From the Throne of Heaven to the Cross

Colossians 1:15-20

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers--all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

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Come down off your throne and leave your body alone
Somebody must change
You are the reason I've been waiting so long
Somebody holds the key

But I'm near the end and I just ain't got the time, oh no
And I'm wasted and I can't find my way home

"Can't Find My Way Home" by Steve Winwood recorded by Blind Faith

We think of a throne as the embodiment of full and complete power. Thrones are held by kings and queens who reign supreme power over their realm. This should be especially true of the King of kings who sits on the throne of heaven. The King of heaven is the one who is the great creator. It is from this throne that all things were created, by him and through him and for him.

The cross was the exact opposite. It was a place of shame. It was a place of pain. Those who were lashed to the tree of woe were left there while the sun burnt the flesh to the jeering crowds while the burden of breathing eventually became insurmountable. It is the most exquisitely brutal form of death the Roman Empire inflicted upon its prisoners and was how the King of Glory met his death. This creator God upon the throne was lifted to die upon the cross.

It is this God; Father, Son, and Spirit; it is the king upon the throne who is executed like a reviled rebel. Of all of the most outrageous things, this is the way it was meant to be. God on the throne creates life, God on the cross reconciles life. Life comes from God, through God, and back to God. In the end, it's not God who suffers a horrid transition, it's us, we suffer the transition from children of the garden to children of sin back to children of the risen Lord.

God came down from the throne and entered life in the body of a Jewish man from Nazareth. In his changes we are changed more. When we sing that somebody holds the key to life, we know that this is true. The holder of the keys to the kingdom is God. When we deny this, when we deny God's role in our creation, when we deny God's role in our reconciliation; when we deny this we can't find our way home.

We look, we seek and we hope to find. But it isn't until we finally see the firstborn of all creation, the God who holds all things together, the one who is constantly looking for us that we find our way home. Everything else is just a waste.