The new life that is hidden in Christ through burial and resurrection is a new life that starts at your baptism, God’s work on your behalf that has ongoing effects.
This pericope follows on the heels of the Apostle’s baptism talk introduced in chapter 2, and answers more specifically what the life of the baptized believer indicates in real time. It is not just an initiation ceremony, one and done, like the initiations into the Eastern mystery religions of the first century Roman world, giving the devotee a memory of an event and an assurance for some kind of afterlife in the future. Life in Christ is more transformative and permanent than that. It is God-wrought, like a permanent surgery (remember Paul’s connection to circumcision, Colossians 2:11-13) that leaves not only an ongoing mark on the believer, but a new, ongoing, daily life, which is described in Colossians 3 in terms of both hiding/revealing as well as casting off old/putting on new clothes.
A focus on either of those motifs from the pericope will yield a message that delivers Christ faithfully and significantly for your hearer. Christ is the center of Paul’s encouragement and paraenesis for the Colossian hearers/readers, and Christ is the center of your message for your hearers as well. Notice: Christ is hidden in them (Colossians 1:27) and they are hidden in Christ (3:3). So also, Christ has been revealed to them (1:5-6, 26; 2:6) and will be made manifest at the end of time (3:4). They too will be revealed as who they are in His glory (3:4; also see 1:21; 2:12-13). Here are some notes that think specifically about the “hiding” motif.
When preparing for a hiding/revealing sermon you can fruitfully study the ways the verb “hide” is used throughout the scriptures, even with a basic English concordance search. You will find that God “hiding His face” can be bad news. Some examples of this are Cain’s complaint in Genesis 4:14, that God hides His face as punishment in Deuteronomy 31:17-18, and the cry of Job and the Psalmist in Job 13:24 and Psalm 10:1, as well as an overtly Christological link in Psalm 22:24. On the other hand, God “hiding His face” can also be good news. In Psalm 51:9, forgiveness is God hiding his face from your sins. God “hiding you” is a protection metaphor in Psalm 17:8, 27:5, and 32:7. This is also related to God as a refuge (Psalm 46), which has a beautiful “covering” image at Psalm 5:11-12 (a connection point to the clothing motif of Colossians 3 as well). Narratively it is key to recall our first parents who hid themselves naked and afraid (Genesis 3:8, 10), Saul’s inability to hide himself (1 Samuel 10), and the moments when Christ hides and is revealed in His ministry (John 8, 12). Christ also preaches with “hiding” in mind. For example, a city on a hill cannot be hidden (Matthew 5:14), a point Paul underscores at 1 Timothy 5:25, and the Kingdom of God is like a treasure hidden in a field (Matthew 13:44). The Christ is Himself the servant of the Lord, appearing as one from whom men hide their faces (Isaiah 53:3).
Paul introduces “hiding” and “revealing” throughout Colossians with the mystery talk at 1:26 and 2:3, which also has its center in who Christ is and what He has come to do. It turns out God exposing what had lain in hiding for centuries (that He is saving the world, all the nations, even the Gentiles, in Christ!), finds its climax in another hiding and revealing outcome: All of you are hidden too! And all of you will be revealed! And all of this is true because you have died a baptismal death, buried with Him, and have been raised up with Him to live in the now and the not yet, indeed, where Christ is. What a miracle! Not only do you set your mind on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God (Colossians 3:1), but your life is hidden with Christ in God (3.3). This means you are at the right hand of God with Him there too. And He is with you, daily, throughout your life in the now. As the branch is to the vine, I am His and He is mine. Wherever He goes, you are there too. Wherever you go, Jesus is there too. That is the baptismal life, in the now, and in the hereafter to be revealed. Another way of talking about this is that you are clothed with Him, clothed in Him, putting on the clothes of the new man, the new Adam (Colossians 3:10; also see Galatians 3:27). This means a new identity, a unity in Christ, where there is no Greek, Jew, slave, or free (Colossians 3:11, and again, see Galatians 3:28). And if you are new, then you cannot do otherwise than cast off the old clothing of the old man, the old Adam identity, with all of its works, putting those old deeds to death (Colossians 3:5-9).
Wherever you go, Jesus is there too. That is the baptismal life, in the now, and in the hereafter to be revealed.
In other words, the new life that is hidden in Christ through burial and resurrection is a new life that starts at your baptism, God’s work on your behalf that has ongoing effects. Students of Reformation theology will recall Luther’s emphasis on baptism as the root of the transformed daily life. It indicates that the old Adam in us with all sins and evil desires should be drowned and die through daily contrition and repentance, and that daily a new person is to come forth and rise up to live before God in righteousness and purity forever. This is a summary of Colossians 2 and 3, encapsulated elsewhere in Paul’s letters as well, and especially in Romans 6:3-5.
Theology always asks the question, “What is God doing?” There is a lot in this Colossians 3 pericope about what people should not be doing; not much on good works, though, and not much on what people should be doing (you can read about that bit in the rest of Colossians 3). The balance of this pericope is really not, however, on the ethics stuff, the catalogue of sin at Colossians 3:5-9, but rather on the theology: What God is doing. So, craft your sermon that way.
What is God doing? He is looking at sinners who hide (Genesis 3). In fact, sinners hide because of things they think they can hide away themselves, maybe even hide from God (Colossians 3:5-9). But what does God do? Because of sin, He threatens to hide His face from you. But because of Christ, He does not. Because of Christ He promises that He hides His face from sin (Psalm 51). He hides, He covers, your sins (Psalm 32:1-2). How does God do this? By coming to be the one from whom men hide their faces (Isaiah 53:3). But this is the Christ: We cannot hide from that horror; He was publicly displayed as the horror of sin. And that is good news for you, because what God has Himself done, He has done for you. That horror is in whom you are hid; Christ who died your death. You now die and are hidden in Him. You are publicly displayed at the end - His death and His glory, His life and your glory. Funny thing, that. Those bits you want to hide because you are ashamed (Genesis 3; Colossians 3:5-9), are now actually hidden from God because He cannot see anything but the most shameful of all, the death of His Son. And what He reveals is the most glorious thing of all: You, His child, seated with Him, because you are hidden in Him (Colossians 3:1-4).
One final thought for this week. Epistle pericopes through the Pentecost and Trinity seasons are not deliberately linked to either the Old Testament or Gospel pericopes as they are during festival seasons. Sometimes lightning strikes, though, with a verse or two that can reinforce the theme of the other lesson, and this just happens to be one of those Sundays. Read through the Ecclesiastes selections and the Luke 12 narrative and parable, and you will have money on the mind; covetousness, greed, and, indeed, idolatry (Colossians 3:5!) is one exponent of the “things that are below” (3:2), the “old self with its practices” (3:9) that Paul describes as the old Adam life that is dead.
Here is a quick outline of a “greed” sermon that might help enliven your hearers as well!
Colossians 3: It is about who Christ is, it is about who you are.
1. Life question: Is life about who you are, or what you have?
a. Luke 12 parable: Clearly, life does not consist in what you possess.
b. Moves from greed to atheism.
c. No wonder Paul calls greed idolatry (Colossians 3:5).
2. Who is the Jesus the Word reveals today?
a. The teacher of the parable.
b. This is Lukan travel-narrative Jesus, who will add to this lesson other greed lessons (Luke 16, 18, Jesus’ camel and eye of a needle maxim and Peter’s desperate question: What about us?).
c. The point Jesus makes, and that Ecclesiastes makes too, is the richer one gets, the less one feels need; the less one relies on the giver God, the more secure one is in being the possessor of gifts.
d. The revealed Jesus here is the teacher of faith – reliance!
3. This Jesus reveals what faith is in His opposites game – His signature move.
a. His Kingdom, where the first are last, the last first.
b. Where He takes from the exalted and gives to the humble.
c. That is theology of the cross, not the name it and claim it theology of glory.
i. Theology of glory: Prosperity mindset, leads to transactional, human theology.
ii. Theology of the cross: Calls the thing what it is, shows Jesus choosing the low, the marginalized, the poor, the nobodies.
1. That is what the Lord chooses: Not what you have, but who you are, the nobody, so He can mold you into the image of His Son. (Colossians 3:4, 3:10)
4. The Lord has no need for your money or good works.
a. But your neighbor does.
b. Your neighbor receives from God what He gives through your hands, His mask.
5. That is the way the Lord delivers the truth of what He says life consists of.
a. Not in what you have.
b. But in who you are.
i. Not who you are in the eyes of the world or your jealous neighbor or your creditor or CPA.
ii. It consists of who you are in God’s eyes – who you are in Christ.
6. This is the Christ who does not build Himself up or accrue, but is torn down and distributes (crucifixion, sacramental gift).
7. Who you are in Christ: The comprehensive description is Colossians 3:1-11.
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Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out 1517’s resources on Colossians 3:1-11.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you preaching Colossians 3:1-11.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
The Pastor’s Workshop-Check out all the great preaching resources from our friends at the Pastor’s Workshop!
