19 The woman
said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you
say that in Jerusalem is the place 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 you worship the Father. 22 You
worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from
the Jews. 23 But the
hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the
Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship
him. 24 God is
spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to
him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes,
he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus
said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
John
4:19-26
This event is only recorded in the gospel of John. No other gospels recorded it. In this event, a personal conversation took
place between Jesus and a Samaritan woman.
The conversation touched several topics, from water, water of life,
history of the well, husband or no husband, worship, and who the Messiah was. Our passage above has its central focus on
worship. The woman’s understanding was
primitive. She was attached to the
practice of the people, which was derived from their fathers. Since her ancestors worshipped on the
mountains, so she also continued the practice.
Apparently she had heard that the Jews claimed that worshipping Yahweh
ought to be done in Jerusalem. Of these two knowledge she reported back to
Jesus as if she was begging for
guidance and clarity. Jesus understood the cue. Jesus felt the woman’s confusion and in need of guidance. Thus he immediately corrected the woman’s misperception of worship. Both the practice of the woman’s ancestors and the Jews’ claim were obsolete. Jesus redirected her mind to what was more important, the heart of worship in relation to the nature of God. The confusion over place of worship, on “this” mountain or in Jerusalem, was an elementary level of spiritual growth. Up to certain age, every human being finds place of worship to be essential for their spirituality. People like the Samaritan woman are stuck in that level and never move on to the next level. They could not see what is more important than place of worship. They are so attached to the physical world. Worse, for the Samaritan woman and the people of her era, they could not even go beyond the understanding of physical place (mountain and Jerusalem) and move to the understanding of space. What they had in mind was only the value of the place, but never the value giver. They could not even penetrate to perceive the importance of the value giver because they could not even move on from the concrete physical objects into the abstract imagination of what was unseen.
guidance and clarity. Jesus understood the cue. Jesus felt the woman’s confusion and in need of guidance. Thus he immediately corrected the woman’s misperception of worship. Both the practice of the woman’s ancestors and the Jews’ claim were obsolete. Jesus redirected her mind to what was more important, the heart of worship in relation to the nature of God. The confusion over place of worship, on “this” mountain or in Jerusalem, was an elementary level of spiritual growth. Up to certain age, every human being finds place of worship to be essential for their spirituality. People like the Samaritan woman are stuck in that level and never move on to the next level. They could not see what is more important than place of worship. They are so attached to the physical world. Worse, for the Samaritan woman and the people of her era, they could not even go beyond the understanding of physical place (mountain and Jerusalem) and move to the understanding of space. What they had in mind was only the value of the place, but never the value giver. They could not even penetrate to perceive the importance of the value giver because they could not even move on from the concrete physical objects into the abstract imagination of what was unseen.
The idea of space is more important
than the physical place, because the idea of space is indestructible while the
physical place, due to the law of physics in this world, is susceptible to
damage. How much more the value giver,
who is God himself, is indestructible because he is Spirit, and therefore infinitely
more important than any glorious place of worship humans can ever built. Not even the temple that Solomon built in all
its splendor and glory could be more important than of whom the temple was
built for. Jesus brought the Samaritan
woman to the realm of imagination where no physical damage can be incurred
upon. The mountain certainly carried
with it some kind of majestic awe that captured the emotion of her
ancestors. Jerusalem too was filled with
so much historic memory and value that also captured the emotion of the
Jews. But if what they focus on was only
the physical place, then they missed the more important meaning that those
places might be projecting. Our
depravity obscures our understanding that physical awesomeness distracts our senses
from the deeper meaning that physical objects are ascribed to. Over time, with our senses being lulled and
dulled by the physical grandeur, we forget the story behind the objects. In the case of worship, people at the time of
Jesus no longer worshipped the Lord who gave the value and meaning, but they
began to worship the objects – the places.
It was to the point of condemnation by each party claiming for each
position to be the truth. The Jews,
especially, with the historicity of Jerusalem on their side, they asserted that
Yahweh could only be found in the temple in Jerusalem. But they forgot Solomon’s prayer in 2 Chronicles
6:18 saying:
18 “But will
God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven
cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built!
Physical
place indeed has its role in our spiritual growth. But if we give it honor beyond its role, then we
stunt our own spirituality. The Samaritan
woman, her people, and also the Jews were stuck and therefore did not grow spiritually
anymore.
But the Jews had the upper hand because with them was the Book
of the Covenant and thus they had knowledge of God. This alone was superior. Jesus said to the woman that she did not know who
she worshiped, but the Jews knew. This truth
about who we worship is foundational. The
act of worship in itself is good. But it
quickly becomes meaningless if the worshipers do not know who they worship. The act of worship is indeed matching with our
construct as imago dei, but yet that’s only half of the story. The worshipers must worship the right God. Without knowledge of the true God, the worshipers
waste their act of worship toward those who are no God. The connection between the worshipers and God could
not be established without the true knowledge of God. This makes the act of worship empty. They come to the place of worship busy doing acts
of worship but in the end the act of worship is worthless. The Samaritan woman obviously knew nothing about
what Jesus talked about. But in his grace
and mercy, Jesus, breaking the tradition of his time, spoke and taught the Samaritan
woman in public. Jesus was a Jew, a man,
a rabbi, a prophet, and thus his status was regarded to be highly honorable compared
to the woman. The woman was a Samaritan,
whom the Jews considered to be of mixed blood. She was no longer “Israel” because she was not
pure. Moreover, she was a woman. And not a regular woman, she was an unrighteous
woman. But Jesus was gracious and merciful
toward her that he revealed to her the secret of heaven and earth. He said in verses 23 & 24 that “the hour is coming, and is now here, when
the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father
is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God
is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The
worshipers must follow the will of the one they worship. For worship foundationally belongs to the one being
worshiped. His will is that the worship
must be done in spirit and truth.
In spirit because God is spirit. The attachment to the place of worship betrays
this requirement. People of that time in
particular were mightily confused by the practices of religions in their era. Their gods were basically physical objects. So their worship was bound to the physical world.
Their imagination was limited to the concrete
objects and experiences they had or knew. Their eyes of faith were severely damaged that
they could not see beyond the concrete objects. They failed to recognize the nature of God. In their attempt to satisfy their urge to worship,
they bound “god” into their handmade idols. And since they could not find any better, they
were satisfied with what they had. This practice
was evil in God’s eyes. Jesus had to educate
the woman, and eventually the entire world, that God is spirit. This nature of God makes it a must for every worshiper
to worship in spirit. No physical objects
ought to take the place of God. Our worship
must go beyond the physical. In our spiritual
growth, physical objects have their roles in forming our imagination. But their use must not be carried onto our mature
stage of spiritual growth. When we mature
we are expected to enter into an abstract realm. At that level we are capable of grasping matters
that are not physical and concrete. As we
grow into maturity, our imagination ought to be educated in such a way that we may
be in tune with what is unseen. The entry
to the abstract real is a dangerous path. Because imagination may go wild. Once our spirituality matures and we start using
imagination at will and ease, it would be extremely difficult to unlearn our educational
imagination. That is why Jesus did not just
teach the woman to worship God in spirit, but Jesus also taught her to worship God
in truth. The truth is the compass of which
our imagination, and thus our spirit may not venture into the forbidden and destructive
territory.
In this gospel also John recorded the conversation between Jesus
and Pilate. In John 18:37-38 we will find
this irony:
37 Then
Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a
king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the
world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my
voice.” 38 Pilate
said to him, “What is truth?”
Jesus
was to bear witness to the truth. Moreover,
Jesus himself was the Truth (John 14:6). The truth is necessary for the worship of the true
God. The Jews had the law, but yet they did
not worship God in truth. This was because
they rejected Jesus, the Truth himself. They
worshiped God in their own truth as if they owned worship. As the owner of worship, God has revealed the truth
on how to worship him truly. Now, God did
not let our imagination to run wild. He gave
us Jesus Christ to be our guide. The Samaritan
woman quickly recognized Jesus to be the one sent by the true God. And so she remembered what she learned about the
Messiah. No doubt her heart was longing for
the Messiah to tell her of everything. She
said in verse 25: “I know that Messiah is
coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.”
Of this statement Jesus responded: “I who speak to you am he.” Now the
word “tell” in verse 25 is not the regular λέγω, but it is ἀναγγέλλω. ἀναγγέλλω
means much more than just telling. It means informing in great detail. This meaning is similar to the notion of teaching.
And so it would be reasonable to translate
it as: “I know that Messiah is coming (he
who is called Christ). When he comes, he
will teach us all things.” And thus such
translation helps us from being confused with the simple meaning of “tell”. In that way Jesus was educating the Samaritan woman
to enter into the realm of imagination that surpassed the physical limitation, of
mountain and Jerusalem, which bound her freedom to worship the God of heaven and
earth.
The educational imagination that the
Samaritan woman was experiencing in her conversation with Jesus liberated her in
her worship of the true God. In many ways
we are so much alike the Samaritan woman. Many times our worship is crippled by physical
matters that we forget the spirituality of worship. We are too tangled with our emotion and sentimentality
over worldly things so that we do not worship God in spirit. Instead of focusing on pleasing God who is spirit,
we too often are busy doing acts of worship that please our own heart and satisfy
our desire. In addition, we do not pursue
the truth but we impose our own “truth” to our acts of worship, of which worship
foundationally belongs to God. Instead of
consulting God in his holy words to find out his will, we devise our own methods,
ideas, concepts, etc. that replace God’s will on how he wanted to be worshipped.
Obviously, we are stuck in our spiritual
growth just like the Samaritan woman and the Jews of Jesus’ time that we do not
worship the true God in spirit and truth. How much more, Christian worship becomes more and
more immature as the new default of maturity is slowly accepted. Jesus has set the standard of worship, in which
all worshipers must worship the true God in spirit and truth. It is our duty to return to the standard that Jesus
has set for us. Worship belongs to him. If we are to worship him, then we ought to follow
his standard. This is where the educational
imagination of the Christian worship becomes significant.
Pastors, Elders, Deacons, Ministers,
Teachers, Theologians, must all work together to compose the framework of the educational
imagination of the Christian worship in order to educate and re-educate God’s people
of the right way to worship the Lord. Jesus
did that with the Samaritan woman, and so she became an evangelist to the Samaritans
and pointed to Jesus the Messiah. The right
way to worship was passed on with the sole purpose to please God. When people gather to worship, they may not do
acts of worship that seemingly pleasing God but in reality only pleasing their own.
Physical place, the idea of space, the music,
the liturgy, etc. are all important in our spiritual growth and process toward becoming
true and mature worshipers. But our hearts
ought to learn not to be attached to those worldly things. But instead, our eyes of faith must see clearly
the God himself, who sits on the throne. The educational imagination of the Christian worship
framework must be designed carefully so as to provide the learning items and contexts
for God’s people to walk in the path of true worship. And so in every corner of the educational imagination
of the Christian worship must be found the worship of God in spirit and truth as
the foundation.
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