Physical Worship in the Newer Testament: Bowing, Kneeling, Prostrating

Physical Worship in the Newer Testament: Bowing, Kneeling, Prostrating.

“The bodily gesture itself is the bearer of the spiritual meaning, which is worship. Without the heart of worship, the bodily gesture would be meaningless, while the spiritual act itself must of its very nature express itself in the bodily gestures.” (Rev. Joseph Ratzinger, The Theology of Kneeling).

The Jewish Roots to Physical Worship. With the Hebrews, Praise was an Art Form: exuberant with raised arms; exultation accompanied by holy dance; spontaneous songs sung during worship; combining a petition with a praise in the same breath; making a joyful noise with a loud shout of celebration; praise with hands lifted up high in the air and arms extended; bowing low in adoration; lifting up one’s whole being to God in praise, including heart, hands, voice, eyes, soul; spin around in joy and praise; jump for joy; to declare praise very loudly like a roaring lion; bless God on bended knee, praising Him humbly while kneeling; to allow silence itself to praise God, blessing Him in reverence without exclamations but with soft murmuring; magnify and glorify God in praise by raving about His greatness and spiritual weight; to invite all of nature to join you in praise and worship; praise with music, celebrating in song with voice and/or stringed instruments; to enjoy a circle dance with other worshipers, as well as the more spontaneous whirling and twirling in the spirit. As Dr. Ellen Davis said in her book Getting Involved with God, “The area of ancient Israel’s greatest creativity, and so what they did best, was the praise of God.”

Being Physical with Worship. The spiritual and the physical belong together, and are in fact inseparable. We were created as whole beings with a mysterious fusion of body and spirit and soul and body and everything else that constitutes our personhood. Not only that, the Incarnation reveals how important the body is to Creator God. In a sense, the idea, the reality, of God taking on a physical body was actually a spiritual act. We need to make sure we incarnate our worship. So worship of our Creator needs to include the body if we want to worship with our whole selves. Physical acts of worship become meaningless if it is done thoughtlessly, without its intention of worshipping God. But worship is not limited to the nonphysical, the so-called spiritual ether, and one wonders if one is can even be fully involved in the act of worship without the body. So physical gestures are invaluable in the act of worship. They can point to spiritual truths, they can stimulate worshipful acts, and they can enable a fuller expression of awe, lament, adoration and worship. Using the body helps us to put the Gospel message into motion. The movement of one’s body can be a sign that communicates a message… Do you want to signal to God that you submit to Him, that you want to confess to Him, that you adore Him, that you intend to follow Him in trust? There are gestures and postures and movements that can express what is on your heart without any use of words. Body language is vital to spiritual life and expression. In this blog series entitled “Physical Worship,” I will focus on the worshipful use of the body through such gestures and movements as: prostration before God; sitting at the feet of Jesus; standing in respect and oneness; kneeling in submission; walking in order to follow; running the good race; jumping for joy; lifting up the heart and hands; offering the kiss of peace; and the act of crossing oneself with the sign of the Cross. This is important: Physical postures and actions during worship reflect the attitudes of the heart, but they can also help produce the attitudes of the heart.

On My Knees – Red Clay Strays

Kneeling. Bending the knee is no light matter, even though it is relatively easy to do, depending on one’s physical status. Kneeling is a vivid picture of honoring your Superior and submitting to your Sovereign. Kneeling is a symbol of humility, because if one is serious when doing it, it requires a swallowing of one’s pride. Hebrew tradition has long considered one’s knees to be a symbol of strength, so bending the knee to honor Someone means one has accepted one’s weakness, acknowledged one’s insufficiency. Bending the knee is submitting in faith to an almighty God who is all-sufficient and worthy of worship. The Hebrew word for bless is “barak,” which is literally translated as to kneel down, to bless and adore God on bended knees. One kneels when taking the lower place in the presence of a higher authority. Before the King of kings, we can add awe, reverence and worship. We kneel low to raise God high, to honor His glory and holiness. When we kneel, we are physically demonstrating that we desire to yield to the King of the universe. The Judeo-Christian, biblical faith considers the act of kneeling to be vital to worship, if only to bow the knees of the heart.

1. “Proskynein.” The New Testament includes a Greek word for “adoration on one’s knees,” which is “proskynein.” It literally means “to kiss the hand toward,” an act in the spirit of kneeling and bowing. It is found in about 60 different passages in the New Testament, including 24 times in John’s Revelation alone. This powerful word is usually translated as “worship.” It is used when the Magi ask to see Jesus so they can bow down to Him (Matthew 2:2); when Mary Magdalene met Jesus on the road after the resurrection (Matthew 28:9). The word is found often in that especially poignant scene with Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. In fact, between the two of them, they mention kneeling in adoration nine different times as they discuss worship. In the gospel era, kneeling in adoration was inseparable from the worship experience. Two more wonderful examples of proskynein are:

(a.)  The disciples are out in the boat in the midst of a fierce storm after the miraculous feeding of the 5,000. They become petrified as they see Jesus walking on the sea toward them with all the waves and strong winds. Jesus reassures them as He draws near, tells them to take courage, stop being afraid, for He is the Great I AM. Peter asked Jesus if he could walk on the water out to Him, and Jesus said to come right out of the boat. Peter started out strong, but as he felt the strong wind, he started to doubt and began to sink. Jesus held onto him, rebuked Peter for his faltering faith, and they both climbed into the boat with all the other disciples. The disciples were flabbergasted, of course, so what else could they do after witnessing that? “Those in the boat knelt down on their knees in adoration and worshipped Him, saying, ‘Truly, You are the Son of God!” (Matt. 14:24-33).

(b.)  Jesus heals a man born blind at the pool of Siloam, and he immediately starts to grow in his understanding of just Who it was that healed him. At first he called Jesus a “man,” then a “prophet,” and then finally “Lord.” “The man called out, ‘Lord, I believe! I trust you and I cleave to you!’ And he knelt down on his knees in adoration and worshipped Jesus.” (John 9:38).

2. “Gonypetein.” The other Greek word for kneel in the New Testament is “gonypetein,” and it literally means to fall on both knees with the head bowed, which is actually a lesser form of the full prostration. It is used a number of times in the Gospels, including: The healed leper (Mark 1:40); The earnest seeker (Mark 10:1); The loving father (Matthew 17:14).

The Gospels and Acts are chock full of people kneeling, from Jairus (Mark 5:22), to the devoted Mary of Bethany (John 11:32), to the Roman soldiers who kneeled in mockery at His kingship when beating Him and spitting on Him and humiliating Jesus in every way possible (Matt. 27:29), to Cornelius bowing and kneeling before Peter (Acts 10:25),  to St. Stephen while he was being executed (Acts 7:60), to Peter and Paul and the whole Christian community (Acts 9:40, 29:36, 21:5).

3. “Pipto” = The root Greek word meaning to fall down, used over 90 times in the New Testament; is the starter word for dozens of terms involving falling downward from a higher place to a lower place; pipto is the biblical term for prostration, falling onto one’s face on the ground, to collapse to the ground; to fall flat down in worship, reverence, allegiance, or submission; to drop down to the earth as if dead. In the Christian tradition, to fully prostrate oneself often includes confession and gratitude, as well as to pray from a low place before God’s greatness and awesome mystery. To prostrate oneself before the Lord is to assume a humble, servile position before our Master, the almighty God.

Falling Down. Literally volunteering to perform a face plant on the ground is unusual to say the least. It takes a lot of pride-swallowing and ego-relinquishment to stretch flat on the ground. But “pipto” was fairly commonplace in the biblical era, as well as in other parts of the world right now. The West does not like to be humbled, evidently. The lesser form of pipto is when one would kneel with both knees on the ground and the forehead touching the ground as well. It was a position slaves would take with their master out of duty and respect. Often out of disrespect a person witnessing this would kick the rear end of the person lying on the ground. This would confirm that person’s place in life. The full prostration would be lowering oneself to the ground and assuming a position in which the entire body was flat on the ground, from the head to the toes to all the limbs. Often the phrase “throw oneself to the ground” would indicate a full prostration, with the word pipto more times than not referring to the full prostration.

Flat on the Ground. When a defeated soldier is brought to a conquering king, the captured foe lays his body out, face down, fully on the ground. That physical act acknowledges the fact that he is in subjection to the king, that he submits to his power and authority. To lie prostrate in worship is to acknowledge much the same thing, that the worshiper is humbly in full submission to God the King. To lie prostrate in prayerful worship is done out of reverence and a healthy fear of God’s might and authority over us. Interceding for the people of Israel after the Golden Calf debacle, Moses fell prostrate before the Lord for forty days and nights. He fasted the whole time he was prostrate, because he “feared the anger and wrath of the Lord.” (Deut. 9:18-19). Moses acknowledges his subservience to Yahweh by his physical gesture. Even more telling was the time when all the people on Mt. Carmel saw the fire of heaven come down at Elijah’s request, ‘When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord – He is God! The Lord – He is God!’ (1 Kings 19:39). Prostration is a rather radical, visual way to signal one’s submission and respect to God. It would be interesting to try this posture in private prayer, no less in community worship.

Gethsemane. One of the most heart-breaking scenes in the Gospels reveals a full prostration… Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane flat on the ground in utter agony. “And He took with Him Peter, James and John, and began to be very distressed and troubled; and He said to them, ‘My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.’ And He went a little beyond them, and fell to the ground (pipto), and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass Him by. And He was saying, ‘Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.’” (Mark 14:33-36; also refer to Matt. 26:36-39).

Jesus, Tormented and Desperate. We see here that Jesus is in desperate distress, and He literally threw Himself to the ground, fully prostrating Himself in prayer to His Father. Jesus is humbly submitting to the Father as He opens His heart to Him. He is fully on the ground, in total privacy, stretching out and remaining vulnerable to whomever might come to Him there. But that is not all he is doing on the ground like that. According to many biblical scholars, Jesus is also identifying Himself with the fall of mankind, kissing the dust of the earth. Jesus “lets Himself fall into man’s fallenness.” (Fr. Ratzinger). With a tormented soul, Jesus collapses to the ground and assumes a servile position before the Father as well as a position of solidarity with His fellow human beings in the flesh.

There are many other fascinating situations in the New Testament in which pipto was demonstrated, whether voluntarily or not:

(1.)  The Samaritan leper who was the only one of the ten healed lepers who returned to Jesus to express his gratitude by falling at His feet (pipto). (Luke 17:16);

(2.)  Peter, James and John on the Mount of Transfiguration went flat on the ground (pipto) with Jesus after they heard the Father’s voice out of the holy cloud (Matt. 17:6);

(3.) The three wise men from the East fell down (pipto) when they approached Jesus (Matt. 2:11);

(4.)  The Devil demanded that Jesus pipto before him to show subservience to the Devil’s power during the Temptation (Matt. 4:9);

(5.)  The midnight mob of Roman soldiers and religious authorities fell to the ground (pipto) in Gethsemane when confronting Jesus, and Jesus saying that He was the great I AM (John 18:6);

(6.)  Saul, soon to become Paul, lay prostrate (pipto) on the ground after his “come to Jesus” moment on the road to Damascus. (Acts 9:4, 22:17).

(7.) The scene at the throne of worship in John’s Apocalypse, “The 24 elders will fall down (pipto) prostrate before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever…” (Rev. 4:10).

Out of Fashion. It’s no wonder the physical gesture of pipto, lying flat on the ground, is out of fashion in so many Christian churches. It is truly a sign of weakness and submission, and many of us are not so good at that. There are many church traditions, though, that have retained this physical act of worship, most notably the Roman Catholic, the Anglican, and the Orthodox Churches. During the Good Friday services, the priests and deacons lie prostrate before the altar, to identify not only with man’s fallenness, but also to participate in the anguish and humiliation of Christ during His Passion. One would also witness aspiring priests prostrating themselves during their ordination service, stretching out on the floor, to symbolize their utter inadequacy and insufficiency in assuming this mission in their lives, pleading with God to provide the strength and wisdom necessary for them to perform their church duties in a way that would honor Him.

How About Now? It would seem that if one were not physically capable of prostration, or is in the situation in which that would be feasible, one could meaningfully prostrate themselves in their hearts. A wonderful act of worship might indeed be to speak to the Lord while mindfully lying on the ground, humbly, reverently, in our hearts.

Holy Forever (Live) – Bethel Music, Jenn Johnson, feat. CeCe Winans