Commentary on Colossians 3:1-4

If you want to convey the significance of Christ’s death and resurrection for all the baptized at Easter, it is important to add an Epistle reading to the Gospel. The Epistles are where death and resurrection cease to be only something about Jesus, and become real for the lives of Jesus’s followers. This short reading from Colossians offers a beautiful companion to either of the Gospels chosen for this year (John or Matthew).

Colossians makes the bold claim that believers in Jesus have died with Christ in baptism and have also been raised with him as a present reality.¹

• They now conduct their lives from an entirely new place, “hidden with Christ in God” (3:3).
• This passage concerns the implications of resurrection for Christian moral discernment.

Let’s first take a look at some of the interesting Greek terms that show up in the passage—not to unload them on a congregation, but to give the preacher a sense for the nuances in the Greek as opposed to the English translation. The language can inform your preaching without you ever mentioning the Greek terms:

• synēgerthēte (syn + egeirō), “you have been co-raised with Christ”: The Greek compound verb emphasizes the closeness between the believer and Jesus. They are one body, co-rising together, with deep inner changes for the believer, who otherwise remains on earth. What part of “you” (plural) is above, and what part is below?
• phroneite, “set your minds”: Phroneō is a verb that signifies practical wisdom at work, the wisdom of discerning right actions in complex circumstances. Paul uses it in Philippians 2:5 to urge the community to have the “mind of Christ” in all their dealings with one another in their immediate community.

In Colossians, believers are to have the mind of Christ in discerning their relationship to the whole cosmos. The author of Colossians simultaneously draws a sharp distinction between the baptized and the world around them (“things that are above, not … things that are on earth”) and also makes it clear that believers have a critical role in relation to the world. What distinguishes them post-baptism is the ground of their decision-making: not the standards of the world, but standards derived from a divine perspective. And they inhabit that heavenly place now, in their innermost being, the place where they are hidden with Christ in God. It is a view of baptized humanity that is both transcendent and immanent.

• Use of the second-person plural: Jewish conceptions of resurrection (which are the basis for the claim that Jesus was raised) are communal. For the author of Colossians, resurrection is not only a future reality for the people of God, but a present gift of practical wisdom, the gift of a community living together from a new center in Christ.

The benefit of this passage for the preacher is that it creates an entry point into some of the questions people bring with them when they come to church on Easter: What does the resurrection of Jesus mean for me? How is my life different because Jesus was raised? The claim of Colossians 3:1–4 is that our lives are completely different now. In baptism, we are gathered into Christ in both death (to destructive patterns of living) and new life from an altered moral perspective. The passage offers both reassurance (“your life is hidden with Christ in God … you also will be revealed with him in glory”) and challenge (“set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth”).

So what does the turmoil of our own day look like from this perspective? The critical feature of Colossians 3:1–4 is the way in which it describes the new basis for Christian decision-making now. What are the issues in their families, communities, the nation, the world … that your congregation is concerned about? How do these concerns appear from the place where we have been embraced by Christ in all his suffering and his glory? How do they appear when we consider them from the place where we are entirely hidden in God’s love and grace?

Resources

Kevin J. Madigan and Jon D. Levinson, Resurrection: The Power of God for Christians and Jews (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008). This is a classic book on resurrection, very informative and also readable. It gives insight into the fact that the claim of resurrection has specific meaning for Jews and early Christians. It is not simply the claim of a miraculous occurrence, but makes assertions about God as Creator and about the righteousness of the One who is risen, and makes promises to the ongoing community.

Notes

1. This is a different claim from the Epistle reading for Easter Vigil, taken from Romans 6. In Romans, Paul sees the postbaptismal life as a liminal time between dying with Christ and a future resurrection. The life of the baptized is like being freshly born into a life freed from the power of Sin, a chance to “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). Both perspectives stress the moral dimension of this new life, a new basis for decision-making in line with God’s will for all.