The picture here is a photo taken last month on the Big Rideau Lake. This carp weighed in about 45 pounds. Paul Francis has been fishing on that lake for the last 70 years and he says it’s the biggest fish that he’s ever seen come out of the Big Rideau.

Thanks to his 17-year-old nephew Jack who heroically pulled this injured fish out of the lake.

There is much about this fish’s story we don’t know. How was it injured? What happened? Assuming it got into the lock at the south end of the lake, from where did it come? We will never know its complete history, its story.

The fish symbol is a prominent symbol in Christianity with roots in the early church. The symbol comes from a Greek word (Ichthys) that translates to “fish,” but also functions as an acronym for “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior” in Greek (Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ). 

The symbol’s use is believed to have originated in the 2nd century, becoming popular by the late 2^nd and 3^rd centuries, especially during a time of Roman persecution of Christians.

Why the fish as a symbol for Jesus? Perhaps because he called fishermen to be his first disciples? Perhaps because he multiplied the loaves and fish in the feeding of the five thousand? Perhaps because in one post-resurrection account, Jesus fed fish to his disciples for breakfast on the beach?

The important thing here is to understand the symbol of the fish was associated with the name of Jesus.

When I read again Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians this past week, I found it odd that in the entire letter, the name of Jesus is mentioned seven times (1:1; 1:3; 1:4; 2:6; 3:17; 4:11; 4:12) but in five of those seven times the name Jesus is paired with “Christ”. Only twice in this Epistle does the name of Jesus stand alone.

Contrast this with the number of times the word “Christ” appears all by itself in Colossians: Some twenty-four times. What is Paul up to here? At very least, it may explain why a few centuries after Jesus died and rose again, our religion was known as “Christian”, not “Jesu-sian” (Shaia, 2021). Scripture calls our attention to distinguish between the meaning of Jesus, and the meaning of Christ. They’re not quite the same.

We read in the first chapter of the Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). John speaks of a reality existing in a time before Jesus walked on the earth. John uses the term “Word”, “Logos” in Greek, to express the same eternal reality that Paul means when he intentionally uses just the word Christ, or the Christ.

But, that “Word” also “became flesh” (John 1:14). Martin Luther, the 16^th century reformer understood “the Word” to be Jesus. So, the eternal reality is Christ. And, the particular, historical reality is Jesus. The same, but not the same.

Why do New Testament writers Paul and John make this distinction? Perhaps we who identify as Christian may be encouraged in our faith to not just focus on the biographical details of a brief human history in ancient Palestine that can never be completely known.

For example, there is nothing the Gospels mentioned about Jesus’ youth, from about age 12 until he appears near the beginning of his ministry at age 30. As one scholar puts it, “there will never be enough bones or papyrus or analytical wisdom” to fill those gaps in the history, and meet our needs today (Shaia, 2021, p. 209).

So, why did Jesus come? Two thousand years ago in the Middle East, Jesus came so that we, today, might enter into the greater truth of the Christ – the truth that encompasses the reality of all things in the universe for all time. Again, using Saint Paul’s language in the Epistle today: “Christ is all and in all!” (Colossians 3:11). For all time and in every place.

God, in Christ, is just as much in the daily, common, ordinary, material concerns of our lives as Christ is present in our praying, singing and humble service to the world. In Christ, there is no separation between Sunday, and Monday-through-Saturday. In Christ, there is no separation between sacred and secular. All of it matters. All of it belongs. All of our reality concerns God.

That is why we read stories in the Gospel about barns, possessions, money and wealth (e.g. Luke 12:13-21). How we are with our possessions has a lot to do with how we are with our faith in Christ.

The distinction Paul makes is really pastoral. The wisdom of our Christian forebears, the writers of scripture and the truth of the Word, is that Jesus the Christ is with us today. Christ is present and has something to say to us.

Christ is with us, in us, around us, connecting it all, now and forever. If this is the presence that we come to know today, then we don’t need to fear tomorrow.

And that is why we don’t live unto ourselves alone. That is why we can’t ignore the cries of the world. That is why as Christians, today’s problems in the world matter in a life of faith. It is a truth for today. It is the hope for tomorrow.

With this perspective, we can catch ourselves when we interpret scripture with our ego in the driver’s seat, which places us at the centre of it all, which makes eternity dependent on us and what we do or don’t do.

Which is nonsense, precisely because we don’t know everything. We are not God. We don’t have the whole and complete picture.

We need to read this passage from Colossians the same way we read German. In German, before reading a whole sentence written in the past tense, or containing a subordinate clause, you need to first go to the last word in the sentence or clause, which is usually the verb. Once you get that, then you can make sense of all the rest of the words that precede it. Where you start your thinking makes all the difference in how you interpret.

It’s the last verse in this scripture from Colossians that informs our interpretation of what comes before. Notice in verse 10 of Colossians 3 the passive construction of how we are renewed in Christ. So, it’s because we are renewed that we can do all the good things implied in this passage: We can tell the truth, we can engage others with calmness, gentleness, peace and respect.

It’s because “Christ is all and in all” (v. 11) that we are generous and live with moral integrity and in unity with others who are not like us. The gift of Christ in us and through the Holy Spirit generates compassionate behaviour and a loving orientation to life and community. It all matters. Everyone belongs. God’s love is for all.

And it starts with God’s gift of Christ present with us, in us. Out of this eternal reality and perspective flows a grace-filled way of life today.

Reference:

Shaia, J. A. (2021). Heart and mind: The four-gospel journey for radical transformation (3rd ed.). Quadratos.