John 4: Whom Does the Father Seek to Worship Him?

Introduction

"Has it ever happened to you to wonder whether you were making a mistake?" This is how Samuel Ramos opens his message on John 4, in the series on the Gospel of John from the Église Protestante Évangélique de Toulouse. He admits the question comes up often for him: ten years ago, he trusted a craftsman who cheated him out of tens of thousands of euros, and he has sometimes punished one of his children when it was the other who deserved it. "I'm often wrong, and I often lack the right perspective."

We have many preconceptions about faith and religion. Jesus offers us a correction of perspective. In chapter 3, he corrected Nicodemus on how to enter the kingdom. In chapter 4, he corrects the Jews on another question: who will be able to enter it? The good news of the Savior is not only for them, but for the whole world, "including those who would never set foot in a church."

The message follows one question: whom does the Father seek? The one who worships him in spirit and truth, the one who receives life whatever their origin, the one who believes Jesus' word even without seeing.

Outline of the message

1. Jesus crosses Samaria and stops at the well

At the beginning of chapter 4, Jesus' fame begins to spread, which does not reassure everyone. Jerusalem, to the south, is too close to the ruling authorities: he risks being accused of rebellion. So he heads north, toward Galilee.
In between lies Samaria, which one had to pass through. For the Jews, "it was anything but a pleasant trip." Jesus does not merely cross the region: he stops there, at Sychar (verse 5).
Tired, he sits down at the well. In those days, the well "was the bar," the place where people met. But at noon it is very hot and nobody comes at that hour.
John places two opposite encounters side by side. Nicodemus is a Jew, a Pharisee, a political leader, a scholar, highly moral, and he has a name. The woman is a Samaritan, with no religious party, no status, no education, and she has no name. "Nicodemus was seeking Jesus, the woman was being sought by Jesus."

2. Jesus breaks through barriers to offer living water

"Give me a drink" (verse 7). The woman is scandalized: how can a Jew ask a Samaritan woman for a drink (verse 9)? Jews and Samaritans had no contact with each other, because of a history of a mixed people going back several centuries.
A second barrier: she is a woman, he is a man. At the time, it was "impossible, unimaginable." Jesus "did not stop at appearance, skin color, religion, or sex." The most marginalized person deserved as much of his attention as the greatest religious scholar.
Why does he do it? Because he has a gift to offer (verse 10): "If you knew the gift of God." And it is not the least of gifts: living water.
Like Nicodemus, the woman does not understand. But she is thirsty, deeply so. Where do they come from, the preacher asks, this thirst for riches and applause, this compulsive need for the new decorative object, the latest book, the latest Steam game, the latest iPhone? "Because there is a painful emptiness in the human soul."
This is true for the millionaire as for the poor, for the globetrotter as for the one who has never left his village. On every cistern the world offers us, the same truth is written: everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again (verse 13).

3. Jesus knows her and touches her deep thirst

"Go, call your husband, and come here." The woman answers right away: "I have no husband," probably to cut short a delicate subject. Jesus shows her that he knows her, "so much more precisely than all the fortune-tellers" who want our money first and promise a vague future.
She had many relational needs. She had probably been rejected by the other women because of her way of life. But her greatest problem was being in relationship with God and having access to a life that flows into eternity.
"Whether we are aware of it or not, our souls thirst for God." An author wrote: "You made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you."
Sin, says the preacher, is quenching your thirst at a source other than God. This woman was trying to fill her need through men: instead of happiness, she had reaped shame, rejection, and a total lack of love.
"Stop looking for happiness anywhere but in God. Because each time you think you have obtained it, it will slip away from you." Only he can fulfill our desire to be in relationship with him, to be loved and forgiven.

4. The Father seeks worshipers in spirit and truth

Recognizing a prophet in Jesus, the woman changes the subject, as people do when a conversation becomes uncomfortable: "What's the difference between Catholics and Protestants?" Here: we, the Samaritans, worship on this mountain, you, in Jerusalem.
Jesus corrects her view (verse 21): the hour is coming, and is already here, when it will no longer be a matter of place. Salvation does come from the Jews, but it is no longer necessary to go to Jerusalem, to Mount Gerizim, or to this or that Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox church. God is Spirit and cannot be locked up behind walls (verse 24).
The woman knows that the Messiah must come and that he will explain everything. She is "more spiritual than she appears." Jesus reveals directly who he is: "I am he, the one who speaks to you." He will reveal himself like this to no one else in the Gospel of John.
Worshiping in spirit and truth is not the moment of three songs on Sunday. Worship is not limited to one day a week or a few hours in a particular place: "worship is our whole life."
The Father seeks people who worship him every day, in the smallest details, with family, with friends, at work, and on Sunday when gathered together, everywhere God can say: "That was for me." This worship is made possible by Jesus, who made God known to us (John 1:18).

5. The one who receives life, whatever their origin

The disciples are outraged (verse 27): Jesus is talking to a woman, and a Samaritan at that. But they do not dare to rebuke him.
The woman, for her part, has understood. She had come with her water jar and leaves without it (verse 28): she abandons what she had come for. Jesus demanded nothing of her, not even that she "get her life in order."
A woman did not come to the well at noon, and never alone: people went early in the morning or late in the evening, often in a group. If she came alone at noon, it was because she carried the weight of shame. Yet she braves shame and rejection and bears witness: "Come, see a man who told me everything that I did" (verse 29). She invites others to come and see, as Philip had done with Nathanael.
She had not progressed much in her understanding of Jesus, nor put anything in order in her life, but that did not stop her from bearing witness. "We will never be competent enough to know everything, but we will never be too ignorant to talk about it to our friends, to those we love."
The disciples urge him to eat (verse 31), but Jesus is already satisfied: his food is to do God's will (verse 34). The fields are ripe for harvest: they are these Samaritans running toward him.
Many believe because of the woman's word (verse 39), then because of Jesus' own words. Their confession is one of the most important in the Gospel: "we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world" (verse 42).
For the Jews of the time, it is a shock: the Messiah welcomes these despised people and acknowledges that salvation has reached them. Yet God had announced it to Abraham: "In you all the families of the earth will be blessed" (Genesis 12:3). It is no longer belonging to a people that guarantees salvation, it is knowing a person, Jesus.
"The problem is not whether you are Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox, but whether you have received Jesus, as these Samaritans did, for who he is: the Savior of the world."

6. The one who believes Jesus' word, even without seeing

Jesus finally arrives in Galilee, where he has always lived. But John warns: a prophet has no honor in his own country (verse 44). The Galileans welcome him well, but because they saw the miracles he had done in Jerusalem during the feast.
An officer of King Herod, whose son is sick and about to die, comes to beg him to heal him (verses 46-47). Jesus' word is troubling: "Unless you see signs and wonders, you will in no way believe" (verse 48). He rebukes the crowd as much as the officer, somewhat as he had answered his mother at Cana.
But the officer does not stop at that, like Mary, who had said: "Whatever he says to you, do it." He begs Jesus to come before his son dies (verse 49).
"Go your way. Your son lives." And on Jesus' word, he believes (verse 50). On the way, the news is confirmed: his son lives, from the very hour when Jesus spoke to him (verses 51-53). His faith is confirmed and his whole household believes.
This is the second miraculous sign, which closes the first section of the Gospel: water turned into wine at Cana, the new birth announced to Nicodemus, the water that quenches thirst into eternal life, a child raised up when he was near death.
All of this is accessible only through faith in Jesus and in his ability to give what he promises. This faith requires holding on to his words rather than to miracles, like the Samaritans who believed without any miracle, and like this father who believed before seeing his son. Today, we are invited to believe by relying on the word of the apostles and the Scriptures.

7. Jesus made the trip for you

Samuel Ramos sums up: God expects worship in spirit and truth, with no pilgrimage and no required place, "walking the roads of Saint James, I don't know what." There is no longer a favored ethnic group: the good news of salvation is open to all nations. And we are all equal: "there is no special privilege" for knowing God, you must place your faith in Jesus and in his word.
"I don't know whether you were mistaken about Jesus before coming this morning, but it is always time to change your mind."
Jesus made the trip from Judea to Galilee to meet this woman. "He needed to pass through Samaria" (verse 4): he knew he had a woman to meet to talk to her about the need of her heart.
"Maybe Jesus wants to meet you too. He also wants you to change your mind about him." In the closing prayer, the preacher thanks Jesus for showing his love to people everyone rejected: "we are never too far from you to have a relationship with you."

Key takeaways

Jesus crosses the barriers of origin, religion, and sex: the most marginalized person matters as much to him as the greatest religious scholar.
There is in every human being a thirst that nothing in the world can fill. Only God can quiet our desire to be loved and forgiven.
Worshiping in spirit and truth is not a place or three songs on Sunday: it is the whole of life, everywhere God can say "that was for me."
Salvation is no longer tied to belonging to a people or a church, but to meeting Jesus, the Savior of the world.
Faith holds on to Jesus' word more than to miracles, like the officer who believed before seeing his son healed.

Personal application

On what point might you need Jesus to correct your perspective, about him, about faith, or about others?
Which cisterns do you drink from to quench your thirst: objects, recognition, relationships, novelty?
Is your worship limited to Sunday, or are you seeking to live every detail of your week so that God can say "that was for me"?
Who around you do you consider too far from God? How does Jesus look at them?
Like the Samaritan woman, do you dare to talk about Jesus to those close to you even if you do not know everything?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

What does it mean to worship the Father in spirit and truth?

For Samuel Ramos, worship is no longer tied to a place, neither Jerusalem, nor Mount Gerizim, nor any particular church. It is not limited to three songs on Sunday: it is the whole of life, day to day, with family, at work, and in worship services, everywhere God can say: "That was for me."

Why does Jesus speak to the Samaritan woman at the well?

Jesus crosses two barriers of his time: the separation between Jews and Samaritans, and the one between a man and a woman. He does so because he has a gift to offer, living water. The text even says that he "needed" to pass through Samaria: he knew he had a woman to meet.

What does the king's officer teach us in John 4?

The officer takes Jesus at his word before having seen his son healed. Like the Samaritans, who believed without any miracle, he shows that faith consists in holding on to Jesus' words rather than to signs. It is the second miraculous sign Jesus performed in Galilee.