John 4- Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in Sychar….
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
She calls Jesus a prophet then seeks answers to why worship is only valid in Jerusalem to the Jews, dismissive of the Samaritans place of worship.
He proceeds to prophesy: “A time is coming when YOU will worship neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.” (That little word “yet” suggests that Jesus is stripping worship away from attachment to a PLACE for both Jews and Samaritans…. and everyone!)
He further prophesies and reveals the fulfillment of the prophecy in the same breath….. “Yet A TIME IS COMING and HAS NOW COME when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks,” moving her mind away from the entire concept of worshipping a god one doesn’t yet know in a physical place toward a conceptual, spiritual way of worshipping the true God in one’s own spirit by means of the Holy Spirit’s presence ….. both of whom, Spirit and Truth, are present to her in that very moment…. the prophecy both spoken and fulfilled in an instant. What happens next is epic!
She cites her knowledge of the Scriptures’ promise of a Messiah who will lead them into all truth.
Christ reveals Himself as the One…. and her whole world is changed….and that of her community.
And the manifestation of the Kingdom of God went from being represented in a place, as had been the case for both the Jews and the Samaritans, to being resident in a relationship with a Person, Jesus Christ.
God has reminded me on several occasions that I am not called to a PLACE, but rather to PEOPLE and a PURPOSE. .
We don’t so much go to church as we bear the church within us. We may choose to confine it to a place and time, inviting others to come. Or we may carry it out into the world looking for thirsting and hungry souls with whom to share it.
The authority and splendor of the satan is nothing more than the common carnival-ware things of life that shine temporarily in the world of the flesh. The enemy may have the power to offer the world’s best but, even at that, at its best, lofty stature and material treasure are still only temporary and will be overthrown, will rust away and will be eaten by moths, and eventually will be no more. Such counterfeit currency of the flesh may hold appeal for those in and of the world, but it has no value in the Kingdom of God which is where Christ came from, what He brought with him, and what He established among His disciples who become the embodiment of the Kingdom of God alongside the world of the flesh, though not of it.
Jesus, bearing the fullness of the Holy Spirit, is the treasurer and giver of the ultimate timeless original eternal authority and splendor of the Kingdom of God. I can imagine Christ, had He chosen to tip His hand saying essentially the same thing to the satan He said to the woman at the well,”If you knew who it was to whom you speak, you would be asking Me for the original and eternal authority and splendor.”
Oh, but it was the satan’s treachery and lies that sought to steal those treasures from God in His Kingdom that resulted in the satan having nothing more than the counterfeits in and of the world of the flesh to entertain himself with until God is ready to reveal that the Kingdom of God has overwhelmed and taken him and his worthless trinkets captive, destroying the very things the satan thought he could peddle to a human, like Jesus or any of us. 3/18/23 CBB responding to Wake Up Call
3/21/23 comments on Luke 4 and worship
