True Worshipers
TRANSLATION
(19) The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. (20) Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you (Jews) say that it is in Jerusalem where people ought to worship.” (21) Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will we worship the Father. (22) You (Samaritans) worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. (23) But the time is coming and has now come when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers which the Father seeks. (24) God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” (25) The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah who is called Christ is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” (26) Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
(27) Just then his disciples returned and were amazed that he was speaking with a woman. Yet, no one asked, “What are you looking for or why are you speaking with her?” (28) Then leaving her water jar, the woman went back into town and said to the people, (29) “Come, see a man who told me everything that I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” (30) They left the town and were coming out to him.
OBSERVATIONS
Few other passages contain more important disclosures of doctrinal truth. In these verses we learn that worship in the future will not be identified with a specific location (Bethel or Jerusalem) nor limited to a specific people group (Samaritans or Jews). Instead, the Messiah will usher in an era when the whole world, both Jews and Gentiles, will worship “the Father” in spirit and truth, that is, in a personal, familial relationship in accordance with the Father’s spiritual nature, governed by his revealed truth.
Several repetitions point us to the emphases of this segment. “Woman” occurred five times (vss. 19, 21, 25, 27, & 28). Repetitions of “worship/worshiped/worshipers” show the nature of true worship to be the focus of the passage (twice each in vss. 20, 22, 24, once in vs. 21, and three times in vs. 23). In addition, “Father” occurred three times (in vss. 21 & 23), “know” twice (in vs. 22), “seek/ seeking” twice (vss. 24 & 27), and “Messiah” twice (vss. 25 & 29) along with “Christ.”
OUTLINE
I. Jesus answered the woman’s questions regarding the “where” of worship. (19-24)
II. Jesus revealed to her his Messianic identity. (25 & 26)
III. The disciples returned as the woman departed to summon the townspeople to meet him. (27-30)
IDEA STATEMENT
When we worship the Father in accordance with his spiritual nature and his revealed truth, we are doing that which most gratifies his loving heart.
APPLICATION
Many readers in focusing on the significance of words describing how we are to worship, “in spirit and truth,” overlook an equally astonishing statement Jesus made regarding the nature of Messianic worship: “…worshipers which the Father seeks.” In only one or two other places are we told that God seeks something from us humans. He commands us to do many things, to love and obey him, to proclaim his salvation to the ends of the earth, and to love and forgive one another as we have been loved and forgiven. However, only rarely are we told that the all-sufficient, all-powerful God seeks something from us, namely our worship. What else might we give to a God who has everything and needs nothing? What else pleases his heart more than our genuine adoration and praise?
To this abused and rejected woman whom everyone else either avoided, ridiculed, or tried to exploit, Jesus revealed one of the most profound insights into the very essence of God in Scripture and how we, as his children, can truly delight his heart by giving him what he most desires. In doing so he honored her for hungering and thirsting after a personal relationship with her creator which nothing else and no one else could provide.