Proper 12 / Pentecost 10 / Ordinary Time 17
Devotional
Water From the Rock
Lectionary Devotional for Cycle C
Object:
He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.
-- Colossians 2:15
Previously, Paul had asserted that Jesus was head of the body, the church (Colossians 1:18). In this passage, Paul expanded that claim and asserted that Christ is "head of every ruler and authority." This was not one among several competing philosophies and human traditions but the very core of reality in the universe that Paul was talking about. Circumcision was the physical act by which the Jewish people were marked as belonging to God. Paul asserted that there was a spiritual circumcision through baptism by which God claimed all peoples. Physical circumcision was restricted to males who practiced the law of Moses. This spiritual circumcision through baptism erased the barrier between males and females and that between Jews and Gentiles.
While this universal dimension to God's purpose had been glimpsed in the words of various figures in the Hebrew scriptures, it was now made abundantly clear in the crucifixion of Jesus. Jesus had challenged many of the accepted traditions of Israel in his ministry. He seemed to have violated the sabbath, eaten meals with tax collectors and sinners, presumed to speak for God in offering forgiveness of sins, and been found lacking by many of the religious leaders of the day. It had become an accepted understanding of the law, as expressed in Deuteronomy 21:22-23, that "anyone hung on a tree is under God's curse."
Therefore, by all that the best thinkers in Israel believed to be sacred, Jesus died a sinner rejected by God. Jesus, who proclaimed the steadfast love and grace of God, was seen by the law to be a sinner. Yet his resurrection revealed God's affirmation of Jesus. God allowed this law that condemned Jesus to be nailed to the cross (v. 14) and erased the record against him through the resurrection. The Roman rulers and the religious authorities had exercised their power against Jesus in a public execution. Jesus "made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it."
-- Colossians 2:15
Previously, Paul had asserted that Jesus was head of the body, the church (Colossians 1:18). In this passage, Paul expanded that claim and asserted that Christ is "head of every ruler and authority." This was not one among several competing philosophies and human traditions but the very core of reality in the universe that Paul was talking about. Circumcision was the physical act by which the Jewish people were marked as belonging to God. Paul asserted that there was a spiritual circumcision through baptism by which God claimed all peoples. Physical circumcision was restricted to males who practiced the law of Moses. This spiritual circumcision through baptism erased the barrier between males and females and that between Jews and Gentiles.
While this universal dimension to God's purpose had been glimpsed in the words of various figures in the Hebrew scriptures, it was now made abundantly clear in the crucifixion of Jesus. Jesus had challenged many of the accepted traditions of Israel in his ministry. He seemed to have violated the sabbath, eaten meals with tax collectors and sinners, presumed to speak for God in offering forgiveness of sins, and been found lacking by many of the religious leaders of the day. It had become an accepted understanding of the law, as expressed in Deuteronomy 21:22-23, that "anyone hung on a tree is under God's curse."
Therefore, by all that the best thinkers in Israel believed to be sacred, Jesus died a sinner rejected by God. Jesus, who proclaimed the steadfast love and grace of God, was seen by the law to be a sinner. Yet his resurrection revealed God's affirmation of Jesus. God allowed this law that condemned Jesus to be nailed to the cross (v. 14) and erased the record against him through the resurrection. The Roman rulers and the religious authorities had exercised their power against Jesus in a public execution. Jesus "made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it."
