‘I’ll give you the world if, just for a moment, you’ll just fall down and worship me’
The word ‘worship’ means ‘worth-ship’. It means giving to someone else honour, love, respect, whatever term you want to apply, because they are ‘worth it’. Christians worship the God revealed in the person of Jesus because Jesus shows them what God is like, what God wills for them and what God promises them. They worship him because his Kingdom is one of truth, love and justice, all of which are a source of blessing and the best life for the world.
The God of Jesus is worth all that we offer him because his ways are ways which mean the fullness of life for human beings. But the devil’s ways are ‘Self first, self last and self in between’ as may grandmother used to say when I wanted my own way regardless of what was right or true. What is that attitude worth when it means treading on others, grabbing what you can for yourself without a care for the consequences to others?
Jesus’s response is again to have recourse to the scriptures, Deuteronomy again, (6 v. 13) and to say to the devil, in effect, ‘Your values are worthless, your ways are trash. Only the ways which the Father has called me to reveal have any real or lasting worth.’
A momentary acknowledgement that anything which the devil has to offer has any worth at all is what Jesus is being asked to give. A quick fix or a nod in the wrong direction of a worthless purpose demeans us as bearers of the image of truth.