The Kind of Worshipers God Seeks

Most of us want nice, clear lines. To-do lists. Checkboxes. Religion.

In His time on earth, the Son of God was particularly good at upsetting the religious status quo. Turning over temple tables, having long talks over dinner with all the wrong people, calling the religious professionals hypocrites—this was normal behavior for Jesus. He did this to call attention to our spiritual complacency, challenge our wrong views of God, and teach us about worship. In John 4, He does all three in the most unlikely place, with the most unlikely pupil.

The woman at the well had no business talking to a Jew. Samaritans and Jews did not mix. The Samaritans were outcasts, spiritually unclean sinners. Plus, she was a woman. Oh, and she slept around, too. But her adultery is not the real issue. Her deflecting question about where people should worship is also not the issue. Jesus is concerned with her heart and her mind. He is concerned with who she worships and how she worships. “[T]rue worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” 

Jesus reaches through centuries of cultural, religious and ethnic biases to give the most unlikely person a chance at redemption from sin. And when He offers her “a spring of water welling up to eternal life,” she thinks, “that would be great; then I don’t have to come back to draw water from the well everyday.” She misses it at first. She wants a checkbox. But until she knows who Jesus is, she can’t worship rightly. 

Jesus wants to teach each of us to be the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. But to do that, He has to challenge our external actions and inadequate views of God. Jesus wants to shake you out of empty religion and misguided passions. He wants you to know Him, the only Way to eternal life, so then you can worship God in spirit and truth.