Today we begin reading from Paul’s letter to the Christians in the city of Colossae, on the west coast of what is now Turkey (Colossians 1:1-8). The letters to the Christians of Ephesus and Colossae (both in the Roman Province of Asia, now part of western Turkey) and the letter to Philemon are all closely related. All three were written while Paul was under arrest in Rome.
Several hundred years before Paul’s day, Colossae had been a leading city in Asia Minor. It was located on the Lycus River and on the great east-west trade route leading from Ephesus, on the Aegean Sea, to the Euphrates River. By the first century AD, when this Letter was written, Colossae had been diminished to a second-rate market town and had been surpassed long ago in power and importance by the neighboring towns of Laodicea and Hierapolis, both of which are cited in the Letter (see Colossians 4:13).
What gave Colossae importance in New Testament terms, however, was the fact that, during Paul’s three-year ministry in Ephesus, Epaphras had been converted and had carried the Gospel to Colossae. He also evangelized in the nearby towns of Laodicea and Hierapolis (although the Book of Revelation has some hard words for the Christians of Laodicea). Paul was clearly fond of Epaphras and admired him, calling him a “fellow prisoner” (Philemon 23), his dear fellow servant, and a faithful minister of Christ. Epaphras was the one who told Paul at Rome about problems in the Colossian church and thereby stimulated him to write this letter.
The danger at Colossae was due to the Hellenistic belief that the heavenly, or cosmic powers, were separated from God, and were responsible for the regular movement of the cosmos. This heresy subjugated the supremacy of Christ to the cosmic powers. Paul’s point in Colossians is not to deny these powers exist, but to show that Christ, the Lord, has dominance over them.
Colossians is a relatively short letter and contains much material also found in the longer letter to the Ephesians. In this letter, Paul uses the title ‘Christ’ 26 times and the title ‘Lord’ (referring to Jesus) 7 times. Paul frequently calls the members of Christian communities ‘holy ones’, a term that harkens back to the Old Testament idea of the people of God, here expressing a relationship with Jesus.
In today’s Gospel reading (Luke 4:38-44), we see Jesus going to Peter’s home. It is a sabbath day so Jesus could not move around or do any major activity. He seems to have used this house as his base when in Capernaum and that part of Galilee. Jesus had “nowhere to lay his head”, no dwelling of his own, but it seems clear that he was not homeless. There were always people ready to offer him hospitality – a custom of the Middle East — and a model for Christians of every age and place.
Peter’s mother-in-law was in the grip of a fever, and the disciples begged Jesus to do something for her. Jesus stood over her and, with a word, cured her. Immediately she got up and began to serve Jesus and his group.
There is a lesson here. Health and healing are not just for the individual. Her healing immediately restored her to the community and to her duty of serving that community. That duty applies not only to women of that time, but it also applied to men, and if it had been Peter’s father-in-law, the same hospitality would have applied. If we are healthy, our energies are meant to be directed to the building up of the community and not simply for our personal enjoyment.
“At sunset…” – we need to remember it was a sabbath. The sabbath went from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday (so Jesus could not be properly buried on the Friday evening when he died). According to the traditions, Jews could not travel more than two-thirds of a mile or carry any load. Only after sunset could the sick be brought to Jesus.
As soon as the sabbath was over, large numbers brought their sick to him, and he laid his hands on each of them and cured them. As Jesus had announced in the synagogue at Nazareth, the Kingdom of God had arrived and He was entering the lives of people, bringing them health and wholeness. Many were also liberated from the power of evil spirits. These spirits shouted at Jesus “You are the Son of God”. As we mentioned earlier, by using Jesus’ title they hoped to exert control over him. That did not work, of course. Clearly, the presence of the Kingdom is being felt.
At daybreak – Jesus had been working the whole night for the people – he went off into a quiet place. The desert is the place where God is to be found and very likely, as Mark tells us, Jesus went there to pray and to be alone. The people who had seen what he did for them wanted him to stay with them. Contrast the difference in how the crowd in Capernaum reacted to Jesus to that of the people in Nazareth. They wanted him to stay with them, but Jesus told them that he must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to other cities too, for it was for this that God sent him. We are told that he then went preaching in the synagogues of Judea in the south of the country. No place could have a monopoly on his attention.
We need to attach ourselves to Jesus and keep close to him, but we cannot cling to him in a way that prevents others from experiencing his healing touch. On the contrary, it is our task, as his disciples, to see that as many as possible come to know and experience his love, his compassion, and his healing.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!