The Mountains Nobody Has to Climb Now

What Jesus Told a Woman at Noon About Where Worship Happens

Jacob's well sits at the foot of Mount Gerizim. When the woman from Sychar came to it, she could see the summit from where she stood, the place where her people's temple had been until it was torn down more than a century earlier. John tells us Jesus "needed to go through Samaria," and that He sat down by the well, wearied from His journey, about the sixth hour (John 4:4, 6). That's noon, and most people drew water in the cool of the morning or evening. She may have come when she was least likely to be seen.

Then the conversation turns, and she asks a question about where worship belongs:

Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. (John 4:20)

You can read that as a dodge, and maybe it was. But it's also an honest religious question, and she's pointing at an actual mountain. She wants to know which one is right. Two peaks, two sets of rules, and everyone in the region had picked a side. Underneath the argument over location sits an older question, the one many of us still carry: where do I have to stand to be received?

The Same Question in Different Clothes

Hardly anyone asks it out loud now, but it shows up in other clothes. What kind of church, what way of praying, what discipline, what level of consistency, what month's record. We traded Gerizim and Zion for the quiet time and the right kind of worship, and the question underneath hasn't changed.

Neither One

Here's what Jesus says back.

Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. (John 4:21)

Watch what He doesn't do. He doesn't tell her Jerusalem wins and she should start walking. The Samaritan mountain goes, and so does the other one: nor in Jerusalem. Under Moses, worship had an address. Jesus tells her the address is about to be retired.

The Verse That Seems to Push Back

Someone will point to the very next verse. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews (John 4:22). Read quickly, it sounds as though the Jews had it right after all, and place and correctness still matter.

It's a fair reading, and it's right as far as it goes. The Jews did know what they worshiped, because God had revealed Himself to Israel, and salvation would come out of Israel in the person of its Messiah. That's a statement about revelation and about where the Savior comes from, not about which mountain to climb. And the Messiah it's talking about is sitting on the well, tired, asking her for a drink.

What the Hour Does

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. (John 4:23)

That last clause can sound like a job posting, as if God scans the crowd for people who worship correctly. But look at who's doing the seeking in this scene. A man who needed to go through Samaria sat down at noon and waited for one woman.

Picture two families arguing over which road leads to the lake house. One has the right map and one doesn't, but the argument gets loud either way. Then the owner walks out onto the porch and waves. Nobody keeps arguing about roads once the host is standing in the doorway.

The hour is coming, and now is. In John, "the hour" keeps pointing to the cross (John 12:23), and here the Person it points to is sitting right in front of her. John told us at the start what changed: the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17). Then Jesus grounds the next line in who God is:

God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:24)

Since God is Spirit, worship can't be pinned to a mountain, and worshiping in spirit points to the life the Spirit gives, the new birth Jesus described to Nicodemus one chapter earlier (John 3:5-8). In John, truth is finally a Person: I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). So worshiping in truth means coming to the One the mountains were pointing at. Worship moves from a hill to the heart, and it answers to what He has given.

That must can sound like a toll at the entrance, as if God only admits people who get the worship right. But Jesus is describing what true worship looks like once the address is gone, and He isn't setting an admission fee. It starts from nearness, from having been brought close once and for all because of what Jesus did, and nobody climbs to a place they're already standing in. That doesn't mean it's effortless. Praising on a flat Tuesday, giving when money is tight, turning toward God when nothing stirs: that's real work, and a secure believer does it anyway, standing where Christ put them.

The Answer She Was Waiting For

She isn't done talking. I know that Messiah is coming, she says. When He comes, He will tell us all things. And Jesus answers, I who speak to you am He (John 4:25-26).

Every mountain in her world had been a way of saying "someday." Zion's temple and its sacrifices leaned forward, waiting for Him, and Gerizim's was a ruin. Now He's talking to her at the well.

John adds a detail and leaves it unexplained. The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city (John 4:28). The jar she brought for water stayed at the well, and she walked toward the whole town without it.