Thank you so much for hanging in there with me! Today, we finish up this series from Ephesians 1. I think you will likely agree with me that a person would be hard pressed to point out a section of scripture that is more theologically rich and simultaneously compact as these opening lines to Paul’s epistle’s to the church at Ephesus.
Verse 20
Who worked through Messiah by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right in heavenly places
He worked through Messiah by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right in high heaven
The two most interesting parts of translating this passage is at the beginning and the end. It starts with a repetition of one of those words from verse 19 (click here if curious), the one that ‘energy’. Here the meaning is ‘worked’ but it might also mean ‘acted’ or accomplished. Curiously, there is an attempt by many to make this verb a noun even though it is clearly a verb here and works best as a verb. People want to make the line open with, ‘which power’, stripping it of action. Nonsense. I wrestle with the little pronoun that starts, translated ‘which’, because I think ‘he’ makes more sense, ‘He worked through Messiah . . . ‘
The second interesting part of this is the ending, where exactly is Messiah seated? A strict rendering from Greek to English would be ‘in the heavenlies’. This is where my mind explodes with imagination because we must remember that the word heaven in the Greek New Testament has as its basic meaning, ‘sky’ or maybe ‘up there’, and could be thought of as ‘outer space ‘ even though they had no concept of outer space the way we do — yet they meant above their heads and all that was above their heads.
That is the heavenlies.
Yet, we must take seriously the usage of the word heaven by early Christians as a way of talking about the dwelling place of God rather than simply as ‘up there.’ To that point, Paul doesn’t simply use the word for heaven, but t his oddball word that alludes to heaven’s realms or even maybe worlds.
Where is this seat? Paul’s answer is, really really high.
Verse 21
far above all rulers, authority, power, dominion, and every category that is labeled, not only now, in this age, but in the coming age.
so far above all leaders, law, power, control and every so called important name and not just now, but now after.
Doesn’t this sound like a praise and worship song? I mean, you would think Chris Tomlin wrote this? But no, Paul did, in the Bible, long ago, and it is a thought that has been echoed over and over and over again reverberating throughout the worship of the church in song, liturgy, prayer, and praise. Let me use this moment to say one more time, anyone who says something as silly as Paul never wrote beautiful poetics is lacking in aesthetic appreciation. He was incredibly poetic at times, and this is one of them. Let me introduce you to the Poet Paul.
You’ve heard of the Apostle Paul, let me introduce you to the Poet Paul.
Easter is coming, and Easter is Jesus defeating everything and being put above everything — and anything — that you can think of.
The fun part of this verse, from the aspect of the language, is the catch-all after dominion. Literally it is two words side by side that mean ‘name that is named.’ It might mean titles, like king, or prefect, or governor. I can see that — it fits. At first reading it seemed to me like the blessed apostle was thinking about categories of authority in this world and moving out; so he starts with rulers, then systems of government, and then he moves to economic power, and finishes with a spiritual side with the word dominions and then just in case he missed something, he throws in the ‘any other governance.’ Jesus is above it all.
Jesus is above the king. He is above the president and congress. He is above the judge. He is above the highway patrol. He is far above the constitution. He is above the tech bro trying to run the world. He is above the father domineering his household. He is above the general. He is above the journalists telling you what to believe. He is above the influencer on social media. He is above the athlete.
He is above the devil. He is above crystals. he is above Zeus. He is above karma. He is above Torah. He is above witchcraft. He is above sage cleansing. He is above superstition.
There is nothing equal or above him. He is over all.
Worthy is he therefore of our praise.
Verse 22
He subjected everything under his feet and gave leadership over everything in the church.
He put him in control and in charge of everything in the church.
This sentence actually starts with ‘and’, but I dropped that for clarity. It reads better without it.
The Father placed the Son at the top of the organizational chart. Everyone reports to him. He reports to no one. There is no board he is accountable to. He is the boss.
I wrestled with the idiom ‘under his feet’, because it is a good idiom and we all know what it means. It likely refers to the practice of victorious kings placing their feet on the neck of a vanquished foe to show dominance. Jesus has won and defeated death, and therefore has put everything under his feet. Yet in translating it, it means more than the idiom, so went with in my ‘loose’ rendering the idea of control. Jesus is in control, and any rebellions are short lived.
It is shocking to read the last word in the verse, church. Paul uses the straightforward ‘ekklesia’ so familiar to many of us. The text has been talking about Jesus in cosmic terms and the universal nature of Jesus’ glory and now he narrows the focus to the church. I think there is a reason for this, and it might not be what you think.
You think, and you would not be wrong, that Paul means to emphasize Jesus is the head of the church above pastors, bishops, elders, deacons, and the illuminati that is any group of senior adult women. That is true, Jesus is above them all and he is the Good Shepherd of his church leading it and guiding it by the power of the Holy Spirit. But I think Paul is making another point as well. Jesus is above all those powers and authorities mentioned in verse 21 — dominions, rulers, powers, authorities — remember those?– and the extension by which he exercises rule over those is through the church, his hands and feet in this world.
Read it clearly: The church is above all rulers, authorities, powers, dominions. When the church bends the knee to the constitution, to the president, to the judges, to the authorities then it has forgotten who the boss really is. I am not advocating for lawlessness — far from it — I am advocating for us to remember our true citizenship is in heaven and our allegiance is to the kingdom of God. We have a higher morality than ‘is it legal’ and we have a higher calling than politics.
Verse 23
which is his body, the fulfillment of everything, filling all people.
which is his body, which means everything for everyone.
This amazing ending to the chapter is the kind of thing you spend 100 pages on, or simply let it speak for itself. Let me try, though, in a sentence of two.
The church is his body, and in the church is the fulfillment of all that language we’ve been discussing in this chapter — adoption as children of God, forgiveness, deliverance, election, power, spiritual maturity, resurrection, and eternal life. It is impossible for a human being to experience these things outside of the church because it is through the church that these realities — adoption, forgiveness, deliverance, election, power, spiritual maturity, resurrection, and eternal life are mediated.
Yes, the church is frail, it has serious problems, and it needs constant reformation. Nevertheless, it is God’s plan for the world, and it is a good plan because who else can help a broken world heal and move forward than people who have likewise been broken and then healed?
Thank you for reading this specific blog post, and all of the Ephesian posts if you have done so. I really do appreciate it. This has been my own lenten study this year, and it has been a privilege to share it with you. I encourage you to lean in toward Jesus, travel the path to the cross on Good Friday, and then wait outside the tomb on Easter Sunday. As you do, you are not alone, the church is with you.