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. (John 4:23-24 NIV)
“You don’t have to wait any longer, the Anointed One is here speaking with you – I am the One you’re looking for.” (John 4:26 TPT)
In John 4, we encounter a well-developed and deeply human story about a woman who meets Jesus. He and his disciples are traveling, and as they pass through Samaria, Jesus stops to rest at a well just outside the town while the disciples go to buy food. It’s midday—hot, dry, and exhausting. Jesus, physically tired and thirsty, asks a woman drawing water for a drink, since he has no bucket.
What follows is an extraordinary conversation. It begins with thirst and quickly moves through topics like relationships, religion, worship, and ultimately, the identity of the Messiah—all within the first 31 verses of the chapter.
This story first caught my attention several years ago, especially Jesus’s words: “The Father is spirit, and he is seeking those who will worship him in spirit and in truth.” Something about that resonated deeply in me. Since then, I’ve been drawn to pursue what it means to be a worshiper “in Spirit and in Truth.”
Many sermons focus on Jesus’s offer of grace to this woman—someone with five former husbands, now living with a sixth man. By ancient Jewish standards, she was living in sin and likely ostracized from her community. That Jesus would offer her the gift of “Living Water” is astonishing.
Other messages highlight the context of Jesus’s journey—traveling from Judea to Galilee and passing through Samaria. The Samaritans were considered a “half-breed” people, descendants of Jews who had intermarried with Assyrians after the Northern Kingdom fell in 721 B.C. In Jesus’s time, Jews looked down on Samaritans and avoided contact with them. Moreover, cultural norms strongly discouraged men from speaking with women outside their families. But Jesus breaks all of these social barriers—ethnic, gender, moral—and instead focuses on the woman’s heart, her need, and her potential to receive new life.
While rereading some commentaries, I was struck by something Michael Card writes in John: The Gospel of Wisdom: “Though [Jesus] is still thirsty, he offers her living water. It is a deeply spiritual invitation for which she has done nothing. Nothing except allowing Jesus to continue being thirsty.” (p. 69)
This woman—sinful, shunned, and likely carrying deep emotional wounds—offers Jesus nothing, not even a drink from her bucket. Yet he offers her everything. He remains physically thirsty, but he sees a much deeper thirst in her—one that no well could satisfy. She doesn’t even realize how desperate she is for grace, mercy, and love. But Jesus meets her right there, in the place of her unspoken, perhaps even unrecognized, need.
He doesn’t shame her or lecture her. Instead, he gently moves past her defenses and objections, offering hope. He says to her:
“If anyone drinks the living water I give them, they will never be thirsty again. For when you drink the water I give you, it becomes a gushing fountain of the Holy Spirit, flooding you with endless life!” (John 4:14, TPT)
She offered him nothing.
He offered her everything.
He offers us everything.
Jesus,
Lord, thank you for this powerful story of a woman who encountered you in a life-changing way. We are grateful for the gift of Living Water that you offer to all who seek you. Thank you that you are still seeking worshipers who will worship you in spirit and in truth. Help us to be those people. We acknowledge that we have nothing to offer you but our love and worship. Yet we come to you, the only One who can truly satisfy our deep spiritual thirst. Pour your Living Water into us—the Holy Spirit—flowing from within us with the fullness of eternal life. We ask this in your name, Amen.
[P.S. Thank you for praying for the doctor’s appointment yesterday. All went well and we are waiting to hear when the surgery will be scheduled.]