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The apostle Paul wrote this letter to “the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae” (Col 1:2), a city near Ephesus in what is now Turkey. Paul was concerned about false teaching in their community, and wrote the Colossians to stress the supremacy of Christ as the greatest power in the universe. Far more than an influential religious teacher, Christ “is the image of the invisible God,” said Paul, “the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created” (Col 1:15-16). As “the image of the invisible God,” Jesus is the human face of our divine Lord. As “the firstborn of all creation,” he joins the Wisdom of God as being created “at the beginning of [God’s] work” (Prov 8:22). As the one in whom “all things in heaven and on earth were created,” he is the Word of God through whom all things came into being, “and without him not one thing came into being” (John 1:3).
Image of God. Firstborn of God. Creative power of God. The Christ described in this letter is not small and insignificant, meek and mild. Instead, he is a truly Colossal Christ! Paul’s image of Christ in Colossians fits a medieval map of the world which has the head of Christ at the top of the world, his hands on either side, and his feet at the bottom. Jerusalem is his navel, with the new life of the resurrection depicted by a picture of Jesus leaving the empty tomb. The original map was twelve feet by twelve feet, painted on thirty goatskins sewn together in the 13th century. Called the “Ebstorf Map,” it was found in a convent in northern Germany in 1843, but the original was destroyed during the World War II bombing of Hanover in 1943. It was truly a Christian map of the world, because Christ covers the map and holds it all together.
“All things have been created through him and for him,” said Paul, sharing this medieval map’s view of the world. Christ “himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col 1:16-17). Paul believed that nothing in all creation was beyond the powerful grasp of the eternal Son of God, and that all things held together in Christ. This belief in the unifying power of Jesus was important in the first century, although it has become controversial in the 21st century. In a book called Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, Rob Bell says that the insistence of the first Christians was that when you saw Jesus — a first-century Jewish rabbi — you were seeing God in skin and bones, flesh and blood. “Jesus, for these first Christians, was the ultimate exposing of what God has been up to all along.” And exactly what was God’s mission, as revealed in Jesus Christ? “Unity,” says Bell. “Unity. To all things. God is putting the world back together, and God is doing this through Jesus.”
Such a statement fits very well with Paul’s letter to the Colossians, which says that in Christ “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 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 the cross” (Col 1:19-20). God uses Christ to reconcile to himself all things, in earth and heaven. Christ makes peace between people and God, and between people one to another. Christ is creating unity where there was once brokenness and separation. Through Christ, “God is putting the world back together,” insists Bell.
So what does it mean for us to follow a unifying God and join the Colossians in serving a Colossal Christ? We begin by putting Jesus at the center of our world. In the Ebstorf Map, the geographical center of the world is the empty tomb of Jerusalem, with a picture of Jesus being raised to new life. Christ should be our center as well, as we try to live the resurrection in our home, schools, and workplaces. This means forgiving others, as Christ has forgiven us. It means choosing life over death, as God did when he raised Jesus from the tomb. It means responding to evil with goodness, grace and love. With Jesus at the center, we can begin to see that he is much bigger than the narrow world of our churches and denominations. Christ touches everything in the Christian map of the world, just as he does in the physical world. He is truly a Cosmic Christ!
After putting Christ at the center, we can be bold enough to join him in the work of reconciliation. This is the toughest of challenges today, because we live in a world that is racially fractured and politically polarized. But if we use a Christian map, we follow the God who “has given us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor 5:18), another of the Bible’s greatest hits. We open our churches for discussions, as Reconciliation Parish has done in Germany, bringing together former members of the secret police and their victims. We build bridges with outsiders, as California’s Saddleback Church has done with its Christian-Muslim picnics. We organize interfaith dialogues about peacemaking in the Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions. This passage from Colossians is one of the Bible’s greatest hits, because it challenges us to follow a Christian map of the world and serve the Christ in whom “all things hold together” (Col 1:17). Colossians tells us that God wants to put the world back together, through both Jesus and us.
Questions:
1. In your experience, how does Jesus Christ hold all things together?
2. How does Christ create unity where there was once separateness?
3. What can you do to move Christ closer to the center of your life?
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