From a message, “You Shall Worship the Lord Your God” by John Piper, September 8, 1985:
Taking Cues from the King’s Son
Suppose you are a kid playing in the streets outside the mansion of the king, and the king’s own son comes out and starts to play with you. After a while he invites you to come home with him and meet his father. At first you decline in fear: “I’m just a peasant. I don’t have a noble name. And my clothes are all dirty. I’m not fit to visit the king.” But he just smiles and says. “That’s OK, if you’re my friend, he won’t mind.”
So you follow the son of the king through the huge gate. Your heart is beating so hard you can see it moving your shirt. And it occurs to you that you have never met a king before and have no idea how to approach him. But the happy stride of your friend, the king’s son, puts you at ease and you remind yourself that the king is his father. They no doubt have a wonderful relationship. Everything will surely be all right.
By the time you reach the king’s chamber you are almost feeling at ease. Then something utterly unexpected happens. As the son knocks at the chamber door and hears the deep welcome from the other side, his whole demeanor changes. His gaiety turns to gravity. Not grief or sadness, just gravity—like something weighty is about to happen. And the change isn’t artificial like when an actor is joking behind stage and then quickly puts on a new face to go on stage and be sad. The change wasn’t like that at all.
It was more like when a mountain climbing team is driving toward the mountain they aim to scale. They are joking and laughing about former good times. Then all of a sudden they round a curve and for the first time they see the massive face of the mountain, and inside the car there is silence as they drive on and stare. The laughter wasn’t phony. It was real and good. And the silence and awe in the car isn’t phony. It is real and it is good too.
The son puts his hand on the long door handle of the king’s chamber and opens the door. His face meets the king’s in the most natural manner, and then he kneels and puts both knees and then his face on the floor of the king’s chamber. And he waits.
It didn’t take any great chain of reasoning for you to know exactly what you must do. You had never read it in a book. Your mother had never told you. But you knew: if the son of the king bows before his father in holy silence, this peasant child better get on his face before the king.
Jesus’ Response to Satan
And so it is in our text. When Satan tempts Jesus to worship him by offering the glory of the world, Jesus does NOT say, “Satan, I already have a right to the world as a Son of the Creator. You should worship me, not I you. Be gone!” He could have said that. It would have been true.
But what he said was, “Satan, my Father has given commandment that he and he alone be worshiped. I always have and I always will obey my Father. Begone, Satan!” And here we are this morning, dirty peasants, battered souls befriended by the Son of God, standing by his side at the entrance to the chamber room of God. Our duty is clear. The duty of every human being is clear. If the very Son of God counts it his duty to obey the command to worship God, then how much more must we count it our duty to obey this command! WORSHIPING GOD IS THE DUTY OF EVERY HUMAN BEING!
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