Worship in Spirit and Truth Part 1

Part One - the context of John 4

John 4 is a passage familiar to those involved in local church worship. It is obviously important to us all, but it particularly grabs the attention of the worship leader, as it’s the only time that Jesus specifically addresses the subject of worship, using this phrase ‘in spirit and truth” twice.

But it’s always seemed a very peculiar Biblical context for this theme. I’d have expected the chapter to begin, “Jesus was teaching the pharisees and the teachers of the law in the temple one day, and the subject of worship came up…” Perhaps it would have made me feel more important as a worship leader, that Jesus would have seen the subject as important enough to discuss it with the spiritual leaders of the day – after all, it’s always high on my list of topics to discuss with church leaders! But no. Jesus is taking a break. He arrives at a well in the heat of the day, he’s tired and thirsty. And a woman comes to the well.

Now, as I’m sure you know, there are two reasons why Jesus should have nothing to do with her. First, she’s a woman. And second, she’s a Samaritan. This is not the usual context for a theological discussion. And to ask her to get him a drink is pretty outrageous.

Then, it comes out that her background is pretty shady. She’s ditched five husbands (or they’ve ditched her), and now she’s living with a man she's not married to.

On top of that, the way the question pops up seems to suggest it’s little more than a way of changing the subject! “You’ve been married five times, and now you’ve moved in with someone else..” “That reminds me, what do you think about worship…?” Have you ever had conversations like that? You’re telling it like it is to an unbelieving friend: “What matters is where YOU stand with God. If you died tonight, do you know you’d go to heaven?” They look thoughtful. You feel you’ve finally got through to them. Eventually, they look at you and ask: “…So do you really believe Adam and Eve existed…?”

So, out of this almost bizarre context comes the most profound, life-changing proclamation that the kingdom of God has come, that it doesn’t matter whether you live here or there, you won’t be able to please God by fulfilling religious duty (in fact, you never could) and when all who turn to Him – Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles – will be reconciled to God and each other. It’s the message of the kingdom.

And it’s a message we need to hear now. Why? Because we, like them, can be guilty of reducing the word of God to religious duty, to a series of rules and traditions and ways of doing things, both in our daily lives, and in our corporate worship. So our church services are reduced to a list of songs or a form of liturgy that doesn’t engage our hearts, or we feel we need to go through this ritual to win God’s approval.