Pastor's Corner: Getting to the heart of the issue

One of my favorite New Testament stories is found in the Gospel of John. In chapter 4 of that book, the Apostle John records the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. It is special to me for several reasons. First, it was Jesus’ first ministry outreach to someone outside of the Jewish community. Secondly, in this His first evangelical outreach he spoke to a Samaritan woman, which punches holes in any argument that Jesus was a in any way racially prejudice or gender biased. But to me, the most meaningful part of this story is when the woman “perceives” that “Jesus is a prophet,” and goes on to ask a question that not only tried to demonstrate her piety despite her sinful ways, it was a question that would have been on the minds of most first century Samaritans. “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Where is the true place to worship?

In typical fashion, Jesus cuts through all of the small talk and goes directly to the heart of the issue. Jesus said:

“Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

There are many things to unpack in this short paragraph, but the major point is that “true worshipers” worship God the Father “in spirit and in truth.” Now I admit that a person could not easily exhaust all that has been written about this text by theologians over the past 2 millennia, but I find that the truth is not too far below the surface.

Let me take these one at a time. First of all, Jesus was saying that true worshipers, as opposed to false ones, worship God “in spirit.” One of the things that the Old Testament Prophets often spoke against was the fact that the Israelites had grown so used to their ceremonial sacrifices that they offered them out of duty. Their system of worshiping God had become routine. Jesus brought this to the peoples’ attention in Matthew 15 when He quotes from Isaiah, “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me.” In his response to this Samaritan woman, Jesus was simply stating the obvious: Worship isn’t about a place or even following a set standard of rules; true worship must be from a heart of true devotion.

Secondly, Jesus said that true worshipers would worship “in truth.” Here is where I as a Protestant preacher stand on thin ice with many who might read this article. But the obvious question that follows is this: Where then do we find the truth? Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life…,” so the simple answer is that the truth is found in Jesus Christ. And the book that speaks of Jesus is the Bible, beginning in Genesis and ending in Revelation. Enough said.

I will close with this. In Jesus response to the Samaritan woman, He said, “Such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.” Did you catch that? The Father is actively searching for worshipers. I pray that in reflection of these truths, He finds you.

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Christopher N. Richards is pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church.