04/16/2024 – True Worshippers
John 4: 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.”
The Samaritan woman was convinced that there were only two options for her, and that, as we would think, the one she had chosen was the right one. Since she was a child, she had heard that Gerizim was the mountain where worship was to be done. They also taught her that there was another mountain in Jerusalem and warned her that those who worshiped there were wrong.
What she did not know, what the teachers of the law they did not know, is that there is another much higher mountain , a spiritual mountain. That there is a better way to worship God: in Spirit and in truth. The Lord came to show us a truth that no one on this earth could know without his revelation. This unknown truth on earth was necessary for the salvation of this woman and the people of her village: that God must be worshipped in the Spirit, not in the rituals of religion.
We must come to the Bible hoping that the Lord will show us a different path, better than what we know or can imagine, and much better than the one we fear. Instead of choosing a philosophy to defend our point of view and prove others wrong, the Lord calls us to unite around his truth. There is room there for all the children of God.
The Lord offers us much more than a point of view. He offers us a way to heaven and holiness. This path is very different from our paths. This is the narrow path, Jacob’s ladder. The wonderful and unexpected way over which the angels go up to heaven and descend.