Please begin with prayer for an open heart, before you read the passage below. Colossians 1:13-20 - 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption,[a] the forgiveness of sins. 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Control is something that I struggle with and it’s the antithesis of Christianity. In thinking of the wineskin conversation Sunday, I think the religious leaders struggled with control as well. They could deal with Jesus, as long as they ended up playing the ‘god’ role as far as religion went and He played by their religious rules. They had taken the relationship God gave them and twisted the Mosaic laws to become performance metrics to show our righteousness. In Exodus, we see God prescribe laws to govern society, but the sequencing is the profound part of the story. God chooses the Israelites, saves them, and brings them out of slavery. Then, God gives them the Law, which were the parameters to the relationship. The teachers of the law perverted the law, negated the trust/submission role with God, and then controlled the people through fear, by using religion as the weapon.
Jesus, the creator of all things and author of the Law, came back to pay for the sins of humanity and the religious elite could not give up their control and surrender to Jesus. They were attempting to fit the Messiah into their perversion of the relationship that God initiated and shut out and eventually murdered God, in human flesh.
The Colossians passage has amazing language and portrays the awesomeness of Jesus in all the glory He deserves. We limit Jesus to a beauty sash wearing, product in His hair, blue-eyed, Swedish model that is at our beck and call---look at the words---rescued from the dominion, brought us into the Kingdom, image of the invisible God, firstborn, all things were created by Him and for Him, He is before all things, He holds all things together, head of the church, beginning and firstborn, supremacy, God’s fullness dwelt in Him, reconcile, and peace through His blood---incredible!! He is central and refuses a lesser role in our lives.
We have wineskins also and limit the magnitude and majesty of who Jesus is and the transformation He so desires for us that’s only found through relationship with Him. We attempt to hold Him at bay and run our lives while we attempt to patch Him into our lives (old wineskin), where He deserves nothing but full submission, allegiance, praise, honor and glory! We cannot allow Him to be the add-on, like the religious leaders of the day had hoped for, and place a leash on the Savior of the world---He won’t allow it.
How do you limit Jesus through your ‘wineskin’? If Jesus had the place in your life that this passage gives Him, how would your life be different? What words or phrases really caught your attention? I was overwhelmed with the words in this chunk of Scripture and volumes could be written on each portion. Blog away!
mike