“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 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. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
I must admit this is one scripture, found in John 4, that I’ve never really understood. It sounds good on paper, a bit like “word and spirit”, but when one actually thinks about it, I can’t seem to actually clearly define it. In the spirit of Jordan Peterson, “What exactly does it mean to worship in spirit and in truth?”
When is someone doing it, and when aren’t they? Until recently, I couldn’t tell you, and so from time to time the question would niggle in the back of my mind, unanswerable: “Am I?”
Thankfully that question has now, at least for me, been put to bed.
Anyone who knows me knows I hate pat answers, I don’t mind if people just tell me when they don’t know or haven’t really thought about a particular topic. But I have no patience with parroting of religious dogma. Anyone can learn to do that, even a parrot. We have been given a brain, we really should use it.
This is why I haven’t really been able to settle the question until now, because while the answers I have been able to find sounded very clever and theological, they all felt to me like a bit of a reach, maybe even requiring a bit of theological contortion. As if everyone knew the answer has some thin spots but instead of acknowledging or resolving them, it was easier to simply skip over them. This to me is the essence of religion, and I hate everything about it. I’d rather have an open question than a pat answer, every time. The right answer is usually simple, beautiful, and in hindsight, obvious.
It’s quite interesting when you think about it, how the layers of papering over the thin spots end up stacking up in an effort to support truths we hold dear. Practically what it means to us is that we change the meaning of scripture to suit our religious understanding. It’s not malicious, in fact, I think most of us do it because we are trying to do the right thing, but just like Uzzah, God and man do not always see eye to eye on this.
This is exactly what I, and really everyone else bringing up that semi-ominous but at the same time ethereal scripture was doing. We were reading that scripture verse from a modern day perspective, and therefore getting it completely wrong. Let me explain.
The reason I couldn’t clearly define what it means to worship in spirit and truth is because the word “worship” meant something completely different to me than it did to Jesus and the woman He was speaking to. (Tom Wadsworth explains this in great detail here, I’m only going to try and make the point, you can dig further on your own time.)
A Text Out of Context Will Con You
As we have discussed many times before, translation is a tricky and difficult subject. Languages are complex and man is a creature of habit. We don’t like to make waves and generally like to play it safe. How this often plays out in translation is that once a verse is translated and the translation becomes accepted in popular culture, it becomes very hard to change, even if it’s completely wrong or misleading. We talked about this already concerning logos, and unfortunately, when it comes to worship we have the same issue.
I think it’s fair to say that the terms regarding worship were very clearly defined and understood in the ancient world. Every household worshiped a god of some kind. The Jews and the Samaritans worshiped the same God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For historical and political reasons they worshiped at different places, but for those who chose to worship this God, what worship was and how to do it was defined by the Law found in the first five books of the Old Testament. We’re all familiar to some degree with the Mosaic Law, sacrifices, etc. There were many laws and prescriptions regarding worship which were required to be met by every Israelite. It was all very clearly spelled out.
You’re probably not going to be surprised if I tell you that there are a few different words in Greek and Hebrew which we translate to “worship” in English. I want to focus on just one because thankfully, in the scene in John 4, Jesus and the Samaritan woman consistently use it and only it.
The word translated worship here is προσκυνέω (proskyneō). It literally means to prostrate oneself. The New Testament translators have translated it quite inconsistently, and so when you look it up you’ll get all kinds of definitions. But let’s put some of the occurrences of this word in context, I think it will help:
On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down (pipto – to fall or collapse) and worshiped (proskyneō) him.
Matthew 2:7-14
When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front (proskyneō) of him.
Mark 5:6
They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to (proskyneō) him.
Mark 15:17-18
But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship (proskyneō) God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”
1 Cor 14:24-25
I find this one particularly interesting, since it reveals what an unbeliever understood to be the right way to respond to a God. By prostrating themselves before the object of worship. I assume you’ve noted that falling down seems to be a defining feature of worship in all these scenes.
You can easily verify that no more than twelve days ago I went up to Jerusalem to worship (proskyneō). My accusers did not find me arguing with anyone at the temple, or stirring up a crowd in the synagogues or anywhere else in the city. And they cannot prove to you the charges they are now making against me. However, I admit that I worship (latreuō: to serve) the God of our ancestors as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect.
Acts 24:11-14
It is interesting to note that Paul talks about his religious duty (proskyneō – translated as worship) as a Jew in Jerusalem using a different word than he uses to describe his service to God in the new way (latreuō: to serve – also translated as worship).
Let’s put some context around why Paul was going to the temple to proskyneō. The Law of Moses required it:
Three times a year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the LORD empty-handed: Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the LORD your God has blessed you.
Deut 16:16
Ezekiel give some more insight into what they actually did at the temple:
On the Sabbaths and New Moons the people of the land are to worship (ḥāwâ – to bow down) in the presence of the LORD at the entrance of that gateway.
Ezekiel 46:2-3
So while in our context, “worship” evokes images of heartfelt honest music and singing (along with a good measure of repentance and confession just to clear the air) at a church meeting, to Jesus and the Samaritan woman, it simply meant “to bow down at the designated place or toward the recognized deity”.
One can sense Jesus’ excitement and perhaps even frustration in this passage. Finally, this practice of physical bowing down by people whose hearts are often far from Him has come to an end. Jesus was saying, “We’re done with bowing down in the flesh, which anyone can do whether their heart is in it or not. Instead, God will be worshipped in your inner man, by your spirit, as you submit yourself (bow your will, not just your knee) to him. No more temples, no more sacrifices, only the real thing, directly between you and God.”
So now I know. He doesn’t care about the form my worship takes, what the outward appearance is. He cares about whether my heart is right towards Him. That’s it.
The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.
1 Samuel 16:7