"When Jesus mentioned her marital situation, the woman at the well
changed the subject, which is understandable. After all, who among us
hasn’t changed the subject when a conversation got awkward?
But possibly
because it dawned on her that the conversation had turned sharply
spiritual, the woman at the well asked Jesus a question she always
wanted the answer to — a question about worship.
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
Yet a
time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship
the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of
worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
John 4:19-24 (NIV)
She wanted to know the right way to worship the God she served.
Instead of automatically assuming her people were correct, she
questioned the truth of what she was taught.
Before her sat a Jewish
prophet who had come to Samaria. Perhaps He had come to tell them to
worship in Jerusalem.
Or maybe He had come to worship at Mt. Gerizim.
Or
perhaps He was there for some other reason.
Whatever the reason, this
prophet could help her worship rightly. He would be able to direct her
to the location where God wanted her and her community to worship.
Jesus, though, never truly answered her question. He began by
pointing to a future time where the location of human worship will not
matter (John 4:21).
Then His response in 4:22 suggests that since the Jews worship what
they know, Jerusalem is the correct location. Still, Jesus never
condemns Samaritan worship on Mt. Gerizim."
PJMedia