Spirit and Truth: A Meditation on John 4 for the 3rd Sunday in Lent

The woman saith unto him,

 Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.

Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say,

 that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

 

Jesus saith unto her,

Woman, believe me, the hour cometh,

 when ye shall neither in this mountain,

nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.

Ye worship ye know not what:

we know what we worship:

 for salvation is of the Jews.

But the hour cometh, and now is,

when the true worshippers shall worship the Father

 in spirit and in truth:

 for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him

must worship him in spirit and in truth.

 

When Jesus engaged the Samaritan woman at the well, there was much for Jesus to help her understand, including this idea that God desires people who will worship Him in spirit and in truth.  In the context of the question the woman asked Him, Jesus pointed out that a debate over which mountain people should worship on would soon be moot; and while Jerusalem was the center of authentic worship of the One, True God while the Samaritans indulged a polytheistic mix of religious practices, that One, True God was looking to create something much greater.  Just as God was not contained in a Tabernacle with Moses, neither was He contained in a Temple with Solomon, nor any of the successive houses of worship made for Him by human hands.  Since God is a Spirit who transcends all things, not least because He is the Creator of all things, debates about ceremonies and special places would be superseded in the New Covenant by Jesus Christ as the Incarnate Word, through whom the Holy Spirit of the Father moved to work the salvation of all who would believe in Him.

 

Taking the second term first, Truth is a concept highly derided in modern America.  This derision rose with a school of philosophy that supposed knowledge of all things to be subjective, relative only to a person’s perspectives, opinions, and senses.  Post-modernism as an intellectual movement surged through the academies and even many seminaries of western civilization in the late 19^th and 20^th centuries, until any claim to knowing or proclaiming Truth was met with immediate disdain.  The only Truth of the Post-modernists is that which is true to the individual, often reflected as what they call a lived experience or self-determined identity.  Not only did Post-modernism turn the minds of its students to mush, embracing a philosophy that was incoherent and unlivable (who would trust a doctor or engineer that didn’t understand the objective truth of medicine or materials, or drive a car without affirming the objective truth of roads, engines, steering, and brakes?) but it also deafened people to appeals like what Jesus made to the Samaritan woman.  Truth must be objective and it must be real, discernable from that which is not true and not real, if Jesus can make the claim that God desires people to worship Him in Truth.  Yet while a whole civilization repeats Pilot’s refrain, “What is truth?” our God continues to appeal to all people on the grounds of Truth and reality.

 

God is the beginning and end of all things, the Creator and the Judge, the Alpha and the Omega, which makes God Himself the very ground of all Truth.  All that is created is given existence by Him, and all that He has created is accountable to Him.  For us, that means that whether we want to believe it or not, our very existence declares the majesty of God just like all of creation does, and we are accountable to God our Creator for how we live the lives He has given us.  This truth is as inescapable as our very existence, and goes on forever, because even though we may die in this world our spirit retains an eternal life.  We will each give an account of our lives to God, and we will all be judged by what is True and what is real.  How do we know this?  Because God, who is Truth, sent His Son into our flesh to be for us the only Way, Truth, and Life apart from which no one will be reconciled with God.  We know God who is Truth, by the Word of Truth which He has declared to us through His Prophets and Apostles, and ultimately through the revelation of His Only Begotten Son.  This is the Truth in which the Father desires worship, that all people might believe Him and His Word, trusting in Him to be faithful and true, and to save all those who put their faith in Him.

 

And this leads to the first term, which is spirit—the innermost part of a person that never dies.  Our spirit is breathed into us by His Holy Spirit, giving us life from the Author of Life.  Our spirit, what the older philosophers before the Post-modern age referred to as the Mind or soul, is where our true intellect resides beyond even the material of our brains.  Our spirit is that which knows things no experience can teach, such as the nature of eternity and the abstract principles of moral obligation.  Our spirit is that part of us to which the Word of God speaks, and where the Holy Spirit creates faith through that Word to trust that Word unto eternal life.  Our spirit, informed and enlivened by God, is what receives the new birth from above by Water and Spirit, where grace reigns supreme over judgment, and faith clings to His promises even through mortal death.  To worship God in spirit is to worship Him in true faith, trusting Him to be our Savior just as He has shown us to be our Creator, turning from all other false words to cling to His truth alone.  It is our spirit that hears the voice of our Good Shepherd, that follows Him wherever He leads, taking up our Cross to suffer in this darkened world for the sake of witnessing to Him. This is what it means to worship God in spirit and truth:  that our spirit is informed and transformed by His Holy Spirit working through His Word, that we might receive His grace unto eternal life by a living, trusting faith in Him.

 

Let go the delusions of our age, and hear again the Word of the Lord!  For He is Spirit and He is Truth, and He has come to give you life by His Word that you might rise up to worship Him forever in spirit and truth.  You were made for more than the confusion and uncertainty of our times, for your very life is a gift from the One who is Life, who is Truth, and who is the only Way to reconciliation with God, so that you might live forever, forgiven and free in Him.  Let go the debates about lesser things, and cling again to Him who is the source and summit of both Truth and Spirit:  Jesus Christ.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.