Colossians 2:5-15
5For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, and I rejoice to see your orderly conduct and the firmness of your faith in Christ.
6As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to walk in him, 7rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
8Watch out that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental principles or spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. 11In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by the removal of the sins of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ;
12when you were buried with Christ in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. 13And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, 14erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. 15He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.
Colossians Continues
• More about Colossians from Pentecost 5
• More about Colossians from Pentecost 6
The second lesson this week is third in a series of four from the letter or epistle to the house church at Colossae. Today's scripture again affirms the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. Jesus is sufficient or "enough" for everything there is, for everything that happens, because he has reconciled everything on earth to heaven, has annihilated all death-dealing powers on the cross, and reigns with merciful loving justice. Jesus' ascension means Christ is sovereign over all creation—not only over earth and its inhabitants. This cosmic Christ fills creation to the extent of humanly unknown galaxies, yet inhabits individual humans.
Although the apostle Saul/Paul of Tarsus almost definitely didn't write Colossians, the author addresses his readers with affectionate language very similar to Paul's in his seven undisputed letters. We don't know who planted the church or who their pastors might have been, but Epaphras was their pastor and teacher at the time of this epistle.
Today's Reading
Scholars believe and textual evidence shows the Colossian parishioners had been experimenting with spiritual ideas and practices other than Christianity. Verse 8 mentions "philosophy and empty deceit." They may have denied the goodness of created matter—including human bodies. As a result, the church at Colossae leaned into ideas that viewed bodies as not essential, as lesser-than "spirit," yet at the same time they thought the way people treated their bodies didn't matter. They may have engaged in what we'd call New Age type activities. From our perspective some of those are a bit crazy, and many are harmless, but as this author reminded their first readers and us as well, Christ and Christianity are complete in themselves and don't need add-ons.
Just as with last week, today's scripture affirms Jesus as completely divine, elegantly proclaiming "in him the whole fullness of divinity dwells bodily." Jesus of Nazareth embodies God! Remember Christ is the image of the invisible God… how do you picture, image, or portray something that can't be seen?
Living Locally
As twenty-first century Christians in a culture far different from that of the early church, much different from many twenty-first century countries, we need to remember Christianity by definition is incarnational, literally clothed in realities and artifacts of human endeavor. Jesus spoke the same language as his contemporaries, wore the same type of clothing, enjoyed the same kind of cuisine. As Christians in our communities, we speak a version of the local language or languages (or are in process of learning it if we immigrated from a place that spoke a different one), dress in similar ways, prepare almost identical meals. We baptize in plain ordinary water. We use everyday bread and fruit of the vine for holy communion. Christianity is a global way of life, but its expression always is local.
Baptism and Empire
Most scholars think "spiritual circumcision" in verse 11 refers to baptism; verse 12 says we've been buried with Christ in baptism, and already resurrected with him. In Romans 6 Paul seems to reserve our resurrection from death (our second birth) for when Jesus returns, although he clearly says the baptized "walk in newness of life."
Written amidst Roman imperialism and colonialism, Colossians emphasizes resisting empire. Today we hear about Jesus disarming the "rulers and authorities" after erasing all debts, sins, legal violations, and transgressions on the cross. I remember one bible translation says Jesus "made hash of the powers and principalities." That sounds like Eugene Peterson's The Message, but when I looked to confirm it, it wasn't. Jesus completed the work and reality of salvation in his death, resurrection, and ascension, yet in some senses it remains unfinished. God calls us in our baptism to resist empire and to work for justice, to do everything possible to "make hash" of agents of death and destruction.
Stay tuned for the fourth and last in this series of four readings from Colossians.
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