Worship the Father in Spirit and Truth

In His conversation with the woman of Samaria, whom the Greeks name Photiní, the enlightened, our Lord Jesus Christ revealed what is important, or rather, what is more than important—what is essential—to the Father as regards worship.

When the Lord demonstrated to Photiní that He knew everything about her, she quickly and abruptly tried to change the subject, to draw attention away from her sins, and thought to start up a philosophical discussion with him.

“Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, while you say that Jerusalem is the place where we ought to worship.” The Samaritans had an alternate temple on Mount Gerizim to rival the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. There can be only One temple.

She may have diverted attention from an issue that loomed large in her consciousness to one that seemed trivial in comparison, but in so doing she opened a door for Jesus to address an issue far greater than her personal sin.

“Believe Me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know; for salvation comes from the Jews.

“But the hour will come—in fact, it is here already—when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth: that is the kind of worshipper the Father wants. God is spirit, and those who worship must worship in spirit and truth.”

Here is Jesus, Y’hoshua ben Yossef, whom some called Rabbi, Himself a practicing Jew who honored the temple, calling it His Father’s House, who paid the temple tax, who instructed those whom He healed to follow the regulations outlined in Torah for their restitution to normal Jewish life…

Here is Jesus, a Jew, and many even think a Jew of the Pharisee denomination, talking to a mixed up woman of a mixed up, unorthodox sect, the Samaritans, who could not even get the Torah written correctly and had superstitious beliefs…

Here is Jesus, telling us that whether we worship with the Orthodox, or whether we worship with the non-Orthodox, that does not matter to God, His Father, to whom only one kind of worshipper is acceptable.

“…true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth: that is the kind of worshipper the Father wants. God is spirit, and those who worship must worship in spirit and truth.”

This kind of worshipper apparently is not qualified by the location of worship, nor by the institutional aspect of it, “neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem,” and yet one thing remains certain, “we worship what we do know; for salvation comes from the Jews.”

What is this worship that our Lord is talking about? What does it mean to worship in spirit and in truth? There are many hints of it in the holy and divine scriptures. It is not for me to tell anyone what it is, but to point to where it can be found.

One place to start is with holy apostle Paul, who writes, “the God I worship spiritually by preaching the Good News of His Son…” (Romans 1:9 Jerusalem Bible) You see, worship is not just standing in a temple. Worship is also “preaching the Good News” of Jesus, who alone is the living One, and to believe in Whom is the very best work.

That, my friends and brethren,
is a good place to start on the road to find out.