Chapter 2-The Battle Won: Colossians

Continuing with a serial look at NT Wright's Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship . . .

At the foot of Mount Cadmus near the river Lycus a startling declaration would have first been read aloud to the small congregation of Christians in the ancient city of Colosse:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness 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.-Colossians 1:15-20

With those words Paul declared that the great battle had already been won. A battle? Victory? Over whom? The ancients gave them personal names like Mars, Aphrodite, or Zeus, etc. We tend call them by the impersonal titles such as "economic forces" or "political climate." The ancients thought they could be assuaged, even bribed, in various ways. We tend to think one most hope for the best and chalk it up to fate. They are those intangible powers that chew us up and spit us out. One need look no further than any days headlines to see these powers working. The point is that we need the message of this letter today just as much as the Colossians themselves needed it, for we too need to hear of the defeat of the powers and the victory of Jesus.

Paul has three things to say about these powers. First, as in the above passage, all things were made in Christ, through Christ, and for Christ; this includes the powers. These seemingly uncontrollable powers were intended to be part of God's ordered, structured world. The problem is that we have handed power over, through sin, to the powers. When we abuse sex, we have given power to Aphrodite, and she will gladly take control. When we are irresponsible with money, we have given power to Mammon, and he will take control. And so on. When the powers take over, we get crushed.

The second point comes in chapter 2. Jesus confronted the powers. They said to live for money. Jesus said you cannot serve both God and Mammon. They said Israel would be freed through the sword. Jesus said he who lives by the sword will die by it. They said that Caesar was Lord of the world. Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of his Father. At first glance it seems obvious what happened at the cross: the powers killed him. That is what they do to those who challenge them. They stripped him naked and publicly humiliated him. They nailed the charge against him over his head: King of the Jews, indeed. They celebrated their triumph over him, another challenger snuffed out.

But Paul stands all of this on its head in verses 13-15 of chapter 2:

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

The apparent defeat of Christ at the hands of the powers is in fact the defeat of the powers at the bleeding hands of Christ.

The third point is very important. These defeated powers are not annihilated; rather they have been reconciled to God through Christ. As stated above (1:20), "For in him all the fullness 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." So, not to worship Aphrodite does not mean that we become sexless. Not to serve both God and Mammon does not mean that we boycott all currency. God intends for the powers to serve him, and to serve and sustain his creatures as well.

This is why thanksgiving is such a theme of the letter. As Wright says:

He wants them so to understand what the true God has achieved for them in Christ that they will praise him from the bottom of their hearts (1:12-23). He wants them so to understand that they are in Christ, and that therefore no other philosophy or system has any claim on them, that they will celebrate their having died to the old world and come alive to the new (2:6-3:4). He wants them so to grasp the truth of this new way of being human that they will live their lives on the basis of that gratitude, and so be able to put to death all the bits and pieces of the old way of life, and to discover the joy of the new way (3:5-17). In the third chapter of the letter Paul sets out a bracing ethical programme of living in Christ, of following Jesus: no sexual immorality; no anger and violence. But that program does not stand by itself. If you try to live that way without recognizing the defeat of the powers, you will fail. The ethical programme stand four-square on the victory of the cross. The powers of lust, that tell you you can't resist them; the powers of fear, suspicion, and greed, that tell you you must get angry and use violence--these powers were defeated on the cross. They have no rights over you.

As free subjects of the true king we owe nothing at all to the powers. The battle has been won.

All that remains is to celebrate and put into practice this victory. How can that be done? It is surprisingly simple. Every time we gather as God's people we are saying Jesus is Lord and the powers aren't. When we say grace before a meal we are saying Jesus is Lord and the powers aren't. Perhaps uniquely we do this in celebrating the Eucharist, which after all means "thanksgiving." Giving thanks for the work of Christ is the most powerful thing we can ever do. Even if we don't grasp it's significance, the powers surely do. So let's continue on our way with gratitude. The battle has been won; let's celebrate it by following the Lord who won it.

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