John 4: 1 - 26

John 4:1-26

Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman

Aim: Worshipping in Spirit and Truth

Words

-------------------------------

Today’s gospel reading from John 4 is fascinating for the number of different questions and challenges it raises. I won’t attempt to cover all the issues that this passage lays out, but let’s start by looking at the opening verses:

John 4:1–4 NIVUK84

The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptising more disciples than John, although in fact it was not Jesus who baptised, but his disciples. When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria.

So Jesus was in Judea, and had to go through Samaria to get to Galilee. Immediately we have questions; why did Jesus have to go through Samaria, and why is it relevant?

Let’s take a look at a map.

You can hopefully see Judea down near the bottom where Jerusalem and the temple were, Samaria in the middle, and Galilee up at the top. On the face of it Jesus would, indeed, have to go through Samaria to get to Galilee by the shortest route.

But that’s a bit like saying that I went to Cornwall and had to go through Devon. It’s obvious, so why did John say that?

In fact many Jews, particularly the more religiously devout, would often have taken a longer route - going east over the Jordan river and then north through gentile country - rather than travel through Samaria. This was partly for religious reasons, and partly for reasons of safety.

Sadly, whilst I’d love to go through the history of Judea, Samaria and Galilee with you - the fact is that it’s extremely complex, the facts depend to an extent on who you believe, and we’d probably still be here at midnight!

Suffice to say that, by the time of Jesus, Judea and Samaria had been in sometimes bloody dispute for nearly 1,000 years.

The twelve tribes of Israel had been held together during the reigns of King David and then his son, Solomon; but when Solomon died the monarchy quickly fell apart. The two tribes in Judah (later called Judea) split with the other ten tribes in the north, basically disagreeing over who should succeed Solomon as their new king.

Two events in particular during those 1,000 years help us to better understand the background to our gospel passage. The first happened in 721 BC when the Assyrians overran the area north of Judea (2 Kings 17:6). They did two things:

First; they were in the habit of calling provinces they occupied after the capital city. The capital city of the area was Samaria, so the Assyrians called the province Samaria, leaving us with the confusion of trying to figure out when Samaria means the city and when it means the province.

Second; the book of 2 Kings in the Old Testament tells us that many native Israelites were deported from Samaria to make room for the settlement of foreigners (2 Kings 17:24-41). From Judea’s point of view, that meant Samaritans were no longer Jews but ‘half-breeds’ who were intermarrying with the gentile Assyrians.

The second event to mention is a result of the fact that the Samaritans believed only in the first five books of what we call the Old Testament, and they saw no religious significance to the line of David. So, when David chose Jerusalem as the capital of Israel instead of the city of Samaria, and when Solomon built the temple there, the Samaritans had felt aggrieved.

So, around 400 BC, the Samaritans built their own temple on Mount Gerizim. Mount Gerizim had great religious significance as it had been the area in which both Abram (Gen 12:6-7) and Jacob (Gen 33:18-20) had built altars.

But later, in around 128 BC, the Jews in Judah made another attempt to claim Samaria for themselves and burnt down the Mount Gerizim temple.

Hopefully, that very brief history lesson has given you an idea of the depth of animosity between Judea and Samaria; and we can now begin to more fully understand our passage.

Let’s get back to why Jesus had to go through Samaria. As we’ve already seen, whilst it was the quickest route it wasn’t the preferred route - and there’s no indication that Jesus was in any hurry.

We don’t know for certain, but it seems very likely that Jesus went through Samaria deliberately with divine purpose. In fact John, the writer of the gospel, often used the word translated ‘had to’ or ‘must’ in relation to Jesus’ mission on earth.

The history also begins to explain why the Samaritan woman was so surprised when Jesus asked her for a drink. Not only did Jews not associate with Samaritans, they also considered Samaritan women to be constantly ceremonially unclean. So for Jesus to drink from a vessel she provided would be to make himself ceremonially unclean - just as he appeared to risk becoming unclean when he touched lepers and the dead.

Again, the history now explains why she made the statement in verse 20 (Jn 4:20) that her ancestors had worshipped on Mount Gerizim but the Jews of Judea claimed worship had to take place in Jerusalem.

We’re then left with the rather confusing conversation about water; where the woman thought in human terms of water from the well whilst Jesus spoke to her in spiritual terms of living water.

The confusion is understandable. The term living water often meant fresh spring water as opposed to stagnant water, but Jesus used the term to describe the spiritual view of God as the source and giver of life.

Just as, in our Old Testament reading from Exodus (Ex 17:1-7), God provided water from a rock to sustain the Israelites, so Jesus was offering God as the spring of living water (Jer 2:13). In fact, later in John’s gospel (John 7:37-39), Jesus identified himself again with the giving of the gift of living water, and made clear that the living water is the Holy Spirit.

John 7:37–39 NIVUK84

On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

We must understand the great importance of this statement; Jesus claimed that the living water, the Holy Spirit, would transcend all: John’s baptism, ceremonial purification, and the healing waters of the pools of Bethesda and Siloam.

But, all that we’ve gone through so far is merely the groundwork for considering the words of Jesus in verses 21 - 24:

John 4:21–24 NIVUK84

Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, 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 worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

Those words challenge us to consider how we worship, both in church and elsewhere; both as a congregation and as individuals. Jesus speaks of hindrances to true worship - wrong practices, wrong priorities, and wrong perceptions. Let’s look at each in turn.

First: wrong practices.

The Samaritans had built a temple on Mount Gerizim; Solomon had built a temple in Jerusalem. To the Jews, not only was the Jerusalem temple of overwhelming significance; but ritual, ceremony and sacrifice were essential elements of worship. Over time they’d come to assume that, provided those externals were in place, God would be satisfied.

But Jesus warned, ‘A time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.’ He was speaking of the time of his own sacrificial death and resurrection, which would replace temple worship.

Not only Mount Gerizim, but even the temple in Jerusalem would become obsolete! God could not and cannot be contained in a building or restricted to one place. God is spirit and he seeks true worshippers.

And what is true worship? Let’s be clear; true worship is not simply about being sincere - many Jews were sincere in their worship - no, true worship is real. It’s taking a real approach to God, an awareness of the reality of the Father as revealed in the grace and truth of Jesus Christ.

To be true in our worship we should heed the words of Psalm 51:16-17

Psalm 51:16–17 NIVUK84

You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

God seeks sincere and humble dependence on him, and a genuine commitment to live in obedience to him.

The second hindrance to true worship is wrong priorities.

What kind of music should we use - hymns or worship choruses? Organ or guitar? Choir or music group? Live music or pre-recorded? Should we praise God with hands raised, or not? Should our services be pre-planned or spontaneous? Should our priests robe, or not? Should we use books, or have our songs projected even if they don’t have any punctuation marks?

The fact is, folks, true and sincere worship can be found in each.

The fact is, folks, that insincere and unworthy worship can also be found in each.

It’s easy to get wrapped up in such detail and personal preference - but it’s the wrong priority. It’s putting the form of worship before the content. The true priority should always be the content - worship from the heart.

Jesus seemed to imply that ritual, ceremony and sacrifice had little effect on man’s relationship with God; but that doesn’t mean that ritual and ceremony today are valueless. As creatures with physical bodies, we need some form of structure - however simple.

We need to accept that any form of worship is good provided that it’s proved by experience to aid worship in spirit and truth. That means we at St. Andrew’s have not got the ultimate in worship experience for all people; other churches may have other forms of worship which may be equally valid.

We must simply aim to ensure that our forms of service are an aid to worshipping in spirit and truth.

That doesn’t mean we should expect to leave here after a service having enjoyed every moment

- but that we should leave here knowing that every moment was an opportunity to worship in spirit and truth

- we should leave here having received the consecrated bread and wine, knowing that we have had the opportunity to meet with the living God.

So finally to wrong perceptions. We need to understand what we mean by ‘spirit’, both in terms of mankind and God.

And here I must just mention that a small number of Bible translations (including, sadly, the American NIV which some of you have) say ‘...in the Spirit’ with a capital S in verses 23 and 24 (Jn 4:23-4). There’s actually no ‘the’ in the original Greek text, and it seems far more likely that Jesus is referring here to the human spirit rather than the Holy Spirit.

The Greeks believed that our physical body was like a prison for our spirit, our inner-self; our soul whilst alive, and a tomb when we died.

By contrast; in the Bible the soul, far from being trapped inside our physical body, is part of that body created by God. And in the kingdom of heaven, when flesh and blood is left behind, our spirit won’t be left drifting around like some wispy cloud; the Bible tells us that we will have new bodies.

So when we speak of worshipping in spirit, we mean worshipping with our whole being - not merely physically, but with mind and soul too.

But when Jesus said, ‘God is spirit’ he meant something more because, of course, God has no physical body. Whilst we’ll often talk about God’s arms, hands, ears and other parts of human anatomy, we do that purely because we can’t think of any other way of speaking about an intelligent energy - it’s impossible to talk about something incomprehensible without trying to relate it to something we already know.

Yet God is incomprehensible in our own experience. We’re limited in time, space, knowledge and power. God isn’t.

It’s because it’s so hard to grasp the concept of God that it’s so important to worship him as he’s revealed himself to us. He’s done that in two clear ways - in the Bible and in the person of Jesus Christ - and it’s for that reason that you should ensure any church in which you worship is both Bible-centred and Christ-centred.

Put simply; people who worship at a church or gathering which is not Bible-centred and Christ-centred are putting themselves in the place of the Samaritans - they worship what they do not know.

But ultimately, does it really matter what we do in worship? As long as we make the effort, sing (preferably our favourite) songs, read the bits in yellow on the screen, and try not to look too bored during the sermon - does it really matter?

Put simply - yes. Look again at verse 23 when Jesus said;

John 4:23 NIVUK84

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.

The mind-blowingly incredible fact is that our worship matters to God; he cares about what we do in worship.

And, whilst I understand when Dan starts a service by apologising for interrupting our friendly pre-service conversations, we would do well to recognise that priests have a duty and an obligation to call God’s people to worship.

So instead of coming to church on Sunday simply because that’s what you always do;

Instead of coming to church hoping for your favourite songs, a sermon that’s shorter than this one, and the chance to catch up with friends;

Consider each service as an opportunity to give your whole self - in spirit and in truth - to the worship of our God.

Amen

Reminders:

When ready to print, follow the instructions in folder

Sermons>Sermons > 00 - LOGOS TO GOOGLEDOCS