The Image of the Invisible God

The above title invokes the lines from the Christological hymn in St Paul’s letter to the Colossians (see Ch 1 v15). I think it would be well worth reading through the whole of the chapter particularly in the light of the on-going trauma which is unfolding in Gaza. We need all the prayers our congregations can earnestly offer for a swift and just resolution to this dreadful situation.

In his letter, St Paul uses the phrase “image of the invisible God” in reference to Jesus as the Christ, the one through whom we have received redemption and forgiveness of sins and have thereby been delivered from the dominion of darkness and transferred into his kingdom. A kingdom which we understand as a living experience in our minds and in our lives as disciples. In his understanding of this phrase the scripture scholar and theologian NT Wright describes the Christian as someone who has become an image bearer of God’s revealed love at work in the world. Through the incarnation this invisible image has become visible to us in the life of Jesus Christ. He is the one through whom all things can be reconciled, everything in heaven and everything on earth, when he made peace by his death on the cross.

In the gospel today to-day we have perhaps one of the most famous sayings of Jesus. The Pharisees try to trap him, thinking they are putting him on the horns of a dilemma.” Is it permissible to pay tax to Caesar or not?” they ask. In answering, Jesus throws the argument back to them. “Whose image is on the coin?” he asks them, and in doing so, he turns the tables on them. Whose image is on the things which we most value in our lives? If we believe that we are God’s image bearers, then the answer should be very clear to us, and we must respond accordingly. We must begin to do the work which Jesus asks us to do. What then is that work?

We look around us and maybe ask ourselves what it is that I can do? I can’t alleviate world poverty or establish universal peace, but in one sense that is not what we are here to do, because the one who came from God as the first born of all creation has already set in motion those realities by his victory on the cross. Our task is to live our lives with the image of that victory firmly embedded in our outlook in respect of everything we do. The incarnation is the breaking into our lives of the pathway towards resurrection into the new creation. Jesus, as the first born, opens the way and we, in the fulness of time, will follow. What we are to do here in the world is to proclaim the message and to express the expectation of our hope in his truth. It means working with those alongside us for the justice and peace of the kingdom to become accessible to all. It means working to make the image of God recognisable and tangible through our deeds and words. St Paul puts it like this: It is for this I struggle wearily on, helped by his power driving me irresistibly. May it be the power that drives us too.