1) John 4 shares an encounter that Jesus has with a Samaritan woman. In order to understand why she is arguing about worship location, we look to the history of the Samaritans. In the history of the Israelite nation, there was a kingdom divide, the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and the Southern Kingdom (Judah) and Samaria was the capital of the Northern Kingdom while Jerusalem was the capital of the Southern Kingdom. When the Assyrians invaded the Northern Kingdom (Israel) they carried off a lot of the Jewish families. However, there was a group of Israelites that remained and the Assyrians repopulated the Northern Kingdom with five eastern tribes to squash the Israelite identity and customs. As a result, these eastern tribes and the Israelites intermarried and assimilated into one culture. They became known as the Samaritans and were considered “half-breeds” because they were only part Jewish. Eventually, the Babylonians conquered both Northern and Southern Kingdoms and the entire region became known as Samaria. This led to the Exile which was prophesied by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 25:11-12). The exiles were taken in waves to Babylon but there were some that were never taken. The sick, the weak, the poor, and the unskilled were left behind. Those that were left behind in Samaria began to establish their own practices of worship, their own place of worship (Mount Gerizim), and their own adapted Pentateuch in Aramaic. When the Jews returned, this caused tremendous strife and tension between the orthodox Jews and the Samaritan Jews, which still exist today. When the Samaritan woman argues with Jesus, her argument is based on hundreds of years of bad history between the “real” Jews and the Samaritan Jews.

2) Throughout John’s gospel, Jesus refers to “an hour is coming”. We see this phrase used when Jesus is foretelling his crucifixion and resurrection. In John 12:27, “But for this purpose I came to this hour.” Digging into the word “hour” here helps us to understand it does not mean a fixed time on the clock, rather a definite point of time. It refers a time where something will happen to change how she will worship.

3) A true worshipper worships in spirit and truth. Again, word study helps to gain a clearer representation of the phrase “true worshipper”. The word “true” is that which has not only the name and resemblance, but the real nature corresponding to the name, in every respect corresponding to the idea signified by the name, real, true genuine. There is understanding in Jesus’ words that a true worshiper will know God and the place they worship will not matter but more their heart and desire for the one true God in that worship.

The word “spirit” here is the same word for the third person of Trinity. Apart from the Holy Spirit in our life, we cannot worship God. The role of the Holy Spirit is to “teach you all things, and bring to you remembrance all that I said to you.” (John 14:26) In this passage, Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will come when He leaves to remind us, help us, and guide us into God’s truth (John 16:13). He, the Holy Spirit, enlightens our eyes to the truth of God’s word so that we may worship Him.