So many people
seem to think
that Jesus never claimed
to be God.
There are so many places
where He does make that plain
such as saying
"Before Abraham was, I am."
which causes the Pharisees
to pick up stones
since Jesus has just used
the same words
that God uses in the Burning Bush
to Moses.
Jesus does not say explicitly
"I am God!"
but it's there
in the Gospels.
And today
we see Jairus
- at least it's probably Jairus
since St Matthew
doesn't say -
approach Jesus
to heal his daughter.
And crucially
what's the first thing
Jairus does?
He falls down and
worships Jesus.
This is exactly
the same worship
that Our Lord tells us
belongs to God.
The Greek word
that we translate as worship
literally means
to kiss the hand
in the same way
that a pet dog
licks the hand of its master.
Is that how God wants us
to worship him?
[PAUSE]
The underlying idea
behind worship
is the amount of value
we put upon a thing
or a person.
Worship is worth-ship:
that's where the word comes from.
The question is
how do we demonstrate
the worth something
or someone has
in our estimation?
If we regard someone
as more important than us,
as possessing some
power over us,
as someone whom we need
to live our lives,
then we have to demonstrate
that respect.
We demonstrate it
so that the person we value
knows we value them,
and we demonstrate it
to remind ourselves
if how much
that person means to us.
You can certainly see
how people who are shown
into the presence of
an emperor
get on their knees
in knowledge
that he has the power
of life and death over you.
Your bowing down
is the outward act
of your expression
of the emperor's worth.
[PAUSE]
And we see Jairus
(if it is indeed Jairus)
worshipping Jesus,
bowing before Him.
A leader of the Jewish community
is bowing before this teacher
and so shows Him of greater worth
than his own standing
in the community.
But the Commandment says,
"Thou shalt not make unto thee
a graven image,
nor any manner of likeness,
of any thing that is in heaven above,
or that is in the earth beneath,
or that is in the water
under the earth;
thou shalt not bow down
unto them, nor serve them."
Now,
there are several times
when someone falls down
to worship someone
who isn't God.
This happens to St Paul
and Barnabus,
who are mistaken
for Greek gods,
and St John gets
terribly overawed
and tries to worship an angel
in the Revelation.
In each case,
where the worship
is misplaced,
they say,
"don't worship us
we are not God."
But Jesus doesn't do that.
There is no rebuke
for those
like the Magi,
the Leper ,
Jairus,
and the Disciples
especially after
St Peter walks on water
and again after the Resurrection,
all of whom
worship Jesus as the Son of God.
But worship
can go wrong.
[PAUSE]
The Roman Soldiers
who mock Jesus
before His crucifixion
worship Him
St Matthew tells us that.
What does that mean?
It means
that the soldiers
go through the motions
of worship,
bowing down
and genuflecting.
But it isn't true worship
because the intention
to honour Jesus
is not there.
They do not see Him
as being of any value to them
so they have no respect for Him.
There is no actual worship here,
just the appearance of worship.
They worship Him in truth
because Jesus is truly God
but not in spirit
because they do not love Him.
[PAUSE]
And then there are
the Israelites
who make a Golden Calf
and worship it.
They believe that
the God who saves them
from Egypt
has the likeness of a calf.
But this is not true.
God does not have
the image of a calf.
The Israelites
are worshipping in spirit
because they intend to worship the calf
but not in truth
because the calf is not God.
Further,
in the persecution under the Romans
Christians are compelled
to burn incense to the pagan gods.
They could do so,
secretly intending
to burn the incense
in honour of God.
But this is worship in spirit
and not in truth.
The outward sign
and the inward intention
do not marry up.
[PAUSE]
Jesus says,
"God is a Spirit:
and they that worship Him
must worship Him
in spirit and in truth."
Jairus worships Jesus
in truth because he
perceives that
Jesus is God
and in spirit
because he believes
that Jesus can raise
His daughter
from the dead.
St Paul says that Jesus is
the image of the invisible God.
When we see God with our eyes
it is Jesus Whom we see.
This makes sense
because the Father
is the source of all being
and stands outside the gaze
of anything He has created.
And the Holy Ghost is a spirit
who does not have a body.
It means that Jesus
is the focus of our worship
because we have someone
visible to bow down to.
It means
whenever we see
a picture of Jesus
we can bow down
not to the picture
but the one in the picture.
[PAUSE]
We Catholics are often accused
of worshipping statues
but we know this is not the case.
We venerate the saints
because we see Christ at work in them.
We venerate Mary greatly
because we see Christ born in her.
And we worship Christ
the image of the invisible God.
And we do what the Church has done
from the earliest times.
We venerate ikons,
sacred images,
because of who they depict.
Our outward worship
is towards a picture
of Christ
and our inward worship
is towards the Christ depicted.
We worship Christ truly and in spirit.
We don't worship
the block of wood
with paint on it,
but the truth of Christ
the visible God.
If people cannot tell the difference
then they are only watching our worship
at a superficial
and unspiritual level.
[PAUSE]
As Jairus worships
the image of the invisible God
so must we venerate His image
with Jairus.
Ikons of the saints
help us remember that
they are truly real
and truly alive
- spirit and truth.
Ikons of Our Lady
help us remember
that God becomes a man
so that man can become like Him
in spirit and in truth.
Ikons of Our Lord,
show us the picture
of the One Who saves us
by showing us His very self
in spirit and in truth.
We are not worshipping
a graven image,
but Christ Himself through
that image in the truth
of His Incarnation
and we do so in spirit
because we love Him.
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