Head of the Body

And He 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.
Colossians 1:18

Heads are basic equipment on animal bodies. Fleas, microscopic dust mites, and even earth worms all have heads, although they may be hard to see. The head is the controlling force in all of God’s creatures great and small. The head is connected to the various systems by way of nerves, so it can regulate the heart, lungs, and muscles. Millions of bits of information are sent back and forth from the head every second to different parts of the body.

The Lord Jesus is Head of the body, the church. That certainly means that He is in charge and over the church, but the title is used to show that the church is more like an organism (a living thing) than an organization.

The human perspective views the church more in terms of the structure and hierarchy of an institution. This concept was vividly illustrated for me in a mural painted on the back wall of the Catholic cathedral in the town of Banos in Ecuador, South America.

          At the bottom of the fresco a poor peasant farmer is seen holding a rosary and kneeling before a priest. Behind him are much bigger beads of a huge rosary that forms a circle around the enormous painting. The background rosary connects the viewer’s eyes from the priest to a bishop and from a bishop to a cardinal and then the pope. As the rosary beads continue around they connect to the saints and then to the Virgin Mary and then finally to Jesus. Viewing this made me so sad, because the lesson that was being taught was that there is a lot of bureaucracy needed to get to the Lord. But the worst part was that, in portraying Christ at the end of the line, He looked more like the tail than the head.

Our Savior is the Head of the Body so is connected directly to each part. In my human body, if my little finger is cut, a message is sent directly to the brain. It doesn’t go to the hand, then the wrist, then the arm, then to the shoulder. The head is aware of what’s happening all over the body and coordinates the parts to work together.