In our democratic republic, we don’t know much about kings and queens, except what we see of Queen Elizabeth of England and her son and grandsons who one day will follow her as kings. But Christ in the Gospels often speaks of His Kingdom.
I mention the kingship of Christ because many churches celebrate today as Christ the King Sunday. If you are Lutheran or Episcopalian or Roman Catholic, you know the church year starts with Advent and runs through Christmas, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, and on through the spring, summer and fall. Then the church year ends just before the cycle starts over with Advent. The new church year starts next Sunday with Advent. So, think of today as New Year’s Eve in the Christian calendar. With that in mind, it seems appropriate to climax the church year with the Kingship of Christ. We start with events leading up to the birth of Jesus in Advent and Christmas. We follow that Holy Child as He grows up and enters His ministry, dying on the cross for the sins of the world and then being raised from the dead. But, again, we need to remind ourselves Jesus is not the usual kind of king.
Our Bible passage from the first chapter of Colossians tells of our deliverance from sin. Then it points to Jesus who has always been at one with God the Father. Then we are reminded of our responsibility to be obedient to Christ our King.
Out on the edges of Christ’s Kingdom, things are dark and foreboding. We used to live there. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato described the human race this way: Most of us are like prisoners chained in a cave, unable to move about or even turn our heads. All we can see is the wall of the cave in front of us. Behind us is a fire. Between us and the fire, there is an elevated platform. On the platform behind us, puppeteers hold up their puppets. These puppets cast shadows onto the wall of the cave. As prisoners, we are unable to see these puppets. Chained in place and unable to turn our heads, all we can see and hear are shadows and echoes cast by objects behind us (Cohen).
Think of those people in Plato’s cave as we reflect on Colossians, chapter 1, beginning with verses 13-14:
[13] He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, [14] in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
So many of our hymns and gospel songs are inspired by Scripture, and these verses from Colossians call to mind the song, “The Light of the World is Jesus”:
The Light of the world is Jesus!
Like sunshine at noonday, His glory shone in;
The Light of the world is Jesus!
The Light of the world is Jesus!
We walk in the light when we follow our Guide!
The Light of the world is Jesus!
Sweetly the light has dawned upon me;
Once I was blind, but now I can see:
The Light of the world is Jesus! (Bliss)
Pansy and I were in Chicago celebrating with our son Jonathan last week as he received his MBA. We enjoyed being with him and Vicky and Ethan and Addie.
In my absence, our associate pastor Josh Hunt in last week’s Baraca message focused on Blind Bartimaeus. The disciples tried to keep this man away from Jesus because they didn’t understand the nature of His Kingdom -- the Kingdom of Whosoever. But, in spite of the disciples, Bartimaeus was delivered from darkness and transferred to the kingdom of God’s Son. Jesus leads us out of our narrow ways of seeing. He had a heart for those in great need, such as Blind Bartimaeus and others we tend to neglect. We need that kind of heart.Here in Colossians, after establishing that God delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, Paul makes no further mention of kings and kingdoms in this passage. But I think it’s appropriate to continue the analogy of the Kingdom.
The next six verses -- 15-20 -- are piled high with signs of Jesus’s authority, His kingship, if you will, although Paul doesn’t use the kingship comparison again after saying God delivered us from darkness into Christ’s kingdom. These verses are simply full-to-running-over with descriptions of the superiority, the supremacy of Jesus.
When I think of something full-to-running-over, I think about the cotton sacks we used when I was a kid out in West Texas. Our whole family spent the fall months pulling bolls. Instead of being in school with the other kids, we were out in the cotton patch. We didn’t pick cotton the way you did in this part of the world. We pulled the whole boll of cotton, then broke off the stems and leaves and put boll and all into our sacks. After a while, when we thought our sacks were full, Daddy would make us shake the cotton down and pack it deeper into the sacks to make room for more cotton.
Well, here in Colossians, there’s just so much said about Jesus, we may have to pack our sacks down several times to get all the descriptions in. This is one of the richest declarations about Jesus in the New Testament, along with the first chapter of John’s Gospel, the first chapter of Hebrews, and the second chapter of Philippians. All four of these passages point to Jesus as one with Almighty God. But let’s see what Paul packs into this first chapter of Colossians:
In verse 15, Jesus is the image of the invisible God. Jesus shows us what God the Father is like. God is invisible, but men and women saw Jesus, and they saw God in Him. We’re not talking about physical looks. Rather, we’re talking about the love Jesus showed to people all around Him:, the sick, the blind, the lame, poor people, rich people, foreigners, people who didn’t believe the same things the disciples believed. This was the image of the invisible God.
One day when Jesus was teaching the disciples about God, Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied" (John 14:8-10).
We don’t know what Philip had in mind. Maybe he thought Jesus could snap His fingers or clap His hands and bring God into view as some sort of apparition. But Jesus just says, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, `Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me?”
Physically, they had seen Jesus. But they hadn’t comprehended the spiritual depth of their teacher Jesus. They didn’t realize He is the image of the invisible God.
Paul also says Jesus is the first-born of all creation. In ancient tradition, the firstborn was his father’s representative and heir. He had responsibility for managing the household.
The firstborn son had rights and privileges other offspring did not have. We see that in Genesis with Esau and Jacob. Esau is the older of the twin brothers, but he loses his birthright to Jacob and is so bitter, he intends to kill Jacob. In Jesus’s story we call the Prodigal Son, the older son is furious when his wasteful younger brother comes home and horns in on what he had coming. The younger brother already got his share of the inheritance when he left home. Now he’s back, and the father welcomes him and restores him, as if he had never been away, as if he had never squandered his fortune. Those are negative examples, but they illustrate the strategic role of the firstborn son, the authority, the responsibility that went with being the firstborn.
In Colossians, we can say positively, Christ manages everything in God’s household. That includes all of creation as the next verses tell us (Vaughan 38f).
Verse 16 points to Christ’s role, not only in managing the created order, but also a central role in creating everything:
for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities -- all things were created through him and for him.
All that was part of His work as the first-born of all creation.
You may remember the song “Down from His Glory.” It picks up on that same thought: “The great Creator became our Savior” (Clibborn). The song has another line we will notice after a bit.
The opening verses of the Gospel of John say: all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
We see another statement that links John with Colossians. John says, [Jesus] was in the beginning with God. Colossians verse 17 says, He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Both books say Jesus is the Eternal Christ, at one with God the Father from the very beginning.
Then, verse 18 is simply full-to-running-over as Paul keeps packing more and more into that cotton sack. He says three more things about King Jesus:
He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning; He is the first-born from the dead.
Christ founded the church on the faith of His followers. Let me tell you the first definition or description I learned about what a church is:
The church is a body of baptized believers voluntarily joined together to practice
New Testament principles, believe its doctrines and carry out the Great Commission
for the glory of God.
Along with calling Christ the head of the church, Paul also says, he is the beginning.
We’ve already noted He was IN the beginning with God. But this verse says much, much more. He was not simply IN the beginning. He IS the beginning. Or we could say He is the Beginner.
Paul says one more thing as his sack is full-to-running-over: Not only is He the image of the invisible God. Not only is He the head of the church. Not only is He the beginning. He is
the first-born from the dead. This points to the resurrection, the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of all believers.
And Paul says there is a purpose in Christ’s being all these things: the head of the church, the beginning, and the first-born from the dead. We must recognize Christ in all these things, Paul says, that in everything he might be pre-eminent. Pre-eminent means being in first place.
Again, pre-eminence goes with being the firstborn, the representative of God the Father.
Even after all these declarations about Jesus Christ, Paul still has more to pack into the sack. Listen to verse 19:
For in him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell. We might picture Paul writing all these wonderful things about Jesus on a board or projecting them on a screen. And as he puts this verse up, maybe he waves his hand around all these other dimensions of Jesus, it’s as if he’s summing it all up here: For in him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell.
Jesus was a man among men, born as a little baby to a woman, as we will celebrate next month. But Paul declares Jesus is so much more. Hear those words again: For in him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell.
Think about it. Shout it from the rooftop. It’s beyond comprehension to say all the fulness of God dwelt in a mortal man named Jesus. But that’s exactly what Paul is saying here.
Earlier, I quoted from “Down from His Glory”: “The great Creator became our Savior.” Right after that, the song says, “And all God's fullness/Dwelleth in Him” (Clibborn). That’s straight from Colossians: For in him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell.
In the early church, some said Jesus was not really a man at all. He was some sort of spiritual being from heaven in the form of a man. Others said He was just a man and not God at all.
Another group, known as Gnostics, believed the Eternal God in heaven -- so pure, so great -- kept Himself far, far away, refusing to deal directly with humans. So this Great God created a whole chain of beings. The one closest to God was very much like God. The next was a little less like God and the next a little less than the one who came before. This whole long line of beings got less and less like God and more and more like human beings. According to the Gnostics, Jesus was just one in that long lineup. Paul challenges that view when he says of Jesus: For in him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell.
All this is so impressive, so inspiring. We stand in awe of the majesty of Jesus. With all these marvelous qualities, He is rightfully King Jesus. How could it get any better than this?
That cotton sack really is packed about as full as we can get it. But Paul makes room for one more Biggie. It’s really the completion of all we’ve heard Paul saying about Jesus.
Along with God being pleased to have all His fulness dwelling in Jesus, verse 20 says,
and through [Christ] to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. This, too, is wonderful: Through Christ, God is reconciling all things to Himself, bringing all things, all people, whether on earth or in heaven, back to Himself.
This firstborn of all creation has all the prerogatives of God, but with that, because of that, the Eternal Christ became a little baby and grew to manhood in order to bring all people, all things, back to Himself. Hear it one more time from verses 19-20:
For in him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
It all sounds so good except -- Well, except for those last six words: making peace by the blood of his cross.
This doesn’t fit our understanding of what a king does. A king ought to sit on his high throne and send lesser messengers down to tell about that Great God. A king doesn’t go out and willingly get himself killed. But, as we noted in beginning this message today, we have to rethink kingship if we hope to understand King Jesus.
Jesus, who came to earth as a tiny baby boy, making peace by the blood of his cross, did that to reconcile you and me back to God. We weren’t the sort to be ushered into the presence of a king. But Jesus came, making peace by the blood of his cross, and because of that, Paul says, starting in verse 21:
And you, who once were estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him, provided that you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
That’s what this is all about. God saw you and me as we were, and He sent Jesus to make us more like Him.
The young man about whom this legend centers felt he loved God and, also, his neighbours. But he was poor and had no clothes appropriate for appearing before the king. And he had no money to buy the provisions for the long journey to the castle. So the young man begged here, and borrowed there, finally managing to scrounge enough money for appropriate clothes and necessary supplies.
He had almost completed the journey when he came upon a poor beggar by the side of the road. The beggar sat trembling, clad only in tattered rags as he cried out, “I’m hungry and cold. Please help me…”
The young man was so moved that he traded clothes with the beggar. And he gave the beggar all his provisions as well. He continued his journey to the castle, not knowing whether he would be permitted to enter. But when he arrived, he soon found himself in the throne room, dressed in his rags.
The young man bowed low before his majesty. When he raised his eyes, he cried out, “It’s you! You’re the beggar by the side of the road.”
“Yes,” the king replied, “I was that beggar.”
The young man asked, “But why did you do this to me?”
“Because I had to find out if you genuinely love God and your fellow human beings. If I came to you as king, you would have done anything I asked. But I would never have known what is truly in your heart. I came to you as a beggar with no claims on you except for the love in your heart. And I discovered you sincerely love God and your fellow human beings. You will be my successor. You will inherit my kingdom.”
How different was the king in our story, and how different is Christ our King. Most people in Jesus’s day were looking for a powerful military and political leader,
expecting an elegant figure in royal robes dictating orders to the people.
Instead, they were given a humble man with no intentions of being a military and political leader. A man who displayed his kingship by servanthood. A man who associated with the poorest of the poor. Showing his love to humankind by suffering and dying the death of a criminal on a cross. Willing to be scoffed at, mocked, and derided to save us all.
So many worldly kingdoms survive by the rich and powerful exploiting the poor. King Jesus and his realm are different -- rooted in true mercy and justice. As he rules from his throne, which is the cross—mercy and justice meet. We meet Christ our King and enter his realm whenever we give or receive unconditional love and sacrifice; whenever his mercy and justice are lived out through us.
Mike Marsh is an Episcopal priest friend of mine out in Uvalde, Texas. He said this about Christ the King Sunday: when we think about kings, we’re like kids who play “king of the hill.” We tend to carry that over into our adult lives. We want to be in charge of our own little piles of dirt. He also pointed out, if we sincerely pray, “THY kingdom COME,” we have to pray, “MY kingdom GO.” That is our challenge.
In this Thanksgiving season, as you count your blessings -- in the silence of your spirit or at a crowded table among loved ones and friends -- I hope you will count the spiritual blessings King Jesus brings to your life. And I pray you will represent your King by finding ways to share material blessings with needy people.
CHRIST THE KING
Colossians 1:13-23
Baraca Radio Sunday School Class
First Baptist Church, Anderson, South Carolina
November 24, 2013
Lawrence Webb
William Emmanuel Booth Clibborn, “Down from His Glory.” Share Faith. http://www.sharefaith.com/guide/Christian-Music/hymns-the-songs-and-the-stories/down-from-his-glory,-the-song-and-the-story.html
Curtis Vaughan, Colossians, A Study Guide. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, 1973.
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