Chapter 5 — Worship of Jesus
The Incarnate Christ and His Critics (Komoszewski & Bowman, 2024)
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There's a scene in the Gospel of Mark that should make us stop and think. A man possessed by thousands of demons — so supernaturally powerful that no chains could hold him — comes running toward Jesus. And instead of attacking, he falls at Jesus' feet and cries out in fear.
"What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God — do not torment me!" (Mark 5:7)
This is an act of fearful worship from beings who are anything but friendly toward Jesus. These demons — possibly two thousand or more, given that they then drove two thousand pigs off a cliff — were utterly overpowered by the mere presence of Jesus. They bowed before him not out of devotion but out of terror.
Which raises an important question: Why were thousands of supernatural beings terrified of a Galilean carpenter?
The Evidence in Mark
In the Gospel of Mark, proskyneō — the word for worship or bowing — appears in only two places. The first is this dramatic scene with the demoniac. The second is equally striking: Roman soldiers mocking Jesus before his crucifixion, kneeling before him and calling him "King of the Jews" (Mark 15:16–20).
The soldiers intended it as mockery. But Mark's readers know something the soldiers didn't: the one they were mocking was more powerful than the entire demon army that had just been brought to its knees. Their jest contained a truth they couldn't see.
Mark's Gospel is famous for what scholars call the "Messianic Secret" — Jesus repeatedly telling people not to spread word of his identity. Mark builds a portrait of Jesus that only fully resolves at the cross, where a Roman soldier (of all people) declares, "Truly this man was the Son of God" (Mark 15:39). Even in crucifixion, Jesus reveals who he is.
The Evidence in Matthew and Luke
Matthew's Gospel is especially rich in worship scenes. The magi worship the infant Jesus. When Jesus rescues Peter from sinking in the storm-tossed sea, the disciples "worshiped him, saying, 'Truly you are the Son of God'" (Matt. 14:33). After the resurrection, the women hold his feet and worship him (Matt. 28:9). His disciples worship him even as some doubted (Matt. 28:17).
Luke shows us Simeon, a devout man who had been promised by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before seeing the Messiah, cradling the infant Jesus and blessing God (Luke 2:28). It is a moment of profound, Spirit-led devotion directed at a child — a recognition of divine presence in a tiny, ordinary body.
The Significance of What Jesus Accepts
Here is the critical point that the authors emphasize: Jesus never corrects anyone for worshiping him. This is not a small detail. Throughout the New Testament, whenever a human or angel receives the kind of prostrate devotion that belongs to God, they immediately deflect it. Angels tell John to stop. Peter tells Cornelius to stand up. Even the healing of a lame man nearly leads Paul and Barnabas to be sacrificed to as gods, and they tear their clothes in distress at the idea.
But Jesus accepts worship. He welcomes it. He receives it as natural and appropriate.
The only sensible explanation is that he knew he deserved it — because he was the one to whom it rightfully belonged.
A Word to the Skeptic
Some scholars try to argue that the worship scenes in the Gospels are legendary additions by later, Gentile Christians who had no qualms about deifying their hero. But this explanation collapses under scrutiny. The earliest Christian writings we have — Paul's letters, written just 15–20 years after the crucifixion, written to largely Gentile audiences but rooted in Jewish theological categories — already speak of Jesus in terms that presuppose his divine status. The worship of Christ was not a late development. It was there at the beginning.
And it began with Jewish men and women who knew perfectly well that giving divine honors to a creature was the gravest of sins. They gave those honors to Jesus anyway. Not because they forgot their monotheism, but because Jesus had exploded every category they had for understanding who stood before them.
Reflection
When I think about those demons falling before Christ, there's something both sobering and deeply comforting about it. Every power, every darkness, every fear — they all know who he is. The whole universe, whether it likes it or not, eventually bows before the one who made it.
And we get to bow willingly. We get to come to him not in terror but in love, knowing that the one before whom all creation falls is the same one who calls us friends.
That's the gift of the incarnation. The God worthy of worship chose to become the kind of person you could talk to — and the kind of Savior who would die for you.
Worship him. He is worth it.