John 4:18-24: a reflection

18for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.” 19The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22You worship that which you don’t know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews. 23But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshipers. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The Samaritan woman raises a religious dispute: which mountain is the right place to worship, hers or the Jews' in Jerusalem? Jesus lifts the whole question to a different level. The hour is coming, he says, when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. Worship is not finally about the right location or the right externals; it is about the heart truly engaging the true God.

But notice the line that is easy to rush past: the Father seeks such people to worship him. God is not passively waiting to see who might show up. He is seeking, actively, worshipers who will worship in spirit and truth. Let that land. The God of the universe is looking for people who will worship him from the heart, honestly, in truth, and he counts them worth seeking out.

That reframes worship entirely. It is not a performance to earn God's attention; it is a response to a God who is already seeking you, who wants your true, heartfelt worship enough to go looking for it. And it frees worship from the tyranny of place and form: you do not need the right mountain, the right building, the right ritual. You need to engage the true God in spirit and truth, and wherever you are, he is seeking exactly that from you. Worship him, then, in spirit and truth, and know that the Father was seeking you first.

Father, you are spirit, and you seek those who worship you in spirit and truth. Free my worship from dependence on the right place or form, and draw me to engage you honestly, from the heart. Thank you that you are not passively waiting but actively seeking worshipers. Here I am; help me worship you in spirit and truth.