Sermon Outline, June 27

Peter J. Leithart, June 22, 2004

The Hour Is Coming, John 4:1-42

INTRODUCTION
The relationship between the Old and New Covenants is one of the critical issues in Christian theology, including liturgical theology. Most of the differences in liturgical tradition within the church are bound up with evaluations of Israel�s worship in the temple. In the Roman church, the priest�s role in Christian worship is very similar to the role of the priest in Israel: the priest offers sacrifice on behalf of the people. In many Protestant churches, Christian worship is seen as a completely different form of worship from Israelite worship. Israel�s worship was ceremonial, complex, and material, while Christian worship is spiritual and non-ceremonial.

Neither of these extremes represents the classic Protestant vision of worship. Grasping both the continuities and discontinuities between the Old and New is essential if we hope to shape our worship according to the Scriptures.

THE TEXT
�Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. But He needed to go through Samaria. . . .�E(John 4:1-42).

JESUS AND THE OLD COVENANT
Through the first several chapters of his gospel, John shows that Jesus surpasses the Old Covenant with its institutions and practices. His theme is �the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ�E(1:17). At the wedding at Cana, Jesus provides wine that replaces the Jewish water of purification (2:6, 9), and then implicitly claims that His body is the new temple (2:19-21). In chapter 3, He meets with �the teacher of Israel,�ENicodemus, but rebukes him for not understanding the simple things of the Scriptures (3:10).

This theme continues into chapter 4. Jesus goes to the margins of Israel, to the despised Samaritans, and tells the Samaritan woman that He is greater than Jacob (4:10-14). The contrast with the incident in chapter 3 is remarkable: Whereas Nicodemus could not grasp what Jesus is saying, the Samaritan woman not only understands who Jesus is and becomes a witness to the people of her town (4:29, 39-42). It is not an accident that Nicodemus came to Jesus by night (3:2), for he did not comprehend the light but remained in the darkness (cf. 1:5). The Samaritan woman, by contrast, meets with Jesus in broad daylight (the �sixth hour�Eis noon, 4:6); she is of the light and illumines others. Right at the beginning of Jesus�Eministry, it is clear that Israel�s future is questionable, while the Messiah freely proclaims the gospel to the Samaritans.

WHICH MOUNTAIN?
The woman�s question about the place of worship is perfectly suitable in this context (4:19-20). The Samaritans had built their own temple on Mount Gerazim, and even though that temple had been destroyed in the second century B.C., the Samaritans continued to worship there. Gerazim had an honored place in Israel�s history (cf. Genesis 12:6-7 [Shechem is at the foot of Gerazim]; Deuteronomy 11:28; 27:12; Joshua 8:33); in fact, Jews worshiped at Gerazim long before David moved the ark into Jerusalem. There was thus continuing conflict between Jews and Samaritans about the correct place of worship.

In answering the woman�s question, however, Jesus raises much bigger issues. The time is coming, He said, when neither Gerazim nor Jerusalem will be the proper place of worship; instead, worship will be �in spirit and truth.�E As in the previous chapters of John�s gospel, Jesus claims to overturn Old Covenant Jewish norms and establish Himself as their fulfillment.

John 4:23 has been a central passage in Christian thinking about worship. Many Protestants use this passage to argue that formal liturgies, physical postures, material objects are unimportant or illegitimate in Christian worship. We should instead be worshiping �spiritually,�Ewhich many believe means �not physically.�E Jesus is certainly saying that He is bringing in a new liturgical order (�an hour is coming,�Evv. 21, 23), but did He mean that new covenant worship is not material and bodily?

WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH
We need to address several issues to understand what Jesus is saying here. First, He claims that Gerazim and Jerusalem both will be obsolete when the �hour�Ecomes, an hour which in some way is already beginning (vv. 21, 23). In John�s gospel, the �hour�Efrequently refers to the death and resurrection of Jesus (e.g., 17:1). Though His death and resurrection, Jesus is going to change the liturgical order of things in Israel. Fundamentally, His death and resurrection will remove the necessity for sacred places. Deciding where to worship was very important in the Old Covenant (cf. Deuteronomy 12). Jesus is saying that in the new �hour,�Eplace will not be significant.

Second, both of the terms Jesus used �E�spirit�Eand �truth�E�Ehave been used already in John�s gospel, and these earlier uses help us understand what Jesus means in 4:23. For John, �truth�Edescribes realities that Jesus brings into reality. He writes that Moses brought the Law, but �grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ�E(1:17). That does not mean that Moses was false. �Truth�Eis John�s word for the full revelation of God that comes through Jesus. He is the �Truth�Eto which the purification rites, the temple, and the water of Jacob�s well pointed. To worship in �truth�Eis to worship in conformity with the new realities that Jesus brings in.

By �spirit�EJesus undoubtedly means the Holy Spirit. This is what the word means in the early chapters of John�s gospel. John witnessed the Spirit descending on Jesus (1:29-34), and Jesus tells Nicodemus that he too has to be born again of water and the Spirit (3:5-8). Worshiping in �Spirit�Emeans worshiping in the power of the Spirit, the Spirit that Jesus later promises to His disciples, the Spirit Jesus calls the �Spirit of truth�E(14:17; 15:26).

Third, this new reality of worship is rooted in the nature of God. It is because �God is Spirit�Ethat �those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and truth�E(4:24). To say God is Spirit does not, in Scripture, primarily mean that God is incorporeal; it refers, instead, to God�s power.

CONCLUSION
Jesus�Eteaching to the Samaritan woman does indicate significant changes in liturgy in the �hour�Ethat now is. But the changes are not changes from physical to non-physical or ceremonial to non-ceremonial. In fact, on the night of His betrayal, Jesus instituted a new ceremony for Christian worship, the Lord�s Supper, a ceremony that requires us to use our bodies and material things (bread and wine). As Augustine and Calvin said, the New Covenant ceremonies are simpler and fewer, but there are still ceremonies.

Jesus says three things about the changes in worship. First, the place of worship will be indifferent. Jesus is the new temple (2:21), and we worship wherever Jesus is present. Second, we must worship in conformity with the �truth�Erevealed in Jesus. That is, we worship the Father through the Son who reveals Him; we are no longer excluded from holy places, as the Israelites were under the Law of Moses. Third, we worship in the Spirit. Jesus was glorified to bring the Spirit (John 7:37-39), and those who worship the Father must do so in the power of the Spirit of Truth.