As Israel’s prophets pointed out on several occasions, the calamity of idolatry is that the idol is In effect taken to be the god to be worshipped. So the idol substitutes for the god, takes the place of God. The worship due to God is absorbed by the idol.
The danger of Jesus-olatry is similar: that Jesus is been substituted for God, has taken the place of the one creator God; Jesus is absorbing the worship due to God alone.
It is this danger that helps explain why the New Testament refers to Jesus by the words “icon” (eikon)-the icon of the invisible God. For, as the lengthy debate in eastern Christianity made clear, the distinction between an idol and an icon is crucial at this point. An idol is a depiction on which the eye fixes, a solid wall at which the worship stops. An icon on the other hand is a window through which the eye passes, through which the beyond can be seen, through which the divine reality can be witnessed.
So the danger with a worship that has become too predominantly the worship of Jesus is that the worship due to God is stopping at Jesus, and the revelation of God through Jesus and the worship of God through Jesus is being stifled and short-circuited.
