John 4:21-27 The Message
21-23"Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father neither here at this mountain nor there in Jerusalem.
You worship guessing in the dark; we Jews worship in the clear light of day. God's way of salvation is made available through the Jews.
But the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you're called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter.
23-24"It's who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That's the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship.
God is sheer being itself—Spirit.
Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration."
25The woman said, "I don't know about that. I do know that the Messiah is coming. When he arrives, we'll get the whole story."
26"I am he," said Jesus. "You don't have to wait any longer or look any further."
27Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked. They couldn't believe he was talking with that kind of a woman.
No one said what they were all thinking, but their faces showed it.
I love the end of this passage: "no one said what they were all thinking, but their faces showed it."
Classic!
My face tends to always betray what's spinning in my mind. No matter how much I like to believe I have a poker face, plenty of folks over the years have told me otherwise.
What does our face say about our encounter with Jesus?
Peace? Laughter? Shock? Gratitude?
The disciples were shocked. Jesus was smashing boundaries.
He was talking...with a WOMAN. He was talking with a SAMARITAN woman!
If they had heard they content of the conversation, their shock would have been so much greater. He actually tells her that the time has come when where a person worships doesn't matter.
In that time, it mattered, greatly. Jerusalem was, and still is, the epicenter of the Jewish faith.
Jesus says what matters in our worship, is our heart.
Does our worship show that we love God? Do our faces show it too?
Worship that engages Spirit...in the pursuit of Truth.
One of the best ways, perhaps, to embrace God in Love.
Grace & Peace,
Adam
1 comment:
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