A New Way to Peace

Paul's letter to the Colossians contains a well known litany describing Jesus as the image of the invisible God and the firstborn of all creation.  The litany ends with the statement that God has brought peace through the blood of the cross.

Paul's litany is a response and challenge to Rome.  The Roman Empire in Paul's time ruled the Colossians in Asia Minor along with pretty much everyone else in the known world.  The Roman Empire promoted a sort of civic religion and the focal point of that religion was adoration of Roma, the very embodiment of the Roman state.  All the citizens of Rome were required to worship the image of Roma and swear allegiance to Rome and everything Rome represented: power, dominance, progress, economic security, and order.

Rome perpetuated and ensured conformity to Rome by terror.  Crucifixion was the central element of Roman terror.  Crucifixion was used only for political dissidents; those who challenged Rome's sovereignty and the rationality of Roman rule.  Crucifixion was all about control.

Paul conceptualized the emerging Jesus movement as set against Rome and everything that Rome represented.  The Church was also centered in the cross, which became through Christ, not an instrument of terror, but an instrument of reconciliation.  God used the cross not to destroy Rome, but to seek Rome's reconciliation with God.  And through the cross, God reveals the inadequacy and idiocy of Rome's notions of rationality and progress.