At Easter, Christians are urged — in a reading from Paul’s epistle to the Colossians — since they have been raised with Christ, to “seek the things that are above, where Christ is.” This cosmic dimension to the Easter proclamation introduces us to the remarkable teaching given to the church of Colossae.
Located in the Lycus Valley (southwestern Turkey), Colossae was 175 kilometres east of Ephesus, another important Christian city. In the mid-first century a Christian community existed there, perhaps founded by Epaphras (1:7-8).
The precipitating cause of the letter, written by Paul or possibly by a disciple of his, was the appearance of a “philosophy” that suggested that Christ was not sufficient to the believer’s spiritual needs.
The Colossian “heresy” is much debated. There are links with Judaism as some demanded circumcision (2:11), the keeping of Sabbaths, new moons, festivals, dietary restrictions, even what is referred to as “worship of angels” (2:16-21).
Angelic “elemental spirits” were thought to control the movements of the stars and planets, influencing human destinies (2:8, 20). Those who followed the ascetical practices of this movement sought harmony with God and the ruling spirits of the cosmos — much as people today seek to manage their future by appeal to clairvoyants, tarot cards, etc.
In refuting these views, Paul stressed the unique significance of Christ, and the present, saved existence of the Christian community. Jesus’ followers do not need a secret form of deliverance or protection, for God has already “taken us out of the power of darkness and created a place for us in the kingdom of the Son that He loves.”
Much of the teaching about what God and Jesus have achieved is communicated in the form of prayers and hymns. Thus, Colossians 1:9-14 is a prayer leading into an early Christian hymn to Christ who is not only first to be born from the dead (as in other Pauline writings) but also the first-born of all creation (1:15, 18). All things in heaven and on Earth: everything visible and invisible — Thrones, Dominations, Sovereignties, Powers, all the heavenly beings that the Colossians might want to get on the right side of — all were created through Christ and for Christ.
The reconciliation Jesus effected when the original harmony and order became flawed by sin took place on Calvary “when He made peace by His death on the cross.” This was all part of the divine plan “because God wanted all perfection to be found in Christ Jesus and all things to be reconciled through Him and for Him, everything in heaven and everything on Earth.”
Men and women need not retreat from the world into some esoteric cult or practice in order to live good and upright lives. Here and now they have the power, from Christ and through their baptism, to live a high degree of morality. This is what it means to live in the kingdom of God’s Son.
In the second half, Paul reflects on how the Risen Lord Jesus shares His newness of life with believing disciples. The spiritual renewal effected by baptism invites people to imagine themselves as having entered a new order of being. Their old way of relating, characterized by self-seeking, has to be stripped off. Now they are to be other-directed, “renewed in knowledge according to the image of its Creator.”
All earlier distinctions that lead people to separate themselves from others must be put aside. The contrasting pairs Paul mentions in his epistles include the differences between Greek and Jew and slave and free. Another contrasting pair, “male and female,” is found in Galatians 3:28.
This pairing list is the only time we find the circumcised and uncircumcised contrast (a variation of Jew and Greek?) or the barbarian and Scythian distinction. It is not clear what the point of differentiation is in the latter case. Some consider it racial, the barbarian possibly referring to the black race and the Scythian acting as a representative of the white race.
Others see the “barbarian” as a way of expressing depreciation of someone who does not share one’s language, culture and morals. The “Scythian,” then, would be an intensification meaning, perhaps, “the most barbaric of the barbarians.”
Paul says that members of the church, as the Body of Christ, should remain free of negative stereotypes and distinctions. Henceforth, “Christ is all in all!” Paul said the upshot of this must be a disciple’s renewed mind-set that puts aside all self-seeking, “evil desire and greed, which is idolatry.”
The Greek word translated as “greed” can also be translated dynamically as “always wanting to have more,” the same reality Jesus warned His disciples against in the Gospel (Luke 12:15). Greed has no place in the life of the Christian, for Christ is their all!
Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, S.J. is a noted Scripture scholar and writer. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Fordham University, Master of Divinity and Doctor of Theology degrees from Toronto School of Theology and a Licentiate in Theology from Regis College. Archbishop Prendergast taught in Halifax at Atlantic School of Theology from 1975-1981, then was Rector of Toronto's Regis College from 1981-87 and Dean of Theology from 1991-1994. For 10 years he wrote a weekly column on Scripture for The Catholic Register.
At Easter, Christians are urged — in a reading from Paul’s epistle to the Colossians — since they have been raised with Christ, to “seek the things that are above, where Christ is.” This cosmic dimension to the Easter proclamation introduces us to the remarkable teaching given to the church of Colossae. 
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