The Image of the Invisible God Hailed—Christ the King Sunday C (Colossians 1)

 

Colossians 1:11-20 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹¹ May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, so that you may have all endurance and patience, joyfully ¹² giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. ¹³ He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, ¹⁶ for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. ¹⁹ For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

*************

                When we pray/recite the Lord’s Prayer we ask that God’s realm would come and that God’s will would be done on earth as in heaven (Mt. 6:10). When we pray this prayer, what do we mean by it? What are we asking God to do about the kingdom? Are we praying that the end of the age would come or that God’s heavenly realm would, in some way, be made present here and now? Of course, it could be both (my preference). That prayer, of course, appears in the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus tells those listening to the message to “seek first the kingdom” (Mt.6:33). The liturgical year begins with the promise of Jesus’ advent (both first and last). It ends with this eschatological declaration that Christ is King. After this coming Sunday’s celebration of Christ’s reign over God’s realm, we’ll start all over and journey toward that moment when we can declare Christ to be King. We do this even though many of us live in republics and not monarchies. While it might be true that many of us get to elect the head of state, no one elects Jesus. He is who he is by birth, so says the Colossian letter.

                The Colossian letter is intriguing because of what appears to be a rather high Christology. It also has a few parts that cause modern Christians spiritual indigestion (the household codes). While it may or may not have been written by Paul it is a fitting text to consider on the final Sunday of the liturgical year. Whether or not the author (from now on we’ll call the author Paul) is suggesting that Jesus is divine, he definitely offers us a cosmic vision of Jesus. This Jesus we find in Colossians is no ordinary human. It is he who will strengthen us as we navigate a challenging world.   

                Our reading begins with what appears to be a prayer that asks that the Colossian believers would be “made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power.” That power would be Jesus. Serving as a reminder that the early Christians faced a hostile context if not outright persecution. To be a Christian in the latter half of the first century would mean taking a rather counter-cultural perspective. Not everyone appreciated this attitude. So, the message here is this—be sure to endure this moment with patience. You should even give thanks joyfully to God the Father who has enabled us to “share in the inheritance of the saints in the light” (Col. 1:12). We may find ourselves living within a dark world, but our inheritance allows us to live in the light. Yes, Jesus has rescued us from the “power of darkness” and transferred us “into the kingdom of his beloved Son.” This has apocalyptic overtones, as it suggests that we move from one world into the other. It also reaches back to the Exodus, as God is the one who rescues/redeems Israel. As Jerry Sumney notes, “Colossians takes up and broadens that understanding of God so that God rescues believers from oppression not by a nation, but by cosmic powers, the ruling powers of darkness. This statement envisions people imprisoned by these powers in a realm dominated by evil.” [Sumney, Colossians (The New Testament Library), Kindle, (p. 560].

                With this revelation that God has rescued us from the power of evil through Jesus, we encounter what many scholars believe is an ancient hymn that Paul made use of to further define the identity of the one through whom God redeems, forgives, and reigns over God’s kingdom. The first declaration tells us that the king is the “image of the invisible God.” While Genesis 1 reveals that humanity, male and female, were created to be God’s images/icons, there is something qualitatively different here. Jesus is the image of the invisible God. When we look at him, then we see and experience the invisible God. While we find our beginning within the created order, Jesus is the “first born of all creation.” To give further definition to this revelation, in verse 17, Paul reveals that “he himself is before all things.”  Drawing on this image of creation, Paul reveals that in Jesus “all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible.” As Cameron Murchison notes, in these declarations, we see even more than an echo of John’s Gospel, where Jesus is revealed to be the Word through whom all things come into being. Thus, he writes “God’s work of redemption in the specific loving action of the beloved Son has cosmic significance, embracing ‘all things’ both in creation and redemption, in holding together and reconciling” [Connections, p. 503].

                This cosmic Christ revealed here has dominion over all other dominions, rulers, or powers. Everything was created through him and for him. Everything that exists holds together in him. For readers living under an imperial system that presumes that the emperor rules by divine right, and perhaps is even understood to be a son of god, this is a powerful reminder that there is one who stands above the political system. In fact, all earthly systems stand under God’s judgment and rule.  

                While Jesus has this cosmic role, he also has a more present-centered one. That is, he is the head of the body, the church. This community we are part of, it’s his body. It may have an institutional form, that is, it is visible, and yet it is more than an institution. It is organic (body). As such, he is the beginning, the source, and the foundation of all things, including the church.

                We should note here that not only is Jesus the firstborn of creation and the one in whom all things, including the created order, hold together, but he is the “first born of the dead.” Here the reference is to resurrection. He is the one who pioneers resurrection so that we might share in this new beginning. But as such, he has first place in everything. There is no one other than him, not the emperor or anyone else, who stands before him. Yes, this is a high Christology, though in and of itself this does not mean the author believed that Jesus was of one substance with the Father, and thus equal to the Father.

                The confession is not yet complete. So, not only is Jesus the image of the invisible God, the first born of creation, the first born of the dead, the head of the church, and the one in whom all things hold together, he is the one in whom “all the fullness of God is pleased to dwell.” So, what does this mean?  Jerry Sumney writes that “this statement about the divine presence is emphatic. It does not merely affirm a presence of God in Christ; it also attributes to him the possession of all the fullness. It proclaims that all that God is dwells in Christ, so no one could be higher. This affirmation, then, emphasizes the majesty and superiority of Christ to all others” [Colossians (p. 74)]. Again, this does not mean that Paul is revealing that Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, but it provides a suitable foundation for not only a high Christology but one on which the Trinity can be developed. What we can say, it seems, is that when we see Jesus we see God’s true image, the one who reveals God’s true identity. That is because God’s fullness is present in and with him. Therefore:

                All hail the power of Jesus’ name!

                Let angels prostrate fall;

                Bring for the royal diadem,

                And Crown him Lord of all. —Edward Perronet

Pantocrator, God the Son, as the Creator of the Universe, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58411 [retrieved November 10, 2022]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bible_moralis%C3%A9e_de_Tol%C3%A8de_-_Dieu_pantocrator.jpg.