Jump Start # 764

John 4:21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

Change is an interesting concept. Some embrace it well. They change their hairstyle, the paint color on their walls, even their residence many times. They like the adventure of change. Others fight change. It seems the older a person becomes the more comfortable they become with the way things are and they do not want change. When the changers meet the non-changers often turbulent results follow. This is true especially involving worship. Those that like change, want change. Newer and faster songs. Different order of worship. Different style of preaching. Sometimes the desire for change crosses the out of bounds line and becomes things unauthorized. Now those who fight change are content with the old songs, the familiar way of preaching and order of worship. For them, change is unnecessary and invites trouble.

Our passage today is taken from Samaria. It involves several layers of new concepts or changes. First of all, the very fact that Jesus went through Samaria was different for these disciples. Jews avoided Samaria at all cost. They would go out of their way to not even touch Samaritan soil. Not only is Jesus in Samaria, but now He is going to drink Samaritan water and is engaged in a conversation with a Samaritan and on top of that she is a she—a woman. If there was a gauge indicating things a proper Jew would not do, the needle would be pointing to the red with what Jesus has done. The Lord did things like that on a regular basis. He allowed an immoral woman to anoint His feet. He went to the home of a tax collector. He chose a radical to be among His apostles.

Here in Samaria, Jesus enters a conversation with a woman who has a string of broken relationships. Jesus revealed that He knew she has gone through five marriages and currently was with someone that she was not married to. Jesus reveals to this woman that worship was soon to change. The Samaritans worshipped in the mountain. The Jews in Jerusalem. A time was coming when neither place would be the “official” place of worship. The true worshipper would worship in spirit and in truth—from the heart. God would not be located in one place. The book of Acts shows the establishment of churches throughout the world. God would be worshipped in those places.

A change in location. A change in worship. That thought was radical for Samaritans and Jews. Both had worshipped in their own designated places for hundreds of years. Now that was changing.

That thought is similar to a person today who has grown up worshipping God one way and then upon reading and believing the New Testament way finds out that they were worshipping God in ways not described in the Bible. They want to please God so they find a congregation that is bent on worshipping the Bible way. A change takes place. That’s hard. Sometimes family members do not understand nor agree with that change. Tensions and hardships can follow.

Worshipping God the way He has defined it and described it is essential to pleasing God. Cain and Abel remind us of that. Two brothers worshipped God differently. One was by faith, one was not. One did what God said, the other did not. One made a blood sacrifice, the other offered vegetables. One way was hard, the other was easy. One pleased God, the other did not. Worship is not about us, it’s about God. It’s not about what I want, but what He has declared. It’s not about what is easy or convenient, but what is described in the New Testament.

Change—it’s not always easy. The easy way requires little effort. It’s easy to be broke, just spend money like Congress. It’s easy to be overweight and out of shape. It’s easy to fail a class, never show up. Effort is what is hard. It’s hard to make honor roll. It’s hard to stay in shape. It’s hard to stay with the budget and save money. It’s hard to fight self and worship God the way He wants to be worshipped.

When Jesus declared that an hour was coming and that change was taking place, those words were very radical. That hour involved the cross. That hour included the tearing of the temple curtain at His resurrection. That hour included remembering His death and resurrection on Sunday. That hour included salvation that came with all those changes. For the Jew in the first century, the change of worship was huge. The day of worship changed. What they did changed. No longer was the temple needed. No longer was animal sacrifices needed. No longer was a priest needed. No longer was the Sabbath restrictions needed. Change. Some resisted it. Others embraced it when they came to understand and believe in Christ.

There is an old hymn, “Just as I am,” that’s how you come to Christ. Just as you are. But that’s not the way you stay. You change. You grow. You become. You accept the ways of the New Testament. Those that want to remain and stay just as I am, fail. It doesn’t work for them. They refuse to become like Christ. But for those that do, it is a wonderful, wonderful life.

A new year begins with a new you!

Roger