My purpose is to affirm that serious worshipers should not be content with casual worship, rather with obeisant worship that deals with real issues in living out their lives. To achieve this, I throw light on our Lord’s baptism, and on his response to worship in Matthew’s Gospel.

Matthew tied the baptism and temptation of Jesus together. He did this because they were truly interrelated. The Spirit orchestrated this sequence to reveal the absolute obeisance of the Son to the Father.

I use the term worship in two ways. Biblical worship is a verb; it’s when we bow in obeisance to the Lord in dealing with issues in our lives. I also use worship the noun: it refers to what worshipers do in church on Sundays. It’s the blessed verb that brings us in touch with God’s mercy and truth; the nouns identify the forms that make up an order of service. Without our response via the obeisant-empowering verb, worship is but an attractive ecclesiastically embroidered noun.

Here’s Matthew’s account of the temptation; coordinated by the Spirit.

“Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” (Matthew 4: 8-10)

Jesus publicly addressed worship only twice in his ministry. Most books on worship state that worship is the primary purpose of the church. Authors stress this because worship is what churches are operationally all about. Meet anyone on the street! Ask them what comes to their minds when you say “church”? They’ll likely respond, “worship.” Voila! To think church is to think worship. But they always mean worship the noun rather than worship the verb as in the Bible.

Jesus began his ministry with baptism. Baptism was the channel through which he realized worship the verb. He insisted that John the Baptist baptize him. Immediately the Spirit descended upon him. The heavens opened. The Father exclaimed, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased (Matthew 3:13-17). Imagine the shock that this surprising announcement from heaven must have been to Jesus! It was completely overwhelming; not laidback, nonchalant or casual!

His hair was still wet when the Spirit led him into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Whether you believe in a real devil or not, it doesn’t matter, you say, and yet it does matter absolutely. The devil  dallies with the issues of what’s good and bad. A few days before, Jesus heard the Father proclaim that his baptism pleased him. Now Jesus’ obeisance (worship) was tested before the hordes of hell.

When tempted to turn stones into bread to address his hunger, Jesus responded, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Excellent response. When told to throw himself down from the temple pinnacle, Jesus responded, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” Excellent again. But when lifted to the top of the highest mountain to contemplate kingdoms of the world and their glory, the scenario dramatically changed. Jesus faced the key issue of all—the one that that impacted not only his own destiny, but the eternal salvation of sinners and the destiny of nations.

Here’s what Satan dared ask of the Lord: ”All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”  Satan knew what to do. Cleverly gifted was he in his diabolical craft. He was present when Jesus made his obeisance to the Father through baptism. He listened when the Father called aloud from heaven, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” Now he located Jesus looking down on all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. “All this glory is yours. Renounce obeisance to the Father. Submit to me as your Lord.”

Satan delivered the lethal blow. Jesus exploded with righteous rage, “Get out of my sight, Satan!” “You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only you shall serve.”  Why the fiery eruption from Jesus in response to Satan’s obscene suggestion? What was at stake in his righteous indignation?  It established his fierce fusion with worship the verb: it was about his bowing in absolute and humble obeisance to the Father! That’s forever worship. It’s whether Christ is our one and only Lord, or we cradle ourselves as the center piece. Worship is one biblical channel through which we resolve clashes over values.

Much of our worship is casual today. It’s not that we want to be regular about our devotion to God. It’s that in feasting over an order of service, we don’t taste a la carte items. Each item we enjoyed in music, prayers and sermon last Sunday was enough to bring us to our knees in godly tears–isn’t that so?–yet we participated in them routinely, and moved on quickly with aspirations of salvation.

Jesus baptism confirmed his worship: his obeisance to the Father. However that critical moment of worship tested the very tenacity of his baptism. At his feet Satan had laid out all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. Was Jesus so in tune with his divinity that there was no choice to be made? Was Jesus so in touch with his humanity that he fully faced the test before him? Is this not what the Scripture meant:” He was in all points tempted as we are” (Heb. 4:15). Can we grasp how Jesus worshiped, and how we also truly worship, without facing the issues that he faced in his contest with good and evil?

Here are issues that Jesus faced during worship (obeisance to the Father) based upon his own statements: Must I deny myself and take up my cross? If I bear my cross, will the Father address my plight? Here also are issues that challenged him, if not then, during later worship. Who will address the needs of the poor and impoverished? Is the hope for an everlasting kingdom of peace just a dream?

These are also issues that biblical worshipers face in dealing with their daily lives. Am I denying myself? Taking up my cross? Trusting God’s grace? Attending to the poor? Holding myself accountable? These issues effectively wrench worship out of the realm of the casual. Biblical worship is response to clashes of truth in our lives; it’s obeisance to the Father through the Son in the Spirit; it’s deliberate and decisive. It’s no longer casual, but now longingly clash-ual.

John Hubley. Mindheart Foundation. May 2009. All rights reserved.