Trouble in Colossae

Grace, Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father and His only Son, Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Around 58 A.D., in the city of Colossae, was a man who had a problem. The man’s name was Philemon.

            The city of Colossae was not as great as it once was. Its closest neighbor, Laodicea, was now the greater metropolitan city. Colossae and the sister cities Hierapolis and Laodicea, had a mixed population of Jews, Greeks and Romans. The Jewish residents had begun to outnumber the Greeks and Romans so greatly that the Roman governor would not let them send their money to Jerusalem for the temple tax in order to finance the building and maintenance of the infrastructure of the region.

Philemon is a Greek name and he was a businessman with a going concern, probably a merchant who traded with the caravans that passed through the city on the way to Rome. Philemon was wealthier than most of the populace but not as wealthy as some. He had a large house. He had a wife and at least one son. He also had servants.

Philemon’s problem was concerning one of his servants, Onesimus. You see, the culture of that time saw slavery as a necessary and helpful part of society. People who were so poor that they could not feed or shelter themselves would indenture themselves to a person of means. That is, they would give up their freedom for an agreed amount of time in order to gain a roof over their head and food in their belly.

The benefit was survival, the adverse was that the slave was viewed as a piece of property or an ‘animated tool’ to be used as the master deemed necessary. If a servant was lazy or disobedient, that servant suffered the whip and/or the loss of food and shelter. At the very worst, a slave could be killed with no legal reprisal.

Philemon’s servant, Onesimus, had committed an act of criminal disobedience. Not only that, but the slave had caused Philemon to lose respect among his peers. Onesimus had stolen valuables from his master and ran away. Onesimus’ name comes from the Greek word meaning ‘profitable’, yet he was literally being the opposite to his master.

But this was not the biggest problem Philemon had. A couple of years ago, Philemon had converted to The Way. Philemon had become a Christian. Christianity was growing in the city of Colossae. Philemon’s own son, Archippus, had been doing great work for the spreading of the Gospel and Philemon used his spacious home as a church for the new congregation in Colossae. He was considered a leader in the Christian community. What was he to do?

Philemon had never bought into the Roman or Greek gods completely. Roman emperors were men who declared themselves gods. The Greek pantheon of gods constantly fought and toyed with the humans, according to the stories, and that seemed impractical to Philemon. But when he heard of the One True God, he knew in his heart that this was the God of all creation.

He had never heard of a god who became a man for the sole purpose of saving humanity. This Jesus Christ gave up his life so that everyone who believed in him would have eternal life. All the other gods required sacrifices from their followers, but this Jesus sacrificed himself for all people. No other god ever died and rose again. No other god died to save a mere mortal.

Yes, Philemon truly believed that Jesus Christ was the true God of salvation. He became a follower of Christ’s teachings. This is where his true problem lay. By rights, he could have Onesimus hunted down and returned to him as his property. By law, he could have Onesimus killed. In fact, there was a danger that one of these mercenary slave hunters might find Onesimus and kill him for just being a runaway slave. But Christ commanded forgiveness of sin, even for one’s enemies. Christ commanded forgiveness of debt for those indebted and to treat all men, slave or free, as equals in the body of Christ.

Philemon was beside himself on how he should handle this problem when one of his servants announced that Luke the apostle was at the front door seeking a meeting with him. ‘Thank you, Jesus!’ Philemon thought to himself, ‘Luke will counsel me as a brother in Christ about this matter.’ Luke was well known in Colossae and nearby cities. He was a close friend of the apostle Paul of Tarshish. Surely, he would know the Christian way to handle this.

As Philemon hurried to greet his brother, he was shocked to find Onesimus, the thief and fugitive, standing next to Luke. ‘Before you take any action,’ Luke says, as he holds out a rolled-up parchment, ‘read this letter from our brother Paul.’

Questions are spinning in Philemon’s mind; ‘How did Onesimus get all the way to Rome?’, ‘Paul is in prison, how did Onesimus find and meet him?’ It was true that when Philemon became a Christian, he and all the members of his house (including the servants) were baptized, but he did not know if Onesimus truly believed. Was this the Holy Spirit of God Almighty working through his servant?

Philemon was in for more of a shock when he read Paul’s words:

“Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus— I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord.”  [Philemon 8-14]

‘For love’s sake’, Paul writes, ‘I am sending my very heart back to you.’ This is the answer. Philemon is to love Onesimus as his own child. He is to receive him back like the prodigal son who squandered his inheritance only to return to his father’s house to ask for forgiveness. Paul writes further:

“For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.”

[Philemon 15-16]

            It is all clear now. Christ died for us so we now live for Him. As Christians, we are not bound by the laws of men but by the love of Christ. Through our baptism into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are all in the body of Christ. Paul invokes the image of Christ by asking Philemon not to treat Onesimus as a disobedient slave but to treat him as Paul standing in his place.

‘I will take his debt upon myself.’ Paul writes. Isn’t this what Christ did for us? “If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account… I will repay it” [Philemon 18,19b] Did not Christ do the same for you?

Yes, Jesus Christ took upon himself the debt of our sin, yours, mine and all people’s. He bore that sin to the cross, knowing that he would surely die. Jesus Christ rose again from death, defeating sin, death and the Devil once and for all. Jesus Christ now stands in front of our Lord and Master, in his Father’s house, saying, ‘Charge their sin to my account. I have repaid it!’

We sometimes run away from our loving Father in heaven by disobeying His commands. We stray from the love and protection of our true home.

We fool ourselves into thinking we are our own masters. We fool ourselves into thinking we can have all the benefits this life without the accountability for our sinful actions against God. Many people who find themselves lost in the world of their own making feel that they cannot return to the loving hand of our Creator.

Yet, through Christ, we are never completely unredeemable. Like the slave, Onesimus, who ran away from his master, we too have an advocate who has taken on the debt of our own sins and has interceded with our God and master in heaven. Christ Jesus has set before our Father in heaven full recompense for all of our sins against him. For love’s sake, Jesus appealed to God the Father for His children, you and me. Before the redemption of Christ, we were useless to Him, but now we are a valuable possession.

By Christ’s loving act, we take comfort in our salvation for eternal life. We take comfort in our assured blessing of our Lord and Master in heaven. In the name of Christ Jesus and through the Holy Spirit, we return to God renewed and restored.

Jesus Christ now says to you, “I have prepared a room for you in my Father’s house.” With this promise, we have true hope in the resurrection and the life everlasting. With this promise, we know that for love’s sake, we are forgiven.

Amen.