We are still looking at some of the things Jesus said about the subject of worship. He was talking to a woman he had just met at Jacob’s well, by the Samarian village of Sychar. Jesus said something we always find controversial. He said, to worship God means you need to know something about the God you seek to worship. This is what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman:
You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. John 4:22
The Samaritan religion had been centred on the worship of golden calves. The reason for this was purely political. You can read the very strategy involved if you wish to. Turn to the First Book of Kings, Chapter 12 , beginning at v.25. The point Jesus makes is clear. If your idea of God is wrong, everything is wrong. Everything, including your worship. If your image is made of gold, or is fashioned from anything that walks, crawls or flies, every other image in your mind is false. The Jews knew, at least, that God is not like a golden calf, or anything of which an image can be made. God is invisible. He is the Creator. He is Spirit. He is personal. He knows, He delivers, He comes, He cares He guides, He hears and answers prayer. He is the Lord of Nature, the Lord of Law and the prophets, the out-of-Egypt-bringing God.
The Jews did know something about God, so worship was possible. Our modern crisis is that the world does not know God! To go to church in total ignorance of God is not just boring. It’s incomprehensible – it’s pointless – it’s torture – and the world in all its cleverness does not know God.
No wonder Paul says: “Since the world did not know God, it pleased God, through the foolishness of the Gospel message, to save those who have faith.” I Corinthians 1: 21
The only way we can know God is that He reveals himself to humans. The clearest revelation is in the person of Jesus, and the good news He brings. Our human discovering can not research the supernatural.
A Prayer: Lord, you have revealed yourself to our darkened world. Open the eyes of the world to see the mystery of Jesus and to adore.
Now read I Corinthians Chapter 1