Posted on 09/29/2017 8:12:25 AM PDT by Salvation
One of Jesus’ most central qualities was that He loved His Heavenly Father and was loved by Him. To put it colloquially, Jesus was crazy about His Father. He was always talking about Him. Jesus often sought remote places in order to be able to spend extended time with His Father. Clearly He also knew and experienced His Father’s great love for Him.
Indeed, Jesus’ public ministry began with this declaration of the Father: You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Mk 1:11; Lk 3:22). Clearly, the Father loves and takes great delight in His Son, Jesus. While we ought not to project our own needs and wounds (such as the “father wound”) into Jesus’ human nature — as if He desperately needed the affirmation of the Father — it seems clear that one of the greatest joys of Jesus’ life was the Father’s love for Him. It supported Him and encouraged Him. It was the foundation, the center, of His identity. Jesus is the beloved Son of the Father.
At one point the disciples, who had admired the powerful love and prayer of Jesus for His Father, asked that He teach them how to pray. Jesus began, “When you pray, say, ‘Father’” (Lk 11:2). He was overheard in the Garden of Gethsemane to say, Abba! Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will (Mk 14:36). Yes, Jesus loved His Father and experienced great love from Him.
We have few in the way of lengthy descriptions of Jesus’ prayer, but it would seem that words were seldom needed between Him and His Father. It was Cor ad Cor loquitur (heart speaking to heart); it was what words could never describe nor lips utter.
It is especially in John’s Gospel that we get glimpses of Jesus’ experience with the Father. Jesus discloses His experience of the Father through brief aspirations, attestations, and in his High Priestly prayer. We see a deep relationship of Jesus with His Father that is one of love, trust, confidence, and an unfailing expectation of vindication from the Father. In Jesus there is a joyful obedience and an experience that He is never alone:
Even though on the cross Jesus cried, “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” (Ps 22:1), we must recall that this psalm is one of hope, not despair. Among its laments come verses of confidence and trust:
Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast. From birth I was cast on you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God. …
… But you, Lord, do not be far from me. You are my strength; come quickly to help me. Deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs. Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; save me from the horns of the wild oxen.
And I will declare your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise you. You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel! For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help. From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly; before those who fear you I will fulfill my vows.
Yes, even on the cross there is trust and confidence in the Father’s love; there is a firm conviction that this love will vindicate and rescue. There is also Jesus’ loving willingness to fulfill his vows to God before the people, even if it brings suffering and scorn.
Thus, the Father’s love is greater than any other force in Jesus’ life. It is His foundation, His joy, and His sure defense. If He but has the Father’s love, He has all and conquers all.
What of you and me? Do you experience the Father’s love for you as the foundation of your life and your deepest strength? For too many, the Father seems distant, perhaps even angry. Jesus’ deepest work in your life is to bring you into the heart of the Father so that you will not just know, but experience that the Father loves you; He even likes you! The Father loves you and there’s really nothing you can do about it. You are His beloved!
While we are not sinless, as was Jesus, the Father does not cease loving us. It is His very love and the experience of that love that will drive out sin and usher in holiness. If you love me, you will keep my Commandments (Jn 14:15).
Jesus would have you turn now and see across the distant field that the Father is running toward you (Luke 15:20). He would have you hear him pleading for you to enter the feast (Luke 15:28). If you take one step toward Him, God the Father will take two steps toward you and then come running.
Let the Father’s love be the foundation of your life. As it was for Jesus perfectly, may it be so for us with increasing perfection.
When you pray say, “Father!” (Lk 11:2)
Monsignor Pope Ping!
Even though on the cross Jesus cried, “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” (Ps 22:1), we must recall that this psalm is one of hope, not despair. Among its laments come verses of confidence and trust:
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I always had a question about this one until Carl Gallups explained that Jesus was using this a reference to Psalm 22 which includes a detailed picture of the Crucifixion. Jesus was saying: “Psalm 22 is about me!”
Carl speculated that the Centurion, who recognized Jesus’ divinity, did so because he knew Psalm 22 and recognized that he had just seen parts of it enacted before his eyes. Whether or not the Centurion recognized it, we can and take comfort in the fact that Elohim is totally in charge and has declared the end from the beginning.
I too really embraced the “Psalm 22 is about me” explaination and have shared it in my Catechism classes. God bless.
David, and Joseph. A whole lot of layers are missed with Father being capitalized. At age 12, for example, Jesus (when discovered in the Temple), said he was about his father's business.
David: all Temple all the time. It was in his heart and soul and mind and spirit to build the Temple. David passed all the blueprints and event planning and organizational details and plans down to Solomon. That 12 YO was a total buff, just like his father David. Where else would be have been, asking so many questions and having so much knowledge himself.
When people cried out for healing, they recognized David in David's son, in his attribute of mercy. So many times they cried out, "Son of *David*, have mercy on us." Naturally.
Then there was Joseph, a *just* man (a Tzaddik), who had dreams, took his family down to Egypt and *brought them back up*. On and on and on.
Joseph ha-Tzaddik and David ha-Melek. It'll take the Jews to restore and rectify the proper meaning of the NT narrative. As it stands now, the Messiah's visage is so marred that he doesn't even look like a man.
LUK24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
God. KING JAMES BIBLE TOUCH - KJV (Kindle Locations 41425-41426). Kindle Edition.
The whole volume of the Scriptures testifies that Jesus is the Christ!
It was always all about the Father.
Amen!
Christianity violates the Torah Law prohibition of creating a new religion. G-d does not have a body or any form. He is not a dead man on a cross.
I get the feeling his primary purpose was to convince people to believe in God.
David was not Christ’s father. He was conceived through the Holy Spirit.
Joseph, we all know, was Jesus’ foster-father.
Christ gave us a new Covenant, connected to the Old Law, but entirely new.
David is most definitely his father (ancestor). "Son of David, have mercy on us..." as is in the text repeatedly.
He was conceived through the Holy Spirit.
He was indeed. Many children in this day and age are conceived through doctors and lab technicians, but that doesn't make them the babies' fathers (well, there are some creepy stories). The first IVF baby turned 40 this year.
Joseph, we all know, was Jesus’ foster-father.
You'll have you leave me out of that one. I know he was Jesus' father. :)
I write for anybody looking to escape the established 'wisdom' that never made a lick of sense.
An ancestor, but not a Father.
E.g. the Hebrew avot = fathers, patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob)
son (descendant) of David. He’s got all the right character traits. Love, mercy, compassion, proper sense of justice.
What part of “violates the Torah Law prohibition of creating a new religion” do you not understand? I know that he gave a new covenant. I explained why doing so is forbidden.
That’s why the Father sent Him.
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