The Head of the Church: Colossians 1:18-23. especially vs. 18: "And He [Christ Jesus] is the head of the body, the Church, Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence." The term "head" commonly is used to describe a great variety of individuals who serve as group leaders or rulers - a department head, a head of operations, or even a head of state. Roman Catholics speak of the Pope as "the head of the Church," although, in light of this passage, they rightly also say of him that he is the "Vicar of Christ," the Lord being the true "head of the body, the Church" (vs. 18). In this respect, every clergyman with pastoral oversight of a parish or diocese is rightly called the head of a church. But here the Apostle says of Christ that "He is the head of the body, the Church" (vs. 18). Hence, all clergy serve merely as His vicars, as those who represent Him Who has "the preeminence" (vs. 18).
What sort of head is Christ over His Body, the Church? But here, ought we not, before all other considerations, to heed the words of the Apostle Paul when he calls Him "the head"? The Apostle says Christ Jesus "is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead" (vs. 18), He in Whom "all the fullness should dwell" (vs. 19), He by Whom God determined "to reconcile all things to Himself" (vs. 20), and He "Who made peace through the blood of His Cross" (vs. 20).
To call Christ our God, "the beginning," points in two directions at once: toward His Person within the Godhead and toward His manhood by which He initiated our salvation. All creation, seen and unseen, has its source in Him as God. He is the beginning of all things. Hence, Origen rightly said of Christ that "He is the beginning only insofar as He is wisdom." With respect to creation, as the Apostle John says, "He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made" (Jn. 1:2,3).
But concurrently, let us also consider the Lord Jesus in His manhood, in the same manner in which the words of the Troparion of the Annunciation speak of Him: He is "the beginning of our salvation, and the manifestation of the mystery from the ages, for the Son of God becometh the Son of the Virgin, and Gabriel proclaimeth grace."
By the fact that timeless God the Son had a beginning in time, it became possible for the Apostle Paul to call Christ, "the firstborn from the dead" (Col. 1:18). Likewise, many, at the last, will follow the head of the Church in Resurrection. Thus, we ought readily to agree with Theodore of Mopsuestia that "when Paul says 'firstborn from the dead,' it is clear that he is referring to the assumed humanity of Christ."
Thus, we must keep both the Lord Jesus' Divinity and His humanity in mind as we read this passage, for certainly He is One of Whom we may say "that in Him all the fullness should dwell" (vs. 19), that is the fullness of God, exactly as St. John Chrysostom puts it: "The term 'fullness' some use of the Godhead, like as John said, 'Of His fullness have all we received.' That is whatever was the Son, the whole Son dwelt there, not a sort of energy, but a Substance."
God the Son Himself became Incarnate "to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him [i.e., by Jesus Christ], whether things on earth or things in heaven" (vs. 20). The Head of the Church is therefore the Ultimate Reconciler, Divine Reconciliation in the flesh. By dying ignominiously He "made peace through the blood of His Cross" (vs. 20). Whereas we "once were alienated and enemies" of God (vs. 21), the Lord Christ Himself came as a Peacemaker that He might "present [us] holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight" (vs. 22).
Thy Cross do we adore, O Christ, and Thy holy Resurrection we praise and glorify: for Thou art our God, and we know none other beside Thee; we call upon Thy Name.