Meditations (3 of 4)

This past weekend I had the privilege of spending some time with a group of high school students on our annual retreat. As a community we devoted a good portion of our time to silent meditation on four verses from the Holy Scriptures. Here are some reflections springing from that time of meditation.

Third Meditation: Colossians 1:22

“But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”

What could be more remarkable than this? What love could be more unconscionable? what grace more amazing? “He has reconciled you.”

He has reconciled us.

The Holy One of Israel, perfection personified, against whom we have rebelled, sinned, transgressed—he has reconciled us.

We broke fellowship with him, defied his authority, refused him worship, embraced his enemy, earned his wrath. We all, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned to our own way. There is no one righteous, no one who seeks him. We have sinned and fall short of his glory. Had we been there at Calvary two millennia ago, we would have struck, spat upon, hurled insults at him.

We have driven nails of iniquitous steel through wrists of unfailing love, stretched wide to embrace a world that gleefully damned him.

But he reconciled us.

We did not seek him. He sought us, pursues us as the hound of heaven, showers his love and blessings upon us. “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”

(And this Advent season have we considered that he reconciled us by Christ’s physical body through death? The glory of the incarnation is the horror of the crucifixion.)