The Substance is Christ

“These are a shadow of what was to come; the substance is Christ.”
-Colossians 2:17 CSB

When I drink a cup of peppermint tea, I always find myself a little more mindful and a little more connected to nature. When I taste the decadent blend of chocolate and peanut butter, I feel sociable and moved toward people. The smell of aftershave often draws me to desire a deep conversation. While a whiff of vanilla nearly never fails to make me feel content and connected.

As I made that list, I found a need to choose only a few as the options began to flood in. Each of those listed, and those I left on my mental cutting room floor, easily traced back to a person or moment.

My dad’s parent’s house in the woods often smelled of peppermint. They were quieter and more connected to the land. Times that their house sometimes felt boring or like hard work to me as a child, but developed roots and a love for earth and plants that is essential to me today. In contrast, I could always count on my mom’s mom to bring around a Butterfinger, some Nutty Bars, or her homemade “Reesers” (chocolate and peanut butter fudge). That house was always a place of play, laughter, and rest in my mind.

Both grandpas, as well as many of the wise men I knew as a child who took time to talk and listen to me as a child wore an aftershave I don’t often smell today. My wife has worn vanilla fragrance since we were kids together in college and even when we travel to different points, the smell connects me to her in a way that matters.

Today, my grandparents are gone from this world, and this is one of those weeks when my wife and I are a time zone apart. As I think on these things, I am both comforted by memory, and left a little thoughtful and sad at the absences.

Last week in our staff meeting we read through Colossians 2. As we discussed what stood out to us, I kept coming back to verse 16 and 17. Specifically the words “shadow” and “substance”. Paul has made his case for the grace and intimacy we are invited into because of Jesus and then pivots with one of his favorite words, “therefore”.

“Don’t let anyone judge you in regard to…” and he begins to list out a series of particularly Jewish traditions, restrictions, and ceremonies. All things commanded in the Hebrew scripture so that Israel might remember and stay rooted to the God who called them out of Egypt and made them a people who would be a blessing to all nations if they did.

But the Colossians were not those people. There were Jews in that community, but also Romans, Greeks, as well as the native Phrygians. As more and more Gentiles placed their trust in Jesus, a struggle began that we still wrestle with. The Jewish custom and practice continued to have meaning to the Jewish Christians as they worked out the impact of the Gospel in their lives. But for everyone else in the church, those ceremonies and rules had no heart-level connection. As they encountered Jesus, those moments were attached to customs and rhythms all their own.

As Paul hears about this church from afar, he must have gathered some reports that bothered him, but couldn’t be unexpected in a church with such diversity. Judgment between them over the doing or not doing of various practices. The same theme shows up in Romans, Galatians, and more. Jewish Christians judging Gentile Christians for not doing Jewish things and Gentile Christians holding Jewish Christians in contempt for holding so fast to them.

We wrestle with the same tension today. What should church look like? What about the Lord’s Supper? Holidays? Which laws apply today, and which do not? What counts as “the church” in the first place? And our tendency between denominations, cultures, and generations is use eyes of judgment, good or bad, when we look at the other.

But Paul’s words here catch me mid-step as I think about these things. “Do not let other’s judge you” carries an implied, “and don’t judge them either” with it. Because those things are “shadows”. The real thing, the reason we ought to value the traditions, practices, and styles we do is Jesus…the “substance” or more literally, the “body”. Those things are the shadows cast by the person of Jesus into the lives and experiences of people.

And in the same way I do not expect the smell of peppermint tea to do for you what it does for me, I can’t expect your way of approaching communion to look or feel the same either.

Which leaves us at a wonderful, grace-oriented space. It allows us to still notice the ways others approach, love, and experience Jesus. But instead of trying to decide if it’s better or worse, we can simply appreciate it. We can learn. We may not find it has value for us, but we might. Either way, we get the joy of experiencing community, curiosity, and the blessing of the unity that Christ prayed for among his people.

What “shadows” help you experience the “substance”?