It may not seem controversial now to say that Jesus sits “at God’s right side in the heavens... above every ruler and authority,” as today’s scripture says, but for the early Church, this was a huge claim. To say that Jesus was Lord wasn’t just a statement of faith — it was also a serious political statement. This is because Roman caesars often claimed language of lordship. Their subjects would say, “Caesar is Lord” as a statement of patriotism and loyalty to Rome. The phrase “Jesus is Lord” directly challenges the worship of Caesar.

And all this would have seemed ironic and confusing to the first people who heard it, since this man Jesus, whom they claimed to be Lord not just of Rome, but Lord of Lords, had been executed by the Roman government!

So when we read images of him as a king on a throne, we are witnessing a dramatic reversal — the claim that the man who was executed actually has power not just over Rome, but over the whole world!

By Caitlin Harper from D365