Jesus: listening to, obeying, learning about, and worshiping.

[Alan]

I'm discussing four related ideas: listening to God, doing what He says, learning about Him, and worshiping Him.

God said this to humans about Jesus, from the cloud at His baptism:  “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”[/COLOR]

Or in Mark: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

At the transfiguration, God spoke from a cloud: [COLOR="Green"]“This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”[/COLOR]

In the conversation at Cana, Mary speaks first to Jesus, then to the servants.  The last thing she is recorded to have said (excepting apparitions -- I'm not counting that) is:  “Do whatever he tells you.”

OK, so we have a) listening to Jesus, and b) doing whatever He tells you.

LISTENING TO HIM:

For me, "listening" can come in many forms, and through the Holy Spirit, not only just the written word but even life circumstances and how our hearts react to them.  Can I listen to the carefree bird singing along, and imagine Jesus saying, "I give you My peace, not as the world can give?"  Or watching a baby laugh and laughing deeply within your heart, at the innocent joy that the Lord offers us all?  What about silent prayer?  What about work done with love?  If we can "hear" or "see" or even "imagine" God in these contexts, we will have constant reminders of His love.

DOING WHAT HE SAYS

Next is doing what He says.  Love one another.  Love your enemy.  Forgive others.  Repay evil with good.  These things are clearly what demonstrates our faith and what purifies us and trains our heart into understandings we can't learn from another person telling us about.

LEARNING ABOUT HIM

The third thing I want to throw in is "learning about" Jesus.  That is, learning scriptural accounts of His life, and Church teachings involving His circumstances, His mother, the saints, and pretty much any academic learning about our faith.

As long as we do things with love, then:

First, listening for the Lord and His handiwork at all times, being aware of His gifts with every breath we take, brings wisdom.  Second we have doing His works of love, guided by the wisdom.  Third we have the scholarly knowledge which helps us a) communicate truths of our traditions and teaching to others in the world and in the future, and b) help put into context what it is we hear from or about the Lord through our life experiences from trials to celebrations (with passion).

I separate these out, because IMO these are three working parts of the puzzle that fit together well, in order to bring us a wonderful relationship with our faith, the Church, the Lord, and at the same time ourselves and others.  Leave any one of them out, and I think it makes the others much more difficult.

WORSHIPING HIM

Finally, a comment:  none of the three involve actually "worshiping" Jesus, because He came as a servant, and called us "friends."  When He was called "good" He rebuked the person who called Him that.  So we celebrate now with Him in heaven as He is risen, but when He was on earth I didn't see Him asking anybody to "worship Him" per se.  I say the best way to worship Him is to a) listen to Him like God said to do, b) do what He says like Mary said to do, and c) learn about Him from the Church.

Of course we love to sing praise, and as a church musician I love to play music praising Jesus.  And it's great that we recite prayers.  Talking and singing about our praise for the Lord is wonderful, but without actually listening, doing, and learning, our praise IMO is not as full and our prayers may not be as heartfelt -- or more like heart-understand.

Alan

[Veronica97]

Wow, this is great, Alan!  You only posted this over a year ago.     I hadn't really thought about Jesus not asking us to worship Him.    You are right--we do hear these phrases in the Scriptures: "Listen to Him." "Do what He says." AWESOME!  And then, as you say, the more we learn about Him, the more we know what He wants us to do.   He asks us to obey His Commandments and love God and our neighbor. God is certainly worthy of worship and we are to worship Him (after all, we say at Mass "It is right and just"), but perhaps WE need to worship more than God needs our worship.  When we are thankful in all circumstances, then we have joy.  When we sit and worship Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, He heals us.  When we sing "Holy Holy Holy" at Mass we join the angels and all the saints in praising God, and we are as close to Heaven on Earth as we'll ever get...and we are as one family in Christ.  Thanks for posting this.   

[Alan]

One thing I'm usually pretty good at noticing, is what people do not say.  Jesus said he came to serve, and He said "no one is 'good' except the Father" even at one point.  It was an odd context, but He did say it so it counts IMO.

I think the clincher is when Peter refused to let Jesus wash his feet, and then when Jesus said it must be for Peter to have any part of him, of course Peter jumped overboard as he was prone to do and said, well then wash me all over.  I think Peter thought it was about the washing; I think maybe it was about humbling oneself to treat another with what was good hospitality back in those days.  They walked around in sandals in dirt all day, as far as I can tell.

John 13

Chapter 13
The Washing of the Disciples’ Feet.

1 Before the feast of Passover,[c] Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end. 2 The devil had already induced[d] Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over. So, during supper, 3 fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God, 4 he rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. 5 [e]Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Master, are you going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later.” 8 Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.” 10 Jesus said to him, “Whoever has bathed[f] has no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over; so you are clean, but not all.” 11 For he knew who would betray him; for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

12 So when he had washed their feet [and] put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you? 13 You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. 14 If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do. 16 Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger[g] greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it. 18 I am not speaking of all of you. I know those whom I have chosen. But so that the scripture might be fulfilled, ‘The one who ate my food has raised his heel against me.’ 19 From now on I am telling you before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe that I AM. 20 Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”