Wednesday in the Third Week of Easter

Readings

• Exodus 19:16–25
• Colossians 1:15–23
• Matthew 3:13–17
• Psalms: 38; 119:25–48

Colossians 1:15–23

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, 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. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him 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 his cross.

And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him, provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a minister of this gospel.

Notes

Yesterday Paul told us we have been transferred into the kingdom of the Son. Today he doesn't describe the kingdom — he describes the Son. And what follows in verses 15–20 is widely recognized as a hymn, likely older than the letter itself. Paul is quoting early Christian worship.

The context matters for the whole passage. The Colossians were facing a "Jesus plus something" problem — teachers insisting that real spiritual maturity required additional knowledge, experiences, credentials. The hymn is the answer. Jesus is not only sufficient, He is the source.

Verse 15 calls him the image of the invisible God. Exodus 33:20 says no one can see God and live; Jesus reverses that. We look upon God in order to live. The same verse calls him the firstborn of all creation — a phrase some have read to mean Jesus was a created being. Verse 16 immediately rules that out. Prōtotokos here isn't about sequence but status: the cultural role of the firstborn, carrying primacy, preeminence, and authority.

Verse 16 pushes further. Jesus is not created; he is the source. He takes on the role of Wisdom in Proverbs 8/Sirach 24/Solomon 7 — God's creative power personified. Don't miss that Wisdom is unmistakably feminine in the Hebrew Bible and in the inter-testamental literature, and Paul applies that Wisdom imagery to Jesus without hesitation.

And notice what's named among the things created in him: thrones, dominions, rulers, powers. Sylvia Keesmaat reads this hymn as anti-imperial through and through. Every title Rome claimed for Caesar, Paul hands to Jesus. The very powers that would try to usurp his authority were themselves created in him and for him.

Verse 17 keeps the thread: "in him all things hold together." Whatever coherence the cosmos has, it is borrowed. Verse 18 adds another firstborn — this time "from the dead." If he is the first, others are coming. Jesus is not an exception to resurrection; he is the beginning of a pattern.

Then verses 19–20 give the hymn its theological center. All the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in him, and through him God was pleased to reconcile all things. That is not an angry God being appeased by a sacrificial Jesus. It is God-embodied making peace. Fullness and reconciliation are a single movement.

The hymn ends at verse 20, and verse 21 picks up in prose with an important point: we were estranged, not God. Paul is clear: God was never against humanity. Humanity was against God. Direction of hostility matters.

Verse 22 then refuses to spiritualize the reconciliation. It happens "in his fleshly body through death." Bodies matter. Creation matters. The incarnation is the instrument of peace, not an embarrassment to it.

Verse 23 introduces the hinge for the rest of the letter: "provided that you continue." Paul doesn't deny free will. God has done all the work of reconciliation, but we still have the capacity to stay estranged. The rest of the letter is going to walk us through the drift—how it happens, and how we don't have to follow it.

Questions for reflection

Where have you been tempted by a "Jesus plus something" theology — the quiet conviction that real maturity requires an extra experience, credential, or knowledge that Jesus alone doesn't provide?

If God was never against you, what changes in how you pray?