Jesus Action Figures and the Preeminence of Christ
Colossians was written, mostly, to counter bad theology/teaching. We don’t know the exact bad theology/teaching that was being countered, but we know for sure Paul’s answer to the error, the preeminence of Christ: the visible image of God, holding the status of the preeminent (not first born in order, for he alway was and has been, but first in status), creator of all, fully God, reconciler (the one made peace between God and his church through the blood of the cross), the one who will present us Holy and blameless and above reproach before the Father. This is the answer to whatever bad theology/teaching Paul is countering and it is the answer to bad theology/teaching we encounter today.
I have noticed that it has become quite the trend to display these little Jesus figures in offices and workplaces. There is a saying that goes with them, “everyone needs a little Jesus.” As I read and meditate on Colossians, I cannot square this little miniature action figure Jesus with the Jesus I read about in the Bible, the same Jesus I call Lord. I certainly cannot square the saying “Everybody needs a little Jesus” with the Bible. For it is true that everyone does indeed need Jesus in order to be reconciled to the Father, but it isn’t just a little Jesus we need, it is a lot of Jesus – all of Jesus. He isn’t some little trinket we add to our lives like a good luck charm, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, by him were all things made…….He is before all things and in him all things hold together..the head of the body the church..in him the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on heaven or on earth. We are desperately lost without all of Jesus..His call to be his disciple is not to add a little Jesus to our lives, it is to deny ourselves and follow him, to make him our Lord. Perhaps I am over thinking the little Jesus figures that seem to be everywhere. I know I am not overthinking the preeminence of Christ and what the words of Colossians 1:15-23 say about my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, for upon such marvelous truth are sinners saved and upon such marvelous truth will those who call upon the name of Jesus gaze for all of eternity.
