Colossians 1:15-17 (NRSVue)
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.
The letter to the church at Colossae is attributed to the apostle Paul during one of his imprisonments, primarily due to the mention of imprisonment in v. 4:3 (“At the same time, pray for us as well, that God will open to us a door for the word, that we may declare the mystery of Christ, for which I am in prison.”) However, scholarship on the authorship of the letter to the Colossians has also suggested that it may have been written by someone other than Paul because the letter – both in style and content – is significantly different from the other prison epistles (Ephesians and Philippians) and is much more like the other personal prison epistle, Philemon.
Whether the letter was written by Paul or not, this passage is beautiful and elegant. It may be an extension of Paul’s thought – either his own or one of his followers writing after his death – which builds on the elegance articulated in Philippians 2:5-11 (see my meditation Jesus Chris is Lord). Paul’s words in Philippians are echoed here, in Colossians, when he draws this image that – in the Second Person of the Trinity – all things across the cosmos are created and hold together.
One of the great mysteries of the Christian faith is how such a being would come to walk among us in the humble man depicted in this image. In a humble first-century Jewish apocalypticist, that being would come to be with us and share in our struggles. Not to exist in some lofty other-wordly reality, but among us as flesh and bone. Further, in this man, all powers, dominions, rulers and thrones are created and not for themselves, but for him. In this humble man, all authority in heaven and on earth resides.
And, yet, he allowed himself to suffer and die at our hands. What love is this? When he – who held all power at his disposal – instead pronounced, in his dying breath, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Rather than calling down wrath and judgment, he took judgment onto himself. He did not pour it out but, rather, in love took that wrath into himself and was buried with it. Most mortals, in that moment of anguish and suffering, having that authority at their hands, they would have lashed out and exacted vengeance. But not him. Not this man. Not this humble, simple man. No; he took that pain and suffering, that power that could have been turned against us, and took it to his grave.
This image is intended to capture that simple man, standing by the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Were we to have a camera or smart phone, perhaps an image captured in a moment of candidness would have seen a man like this, living, loving, and serving others. May this image – and the knowledge that in this man was “the invisible image of God, the firstborn of all creation” – sit and abide with you. May it fill you with love for him and the whole cosmos – which is his – which he himself sustains and holds together – even you – and call you into ever greater communion with him. For, in him, you are.