Hidden in Christ (Colossians 3:1-4)
The Very Rev. Canon Dr. Rebecca Nyegenye
Easter greetings in the name of the risen Lord. In Colossians 3:1-4, Paul reminds the community of faith about their place in the resurrected Lord. Jesus is the resurrection and the life and so we have to set our hearts on him alone because he is the starting and end point of our existence. Hiding in Christ gives us assured security and lays a basis for our confidence that he lives forever and so we can face tomorrow as it is.
Dying to self means that we have died with Christ and we now live in and with Christ. Any life lived outside Christ is at risk, empty, naked and desperate. Outside Christ is like choosing to sleep on the veranda when the house which has been furnished for you is empty. When thieves and robbers come they don’t have to struggle because it is vacant and easy to occupy, dominate, deceive and destroy as it is written in John 10:10.
Paul’s concern is that believers should set their focus on seeking things above (Col. 3:1-3). Believers are not cheap to collaborate with the chief liar Satan but to seek things that are of a Godly quality, good, peaceful, divine, rather than things that will bring you down.
Paul identifies “above” as “where Christ is seated at the right hand of God” drawing attention to Christ’s lordship. The one who reigns as Lord of the universe, the one at the center of our seeking, is none other than the crucified Jesus, the image of God, who came to renew our lives. The lordship of Christ is intimately connected to Paul’s reminder that we have been buried and raised with Christ. If we are raised with Christ, then we have died to the old life and all of its ways. To seek what is above calls for a re-orientation of our allegiances to the Lordship of the crucified Christ, so that Christ’s lordship might be known and experienced in our lives now.
This Easter God is calling us to focus afresh on the things we have never thought about before, things that matter, that are profitable, useful and constructive. This resonates with Galatians 2:19–20: “I have been crucified with Christ; I no longer live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh, I live in faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself over for me.” I wish all of you a blessed Christ centered Easter. Amen.
The Very Rev. Canon Dr. Rebecca Nyegenye
Ag. Provost