Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where one must worship.
The Lord has just laid her life bare, and the woman at the well answers by raising the oldest dispute between her people and His: which hill had God chosen? Behind her words stand centuries of rival altars, and her question draws out the first unfolding of Christian worship.
"This mountain" was Gerizim, in sight of the well where they were talking. Its place in Israel's history, and the temple later built on it, explain her confidence:
This is the mountain in Samaria where the blessings on Israel were spoken, while the curses were spoken on mount Ebal. Deuteronomy 11:29; Deuteronomy 27:12; Joshua 8:33; Judges 9:7. History records that after the temple was rebuilt in the time of Ezra, the Samaritans built a temple on this mountain. They had priests and sacrifices there, and this caused great hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans. Hyrcanus destroyed that temple, yet the Samaritans still clung to the mountain as the right place of worship, as the woman of Samaria said to the Lord. John 4:20.
Commentators differ on her motive. One reads the shift from her private life to public religion as a move away from the pressure she had just felt:
For her part she at once saw and confessed that He was a prophet. In doing so she was in effect pleading guilty to His charge. Yet, as so often happens when the conscience is wounded, she tried to sidetrack the talk into a religious discussion, and so cut out the personal element.
Another reads it as the real cry of a soul that now wants to be right with God:
"Sir," she says, "I perceive that You are a prophet." That is her seal set on the truth of His words. Then, with the desire He has awakened in her — to be with God, as even she, it seems, may be, and so to be right with God and to approach Him in His own way — she puts the question of questions for a Samaritan.
Her first argument is inherited practice. But long custom cannot prove that God chose the place:
"Our fathers worshiped on this mountain." That was true. For centuries the rival temple at Gerizim had been the centre of Samaritan worship. But that fact could add nothing to its claim to be the house of God. Yes, she was following in her fathers' footsteps, worshipping as they had done before her. Still the question remained: had God chosen that place to build His sanctuary, so that acceptable worship could be offered there? One word from Scripture would outweigh all the claims of Gerizim.
Her second argument is what the Jews say. Notice what is missing from both halves of her sentence:
With her, as with many today, it was the opinion of men that she thought of. "You say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship." Notice that she says not a word about God's will in the matter. She shows no thought of any choice Jehovah might have made, or any preference He had shown for one place over another. Yet He had clearly chosen Jerusalem.
The argument over place had a fierce grip on both peoples:
How formidable such barriers seemed to both Samaritans and Jews! The place of worship was to them so vital that they forgot the Object of worship!
The Lord does not treat the rival claims as a matter of taste. One rested on real knowledge of God; the other did not. Yet He sets both aside:
He makes a distinction between Jewish and Samaritan worship. Jewish worship was, in an important sense, genuine worship of the God of the Bible. It rested on real knowledge of the God who had revealed Himself. Samaritan worship was false worship, resting on ignorance of God... The Lord's answer sweeps away the whole idea of an earthly sanctuary — even at Jerusalem, where in former times Jehovah the God of Israel had commanded it.
She asked about geography. The answer reached far past the two hills:
The Lord more than meets every desire of the Samaritan woman's heart. For here we have more than a defence of Israel's worship against its Samaritan rival. Here is the first unfolding of Christian worship ever given by God to man, and it replaces not only the Samaritan system but the Jewish one as well.
- Place. Gerizim was the Samaritan centre for centuries. Its rivalry with Jerusalem bred lasting hostility.
- Proof. "Our fathers" appeals to age, and "you say" appeals to opinion; neither asks what God Himself chose.
- Person. Fixed on which hill was right, she overlooked the One she should worship — the very Person standing in front of her.
- Parity denied. Jerusalem's worship was real and God-given. Samaria's was not. Yet the Lord's reply sets aside the earthly sanctuary altogether.
- Portion. Her question about a place drew out the first unfolding of Christian worship. It went beyond both systems she named.
Jesus says to her, Woman, believe me, [the] hour is coming when ye shall neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father.
A woman raises the oldest religious argument of her region: which mountain is the right one. Jesus does not pick a side. He tells her an hour is coming when people will worship the Father in neither place. That raises two questions. Why would God set aside the city He Himself had chosen? And what takes its place?
She asked about place. He answers with His own authority. His verdict clears away both rival systems — Samaritan worship and the temple at Jerusalem.
The Lord replied, "Woman, believe Me" — note His words. He speaks with authority; He knows God as no other could know Him; and He alone can reveal His thoughts. Samaritan worship never had a divine standing. It was a corrupt mixture from the beginning (2 Kings 17:41). Judaism, on the other hand, came from God at the start. But both must stand aside now. The Father stands revealed in the person of the Son of His love; all distance is ended.
Setting aside a corrupt mixture is one thing. Setting aside the sanctuary God Himself authorised is another. One writer ties it to the rejection of the Son.
So, in the presence of the Son, false systems disappear. And so does what had God's own warrant as a partial revelation: not only the mountain of Samaria, but Jerusalem itself. How does this come about? Yet so it was. How could Jerusalem possibly hold its place in the presence of the rejected Son of God? The city of the great King! If they had received the great King as King, He would have taken His seat in that city, just as the ancient promise said. But this was exactly what they refused.
The key word here is not "mountain" or "Jerusalem" but "the Father." Used of worship, that title was new. And it comes with a condition.
"The Father!" Surely this must have struck her as new language. Israel was God's son, His firstborn (Ex. 4:22), the children of the LORD their God (Deut. 14:1). The LORD was a Father to Israel, and Ephraim was His firstborn (Jer. 31:9). Yet they had never worshipped Him as the Father. That is because no one can know the Father except those to whom the Son will reveal Him (Matt. 11:27)... Each one, then, who knows the Father owes it to the Son of God; and only those who know Him, it is clear, can worship Him. National worship, as such, at once disappears.
If the holy place is gone, worship is not left homeless. Commentators point to a sanctuary above. They read the present age as a gap between two eras of temple worship.
Christian worship comes in between the pausing of Jewish worship in the past and its return in the future. Christians have no place of worship on earth; they enter no earthly temple. The holiest in the sanctuary above is their one and only place of worship (John 4:21, 23, 24; Heb. 10:19-22); their sacrifices are praise to God and practical kindness to men (Heb. 13:15-16).
Another writer draws out what this means in practice. To treat a building on earth as a sanctuary "is so far to abandon Christian ground, and to go back to the Jews' religion." It also "throws souls at a distance from God." That leaves them feeling they need a priesthood of men to stand between themselves and Him (H. H. Snell).
Some readers stumble here. The prophets describe a future day when all nations come to Jerusalem. One writer answers that the two statements belong to different times.
Any supposed difficulty in reconciling John 4:21 with Jerusalem becoming a centre for all nations is imaginary. It comes from confusing "the hour that now is" with the day that shall be. Our Lord was thinking of the time of His rejection and His coming absence in heaven. The prophet had in view the day of His glory for the earth, which is still future. Distinguish the times, and the objection vanishes. Jerusalem has no place in the Christian system. In the coming day of Jehovah it will have a greater and holier place than it ever had of old.
One writer also notes the wording. Here Jesus says the hour "is coming." He does not yet add "and now is" — that comes two verses later (J. N. Darby).
- Place — Her question was where. His answer removed the where altogether. Samaritan worship never had God's authority; Jerusalem's worship once did. Both are now set aside.
- Person — "Believe Me" is the credential. The One who knows God as no other can is the only One able to announce the change.
- Father — The new name is the heart of the verse. Israel had never worshipped God as Father. Only those to whom the Son reveals Him can worship Him that way.
- Everywhere — With no sanctuary on earth, the worshipper's one place is the sanctuary above. Sacred buildings and go-between priests push people back to a distance that is already ended.
- Day — The coming hour marks the time of Christ's rejection and absence. It is not the end of Jerusalem's story: a future day of glory for that city still stands.
Ye worship ye know not what; we worship what we know, for salvation is of the Jews.
The woman had raised the old argument between Samaritans and Jews about the right place to worship. Jesus moved the question from place to knowledge, and gave one reason for the difference: salvation comes from the Jews.
Jesus tells the woman that her people worship what they do not know. One writer says such worship is not merely empty. Something else stands behind it.
So the Samaritan worship was all wrong. Their break from the worship carried on at Jerusalem had no authority behind it. Salvation was from the Jews. It had to come through them, and not through those who kept up the Samaritan split — and a split is a fair name for it. Besides, they worshipped what they did not know. What a solemn statement! False worship has another being behind it than God. Demons are there, not God (1 Cor. 10:20).
The two halves of the verse do two different things to her. One disowns her religion; the other exposes her own condition.
By saying, "You worship what you do not know," He disowned that worship. By saying, "salvation is from the Jews," He showed her that she was not saved. She stood among the Gentiles — "strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world" (Eph. 2:12). So even while they discussed worship, His words went like a blade to her conscience.
Jesus says "we," putting Himself with the Jews. Their advantage was not something they invented. God gave it to them.
In verse 22 the Lord makes one conclusion impossible for the Samaritan. She might have argued that, since only Christian worship was about to be acceptable to God, and place and race no longer counted, Samaritan worship had been just as good as Jewish. It was not. The Samaritans worshipped what they did not know; the Jews knew what they worshipped, "for salvation," He added, "is from the Jews." They had "the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen." (Rom. 9:4-5.)
Samaritan worship copied the real thing. It rested on part of the Bible, and it began for a reason that had nothing to do with faith.
The king of Assyria had deported the whole population of the northern kingdom of Israel. The Samaritans were the direct descendants of the people who took their place. They thought it wise to keep the god of that country happy, so they began to copy the worship of the Jews. They had the five books of Moses in a version still called the Samaritan Pentateuch. This was Samaritan worship, and it was a counterfeit worship of the God of Israel.
The little word "for" carries the argument. Knowing God depends on salvation, so where there is no salvation there is no true worship.
Compare the Jews with the Samaritans, and the Lord could say nothing else: "We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews." Worship always matches the revelation God has given. So what could worship be where there was no salvation? Jewish worship was set out in pictures and shadows. Salvation was still a hope, not a relationship and a possession they already held.
That reason is not just about history. It decides how anyone comes to know God.
"We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews." Do you hear that, dear friends? We come to know God, and to know the Father, through salvation. Do you not see that unless we know God as a Saviour-God, we do not know Him at all?
Where Jesus said this matters as much as what He said. He was among people who resented the Jews, and He still defended Israel's place.
There was presumption and ignorance in Samaria, and the Lord does not hide the advantage Israel had in every way. But notice that Jesus only says this when He is outside: He defends the Jews while He stands among their rivals, and while He Himself is rejected. What grace! ... The rejected Lord does not deny what truly had honour, even though it was now working against Him. He does not belittle the line of promise.
Salvation started from one nation, but it was never meant to stop there.
"Salvation is from the Jews" (John 4:22), but now it was to be carried to the ends of the earth. So God woke Cornelius, a Gentile, to want the full blessing as it flowed out, and brought him to know forgiveness through the name of the Lord Jesus.
- Source. Salvation has a channel — it came from the Jews, along the line of promise, and the Christ came from their race.
- Knowledge. The Jews knew whom they worshipped because salvation was among them. Worship always matches the revelation God gives.
- Ignorance. Samaritan worship copied the real thing without the revelation. False worship has another being behind it than God.
- Grace. Jesus defended Israel's place while He stood among their rivals, and while Israel was rejecting Him.
- Reach. What began with one nation went out to the ends of the earth, and reached Gentiles like Cornelius.
But [the] hour is coming and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for also the Father seeks such as his worshippers.
At a well, a Samaritan woman has just asked Jesus where people should worship — on her mountain, or in Jerusalem. His answer sets that question aside and announces an hour when the Father Himself goes looking for worshippers.
Her question assumed that worship needs a sacred address. The Lord's reply removes it:
First, our Lord here plainly teaches that from now on there would be no special place of worship on earth. Jerusalem had been the sacred place where the temple of God stood. His people travelled there year by year from all parts of the land. But along with the rejection of Christ, their house, until then the house of God, was left to them desolate. Never since that time has there been a material house of God upon earth. The Church is now the dwelling place of God through the Spirit. Our place of worship is now inside the torn veil, in the immediate presence of God.
The change is not only in the place but in the One worshipped. Jesus names Him the Father. One writer shows how startling that was for a woman with her past:
We might have pictured the Almighty as needing to be appeased first. Only then would He accept the honour due to Him as Creator, from people who begged for permission to offer it. But now she learned that He is the Father, and that as the Father He is seeking worshippers. Men and women like her, who deserved only everlasting ruin, could worship Him in that relationship. This was new indeed, and full of grace.
Each of the two words has a definite sense. Together they rule out empty ritual, and any thought of God that stops short of how He has revealed Himself:
To worship "in spirit" is to worship according to the true nature of God. It is worship in the power of the communion the Holy Spirit gives. It stands in contrast to worship made up of forms and ceremonies, and to the religiousness that human nature can produce. To worship "in truth" is to worship God according to the revelation He has been pleased to give of Himself. So it would not be worship "in truth" now to worship Him only as "a great God," "our Maker," and "a great King above all gods," as in Psalm 95. He has chosen to reveal Himself in another light, as "Father" to those who are His.
The verse ends with a reason, and it reverses the usual direction of religion:
In this hour it was no longer a question of what man ought to be for God, but of what God is for the sinner. "The Father is seeking such people to worship Him." As for man's worship, it was all worthless. You can build a machine to perform ceremonies if you are clever enough to make one… This is not God demanding worship. As man's duty, worship is quite right. But the Lord is here in grace, and out of the abundance of His heart He says, "The Father is seeking" worshippers. He is not looking at forms of worship; He is seeking vile, broken-down sinners to make them worshippers.
So can anyone start worshipping at will? The word true stands in the way, and one writer ties it back to the woman herself:
It is worse than useless, "in the hour that now is," to pretend to worship our God and Father unless we are genuine worshippers. … Adam had become conscious of his sin. So when he heard God's voice in the garden, he hurried to hide from Him. So would all uncleansed worshippers, if they heard His voice today. It is not a question of sincerity, but of salvation. Cleansing by the blood of Jesus is absolutely necessary. We cannot worship Him in spirit and in truth until we know Him by faith, as revealed by and in His Son. And we never know Him like that until His word convicts us of what we have done and what we are, as it convicted the Samaritan woman.
Jesus does not push this hour into the future. He says it has already arrived:
Worship is the outgoing of the heart in heaven. Worship for us now is real. It is the greatest privilege the Christian is brought into while on earth. A Christian in this way anticipates the mind and occupation of heaven. He will still be a worshipper when glorified; but he is a worshipper here, for the hour "now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeks such to worship him."
- Seeking. The Father is not waiting to be found. He is out looking — and He looks for broken-down sinners, not for people with impressive forms.
- Finding. What He finds, He first makes. The woman was convicted, then cleansed, then a worshipper. Nobody worships "in truth" without coming to know God through His Son.
- Freeing. Because He seeks worshippers, no mountain and no building owns worship. Since Christ's rejection, there has been no material house of God on earth. Believers now worship in God's own presence.
- Filling. "In spirit" means worship that matches God's own nature and rises by the Holy Spirit. "In truth" means worship that matches how He has revealed Himself — as Father, not only as Maker.
- Now. The hour is not pending. Worship is heaven's occupation, started early. It is the highest privilege open to a Christian on earth.
God [is] a spirit; and they who worship him must worship [him] in spirit and truth.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.