Readings (Year C):
2 Samuel 5:1 – 3
Psalm 122:1 – 2, 3 – 4, 4 – 5
Colossians 1:12 – 20
Luke 23:35 – 43
Reflection: In God’s kingdom, no one is forgotten
Philo, a first-century Jewish philosopher, said this about creation: “That which comes into being is brought into being through an instrument, but by a cause. For to bring anything into being needs all these: the by which, the from which, the through which, and the for which.”
According to the hymn that we read today in Colossians, Christ is the through, and the by, and the for, and the in—all that is, is through Christ. At the center of reality stands a person—a person who was crucified. It is not simply the Christ who holds together all things, but the crucified Christ who gives meaning to reality.
When the passage says, “the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in Christ,” what it means, says Bible scholar Marianne Thompson, is that “Christ now sums up all that God is in interaction with the cosmos.”
These few verses offer a very philosophical and deeply theological reflection on Christology, creation, and eschatology. You could write an entire book on just one or two of the words here. And as a theologian, I get excited about the theological horizons opened by this reading. But I also realize that sometimes, we can get too academic about our Scripture and miss some more basic points.
“Brothers and sisters!” That’s how this passage begins. The context is us and our relationship with each other, with the world, and, through Christ, with God. The passage says we ought to give thanks to God who has made us fit for his kingdom. “Fit” or “fittingness” is another one of those nerdy theological terms made popular by Thomas Aquinas. “Fit” refers to suitability. Are you the right shape? Are you the right size? We’ve all experienced the chaos of trying to fold a fitted sheet. A fitted sheet is one that properly belongs to our mattress—not in the sense of possession, but like a puzzle piece. Just as a sheet can be fitting to a mattress, so, says Colossians, God through Christ has made us fit for the kingdom.
And how exactly does he make us fit for the kingdom? We might miss the answer because it’s a little too heady, but basically, the argument is that Christ is the “firstborn of all creation.” Now, we might at first think the writer gets this one wrong because isn’t Adam the firstborn of all creation? But Colossians is making another point. If Adam represents humanity that fails to respond to God correctly, Jesus represents the world that God hopes for. Jesus is the cosmic blueprint for the kingdom of God — St. Origen calls him the self-kingdom.
But let’s keep this from being too metaphysical. After all, scripture is written to invite us to new ways of being together. So how does this very technical passage do that? We can start to formulate an answer when we put this passage in conversation with the gospel reading for today.
Colossians says that in Christ, “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things for him, making peace by the blood of his cross through him”
Reflect on the crucifixion scene Luke paints: we’ve got soldiers, rulers, criminals, one of whom seems to experience a conversion. Though they’re not named, we’ve got onlookers, people who respected Jesus and people who hated him. In other words, Luke is suggesting that at the foot of the cross are people from all different walks of life. The cross is capacious enough to embrace all of them. Through the cross, says Colossians, the tensions and hostilities that surround the cross are embraced.
We have been fit for the kingdom. Like Jesus, we are kingdom kinds of people. And that means that we have the opportunity, through the power of Christ’s cross, to hold together the tensions of the world. There are plenty of them to be found. Maybe we aren’t surrounded by rulers and soldiers and criminals; maybe it’s frustrating neighbors and family members with odious political views and classmates who come from different backgrounds. But no matter what hostilities or differences are swirling around us, we, by the weak power of the cross of Christ, can stand in the gap and make peace between parties. Jesus, after all, was able to make peace with his murderers, asking God to forgive them. And as we saw in today’s reading, Jesus promised someone facing death by execution that he would remember him in paradise. In God’s kingdom, no one is forgotten.
The cross is strong enough to absorb all the world’s contradictions and make peace between them. May we, who have been seduced by the mysteries of the cross, follow Jesus and become a sign of peace in a world beset by hostilities, misunderstandings, and resentments. Amen.
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