Jesus the Rabbi

Listening to the Rabbi’s heartbeat is immediately a Trinitarian experience. The moment you press your ear against His heart, you instantly hear Abba’s footsteps in the distance. I do not know how this happens. It just does. It is a simple movement from intellectual cognition to experiential awareness that Jesus and the Father are one in the Holy Spirit, the bond of infinite tenderness between them.

Second, we realize that we are not alone on the Yellow Brick Road. Traffic is heavy. Fellow travelers are everywhere. It isn’t just me and Jesus anymore. The road is dotted with the moral and the immoral, the beautiful and the grungy…and the Rabbi’s word, of course, is to love each person along the way.

Third, when we recline at the table of Jesus we will learn that the recovery of passion is intimately connected with the discovery of the passion of Jesus. The vulnerability of God in permitting Himself to be affected by our response and the heartbreak of Jesus as He wept over Jerusalem for not receiving Him are utterly astounding. When God comes streaming into our lives in the power of His Word, all He asks is that we be stunned and surprised, let our mouths hang open, and begin to breathe deeply.

Fourth, the awareness dawns that God is totally Other. We are in the magisterial presence of God. Faith stirs and our fear and trembling find their voice once more. In worship we move into the tremendous poverty that is the adoration of God. Let the Great Rabbi hold you silently against His heart. In learning who He is, you will find out who you are: Abba’s child in Christ our Lord.
-excerpt from The Rabbi's Heartbeat by Brennan Manning