23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
JESUS, A JEWISH MAN, sits down beside a well in Samaria in the hot noonday sun and starts talking to a Samaritan woman. This may seem like no big deal to us, but in this culture and time period, it was absolutely scandalous. Why? First, it’s unusual that a Jewish man would even be in Samaria— Jews avoided that area because Samaritans were historically considered “ half- breeds” rather than pure Jews. Jews would even go around the entire Samaritan territory if they had to get from Judea to Galilee.
Second, it was out of the ordinary that a man would be talking to an unknown woman. Yet when Jesus is sitting beside this well and a woman comes along with her water pot, He asks her for a drink. She’s surprised that He even speaks to her, and then Jesus tosses out a line sure to make her curious:
“If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water” (John 4:10). The words have the desired effect, and Jesus and the woman begin a conversation about spiritual matters. When Jesus tells her to get her husband, she replies that she doesn’t have one. Jesus knows not only that she doesn’t have one but also that she has already had five!
She’s suddenly exposed. She doesn’t even know this man, and He is telling her the private details of her life. Guilt has wrapped itself around her. She’s uncomfortable, and she’s embarrassed. In her uneasiness, the Samaritan woman decides to change the subject. She asks why the Jews say Jerusalem is the only place to worship God while the Samaritans claim that the right place is actually Mount Gerizim, which stood right behind them.
Jesus clarifies that worship is no longer connected with a place— Jerusalem, a mountain, wherever. Look at His words in John 4:21: “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem.”
He goes further. He has the audacity to tell her that she is not connecting with the living God: “True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23).
He clarifies that worship is not a mystical groping in the dark in hopes of reaching some deity that may or may not be listening. It is a clear, definitive, conscious connection with the living God. In fact, He goes on to say, “The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24).
What a great thought: God seeks our worship. So that brings us to a question:
What is worship? It is attributing supreme worth to God, who alone is worthy of it.
When we worship, that’s what we’re doing. The purpose of the church is to cultivate worshipers. It isn’t a place to make business contacts or to go to check something off the weekly list or to bring your kids so they get something out of it. No, it’s a place to learn about our God so that our worship and understanding of Him become increasingly deeper and more meaningful. It’s a place where we give Him our praise and our gratitude. Why is worship so important? Because it turns our full attention to the only One worthy of it.
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