Jesus is portraying the goal of the gospel as one of deeply satisfying relationship of communion with God. Yes, the gospel frees us from the penalty of sin and secures us a home in heaven, but it accomplishes far more than that—the gospel restores fellowship with God and renews our hearts to find satisfaction in him above all else.

For the past several weeks I have been building the case for a biblically-founded theology and practice of corporate worship. The first few posts established the bedrock foundation for all theology and practice of worship, the inspired, inerrant, authoritative, and sufficient Word of God. God’s Word leads us to understand the goal of worship, communion with God. And God’s Word also helps us to understand the nature of that communion, which I will begin discussing today.

Jesus’s encounter with the Samaritan woman in John 4 is another text that helps us to see what we have been discussing, that worship is communion with God. Like with Ephesians 2, the gospel and worship are closely linked. Notice how Jesus uses an image of drinking water to signify the nature of the gospel that he was offering the woman:

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

Remember the distinction we saw from Ephesians 2 between the clean and unclean, between the circumcised and the uncircumcised, between those able to draw near and those who are afar off—those contrasts are illustrated perfectly in this narrative. Here was Jesus, a Jewish male, speaking to a woman of Samaria—that just didn’t happen. The relationship between Jews and Samaritans was broken; a deep chasm separated them. Jews would normally take the long trek around Samaria in order to get from the south of Israel to the north, but here is Jesus going straight through, already picturing the kind of restored communion he was bringing, which Ephesians 2 later explains:

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. (Eph 2:13–19)

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