The way we live reveals our true beliefs, and what we truly believe shapes how we live. It’s important to understand the theology behind the way we worship so that we can worship rightly. A central component of worship is Jesus Christ. He is the means by which we worship, and He is our teacher for understanding how it is we are to worship. In this essay I will show how Christ mediates our worship, revealing God to us and leading us in responding to God, and how His life was an act of worship which we are to emulate.
A central aspect of worship in Jewish tradition was the yearly Day of Atonement. There was always one man, the high priest, who led Israel in worship and intercession on that day. The high priest was the representative of the people. He sacrifices an animal and confesses the sins of Israel then enters the Holy of Holies with the blood of the animal to intercede for Israel. Then he comes back out and pronounces a blessing on the people.
With this history in mind we can turn to Christ and see great significance in how He mediates for us. Jesus is our representative, but instead of sacrificing an animal He offers Himself to pay for our sins. Then, after He has risen from the dead, He tells Mary that He will ascend to the Father. Later that day He appears to the Disciples and pronounces a blessing on them. The analogy of Israel’s high priest helps us see how Jesus mediates by representing us to the Father and then representing the Father to us. It is, therefore, only through Jesus that we are able to truly worship the Father.[1] His mediation isn’t limited to the historical event of His death and resurrection, rather in our worship we are continually being brought by Jesus through the Spirit into communion with the Father. Our sins are atoned for once and for all, but each time we stray we get to repent and allow Christ to bring us back into right relationship with God.[2]
Ron Man speaks about this same idea, by looking at Hebrews 2:12, “I will proclaim Your name to my brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.” Man sees in this verse a synthetic parallel of Jesus moving both from God to man in proclamation of the Father, and then from man to God in praise of the Father.[3] There are many other New Testament passages which further strengthen and develop this idea. The idea of proclamation seems to be one of the main aspects of Jesus’ mission here on earth. He said in John 12:50, “What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.” And again in John 15:15, “…all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”[4] In regards to praise, we know from Mathew 6:9-13 that Jesus begins and ends the prayer he instructs us to use with praise to the Father, “…hallowed be your name” (vs. 9), “For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory…” (vs. 13). Here Jesus is not only praising the Father, but He is inviting us to join Him in His praise.[5]
We can also learn about right worship by looking at the way Christ lived His life. Worship is our response to God’s revelation; God is present and being revealed in all areas of life; therefore, we respond to God in every area of our life. Romans 12:1 says, “… present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27). The first part of this command tells us that loving God is something that we do with every aspect of our being. Also, Paul tells the Corinthians, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” (1 Cor. 11:1). It stands to reason, therefore, that we can look at the way Jesus lived His life on earth as a model for right worship.
Looking at the bigger picture of Jesus’ life the first thing that stands out is His incarnate presence in humanity. He didn’t pass by as a glorified rock-shattering whisper as He did to Elijah in 1 Kings 19. Rather He “became flesh and dwelt among us…” (John 1:14). In doing this, Jesus shows us that the starting point for the command to love our neighbors is first to become a neighbor. We need to be present in the communities we live in and in the lives of those around us. We mustn’t separate ourselves or create our own sub-culture to draw away into. Jesus even prays to the Father for us saying, “I do not ask that you take them out of the world… As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” (John 17: 15, 18). The idea of being present goes beyond just living on the planet earth, however. It is very easy to withdraw from people mentally and emotionally as well as physically. When Jesus saw His friend Mary and the Jews that were with her mourning the death of her brother Lazarus, He was deeply moved, and He wept (see John 11: 33-35). Jesus wasn’t some transcendent super-spiritual being who walked about performing miracles remaining unaffected by the world around Him. He was emotionally invested in real people and was genuinely impacted by real-life circumstances.
It is exactly because Jesus, who is fully God, became a real human being that we can look to Him as the source of our understanding of right worship. He is the mediator and high priest who ascends to the Father on our behalf and comes down to us on the Father’s behalf. He proclaims the name of the Lord to us and leads us in praising that very name. He lived among us and taught us to remain fully present in this world, not just physically, but in depth of relationships and emotionally. He is the source, the path, and the goal of our worship. To Him be the glory forever and ever, Amen.
[1] James B. Torrance, Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 47-50.
[2] Ibid, 20-21
[3] Ron Man, Proclamation and Praise Hebrews 2:12 and the Christology of Worship (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2007), 30.
[4] Ron Man’s chapter gives numerous other examples which won’t be mentioned here for the sake of brevity.
[5] This is a key aspect of Ron Man’s Christology of Worship which he elaborates on much more in the same chapter.
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