Headless
Headless
Amazingly, Mike lived 18 months without a head. Mike wasn't a person but a chicken who had been taken to the guillotine in view of becoming that night's dinner. After the deed was done, Mike the chicken had not died. Although he'd lost a vital part of his body, the nerves needed to sustain his bodily functions remained. Amazing!
I don't have to tell you that isn't normal. Heads are essential for the rest of the body to function. Your head feeds your body, thinks about every movement, makes decisions, sees where you're going, tastes delicious food, smells mom's home cooking, hears what's true or false, expresses emotion with its face, and speaks the things of the heart. Yes, sir, without a head, the body is not much use.
Paul tell us that in Christ:
“the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.”
He is actually, functionally our life:
“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
Sadly, there are a lot of people who claim to be Christians today but lack Christ as their head. Like sports team mascots, they claim to represent and be hidden with Christ, but they never put on the big head of the costume that completes the outfit. They think they can have all the benefits of an ambassadorial position while living by their own head as their ultimate authority. Paul says these people:
“...are not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.”
Without Christ as one's head, there is no nourishment, no knitting together with the rest of the body, no growth. These people, Paul says, are distracted by all kinds of other teachings that set the self as the authority over everything else, ultimately having no means to stop the flesh from indulging in whatever the flesh decides is best. What we need is to lose our heads so that we can put on his. But will we die or only live 18 months? No, when we lose our heads and submit to the head of Christ, we live eternally.
Paul admonishes us, brothers and sisters,
“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”
In putting on Christ as your head, you will find stable roots on which you can build, knitted together with other brothers and sisters in Christ, his body. With his head over our body, we will experience his peace, his joy, his gentleness, his great care for us, his body.
Thank God we have a better head than our own! When Jesus died, he did not lose his head but became the head. By His Spirit, we can (figuratively) have our sinful heads cut off! AND live eternally under his headship. That was a spiritually gruesome thought, but the gospel is that serious and that dramatic.
In what ways do you attempt to live as your own head?
How could you begin trusting Christ to be your head?
Learning to be knitted with you,
Loren