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Showing posts from January, 2011

on Worship

Matthew 2:1-12 Today is the first Sunday after Epiphany: ā€˜the making of the light knownā€™. Jesus is revealed for who he is. But what makes Matthew 2 so appropriate for today, at the beginning of the year, is the focus that is on worship. ā€˜Worshipā€™ is not a word that the New Testament uses often, and certainly not to depict an event. But here ā€˜worshipā€™ does talk about an event: The wise men say to Herod: ā€˜Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We .. have come to worship himā€™ ( Matthew 2:1 ) Herod answers them, ā€˜Report to me, so that I too may go and worship himā€™. ( Matthew 2:8 ) When they reach the house, ā€˜they bowed down and worshipped himā€™ ( Matthew 2:11 ) Matthew is soaked in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament ā€˜worshipā€™ is an event. It is what you do when you go to the temple, submit yourself to God and offer sacrifices to Him. And so when Matthew uses the word ā€˜worshipā€™, he is not using it in the way that the rest of the New Testament uses the word. For Jo...