[Jesus] told [the Samaritan woman], “Go, call your husband and come back.” “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
—John 4:16-26 (TNIV)
I love this interchange between Jesus and the Samaritan woman because it captures the human condition at its, um, finest. Have you, like the Samaritan woman in today’s passage, ever tried to argue with Jesus or change the subject when he tells you something that makes you uncomfortable or you don’t want to hear? I have. If you have too, I hope it worked for you better than it did for me. 🙂
It seems to me that to worship in the truth is to worship God through Jesus and to believe in God’s eternal plan of salvation as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
To worship in spirit means that we are no longer tied to the Temple, since first century Jews believed it to be the dwelling place of God. God is spirit and we must worship him in spirit so that through his Spirit we can be led to the truth and sanctified. Is this helpful?
We read this passage yesterday at Morning Prayer. What struck me then was that we are to worship in spirit and in truth. Just what does that mean? What is worshiping in spirit? What is worshiping in truth?
It seems to tie in with what you say: When Jesus brings up something to me about my life, I shouldn’t try to change the subject! because it won’t work that way! because He is showing me the Truth.