“Until that moment in history [the Council of Nicaea in 325], Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet…a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless….Jesus’ establishment as ‘the Son of God’ was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicaea....Constantine upgraded Jesus' status almost four centuries after Jesus' death.”
In these words, Sirs Leigh Teabing, a central character in Dan Brown’s novel, The Da Vinci Code, reveals all about the alleged deceptions and misconceptions of traditional Christianity. The Da Vinci Code may be old news, but it cleverly played to a fascination with alternative spiritualities and a prevailing suspicion toward “institutional religion” that are both still very much with us. It was also riddled with historical errors and distortions.
Dan Brown was correct that the Council of Nicaea addressed the question of the divinity of Christ. The council’s great achievement was the Nicene Creed, and its assertion that the Son is “of one being with the Father.” While the language of the Creed was new, it expressed a conviction that went back to apostolic times. It is simply not true that until Nicaea, Christians viewed Jesus as merely a “mortal prophet.” While never denying Jesus’ humanity, the New Testament makes very strong statements about the divinity of Christ, as we have seen in the preceding readings from John and Philippians.
Our reading for today from the Epistle to the Colossians offers another robust statement of Jesus' divinity. Colossians reiterates some of the things we have already heard: it points to the pre-existence of Christ; it agrees with John 1:3 that “all things were created through him.”
While Philippians says that he was “in the form of God,” Colossians asserts that “in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.”
While John said that “no one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known,” Colossians says that, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” Both passages tell us that we meet the God whom we cannot see in the Son whom we can see.
Colossians tells us a few things that we haven’t heard before. We learn that Jesus is “head of the Body, the church,” reminding us that we are never left to our own devices; he is always present to us and remains sovereign over the Christian community.
And Colossians stresses that in his divinity, joined to his humanity, Jesus has reconciled all things to himself by the blood of his cross.
This brief passage is a remarkable “Curriculum Vitae” of the Pre-existent Son who is made incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ. Refer back to it often!
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