christ. Earlier in Pauline writings he referred to the Church as body, but did not specify Christ as the “head.” Here and in Ephesians Christ is seen as the “head,” of the body in two senses: its origin and its leader. He supplies its life, origin and directs it leader. Like Adam, the head of the human race, Christ is head of the Church. As such he lives, must live, in each member, corporate personality. Members of the Church are “in Christ,” by Baptism, and he is “in them,” because his risen life animates them. See John 15: 1-8, the allegory of the vine and branches, for a similar conception.
In verse eighteen b, the beginning, the first born from the dead. The author has the risen Christ in mind, not the earthly, historical Jesus. The titles applied to him regarding creation- “beginning” and “firstborn”- are now applied regarding; redemption and reconciliation. Triumphing over the sin and bondage characteristic of the old creation by his resurrection, Christ is the firstborn, first of more to come, of many brethren Romans 8:29, harbinger of the great resurrection harvest of his people. Thus he enjoys primacy and supremacy in the new creation of redemption and reconciliation.
In verse nineteen, in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell. “Fullness,” was a technical philosophical term to indicate the whole body of heavenly invisible, angelic powers. In its original context it may have meant just that. Here it means “of God.” In Colossians 2:9 the author gives the meaning more specific content. “For in him dwells the whole fullness of the deity in bodily form.” This includes the human bodily form or person of Jesus, but clearly extends to the risen “body” of Christ. In other words, the totality of the divine essence is resident and alive in Christ. As such he is the intermediary between God and humanity, revealing in himself all the attributes, fullness, of God- his spirit, word, wisdom and power.
In verse twenty, to reconcile all things for him: The Greek word “to reconcile,” apokatallasso, means “to be changed upside down and inside out.” To fulfill his purpose in creating the world God in Christ changed the human condition, a condition made miserable and seemingly hopeless by sin, alienation from God.
Making peace. This is peace between God and the person, the person and all persons, the person- as individual and as communal- and all creation. Even the hostile spiritual powers have lost their vitality and their power over humans, or will soon do so. That is necessary if the act of reconciliation is to be at all possible and if it is to remain in effect and not revert to the former sinful condition.
By the blood of the cross: Christ is the agent of creation. He is the agent of redemption and reconciliation, using his sacrificial death as the means to do that.
Sermon
This seems to be a very early Christian hymn used in the liturgy. Paul quotes it approvingly and even may have added to it. That shows that Paul and the early Church thought deeply and broadly about Christ. They understood that Christ is God and as God is prior to all creation, since he is responsible for bringing all things into being and for sustaining all in being. Jesus came into existence within history, but not Christ. He always existed, pre-existed if you will. As such Christ was present in creation, all of creation, in some way. Certainly he became visible, clear, tangible, if only to believers, in Jesus. However, he is present in, to, and through all creation from all time, since he is present before time and before that.
Christians soon saw all that was said of, personified, Wisdom in the Old Testament to be preeminently true of Christ, the eternal Christ, and of Jesus, the historical Jesus. God is creator. Christ is creator. Christ is redeemer. Jesus is redeemer. Christ as God redeemed, restored, and reconciled the world, scarred and tarnished by sin, by the human Jesus and his sacrificial life and death. The same God who created the world redeemed it. The form those actions took and take may vary, but the substantial agent is one and the same it is, God as Christ, as Jesus.
There was some sort of heresy currently infecting the Colossians and the author writes to correct it. It is nowhere clearly stated what it was. Whatever the specifics it fits into a general spiritual stance taken not only by Christians but by many “primitive,” religions as well. When the transcendence of God is emphasized, the immanence of God can suffer. God becomes the “Most High,” God, God so distant and aloof from humanity that he cannot even be directly addressed. Consequently, lesser deities, spirits or angels, must be addressed as intermediaries. One prays to them and they take the message to God. The “heresy” at Colossae seems to fit that bill. They seem to think of Christ as just another intermediary alongside of other angels, thrones, dominations, principalities and powers. Not so, says the hymn. Christ is above all of them. He is God himself and can be addressed directly. The lesser spiritual powers can be bypassed because they are subservient to Christ, whether they be friendly or hostile to humans. When the eternal Christ entered history as the human Jesus he connected with humans in a way which eliminates the need for any other intermediaries. Humans now have a direct pipeline, if you will, to God.
The best way to combat heresy is to get Christ right. Once we get him right and not try to fit him in with others “-isms” or “-ists” heresy melts down. The function of hymns of praise, recognizing God, Christ in his role in creation and redemption, protects us from heresy and moral error. This particular hymn, having two verses and a refrain can easily be memorized, thus becoming an aid to recalling the Church’s teaching on the matter. This is certainly helpful when questioned by outsiders or under attack by “hostile spiritual powers” in the form of religious zealots. It is also helpful simply to praise the Lord. The hymn reminds us that Christ as God is co-extensive with all creation- this universe and every other one when have yet to learn about. It also teaches us that Christ as God is also fully present in Jesus who is present to us and in us through “the blood of his cross.” Amen.
