Jesus had met and was talking intimately with the Samaritan woman. You know her story. Married several times and now living with another. She clearly had lived a difficult, most likely sinful life and was now in yet another sinful relationship.
There had been a rift even among the Jews, splitting the people into Jews and Samaritans. Samaritans were, if I understand it properly, essentially all of the Jewish faith yet their beliefs differed, sort of like our denominations. That's why it was common for the Jews to avoid the Samaritans. I'm a little fuzzy on how all this came about but it had something to do with the division of Israel between the north and south and their respective ideas where the official place of worship (of God) was.
So here's a Samaritan woman who recognized by His clothing that Jesus was "that type of" Jew, not normally given to talking to Samaritans. And was not just some ordinary man but a prophet, because He had guessed about this man she was living with. She recalled that her "fathers" worshiped near or where they now stood in Samaria and she also said she knew that Jesus believed worshiping God was done in Jerusalem. That's when Jesus told her a day would come when she would worship neither in Samaria nor in Jerusalem, referring to a specific place.
You will neither worship on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem. How true a statement. It's not so much a physical place as it is a spiritual one. We can worship anywhere. We can worship in the shower or in church. We can worship within our hearts and in our work. That goes for anyone, Jew or Gentile, who profess Jesus as Lord.
We are also told that God does not dwell in a place made by human hands (Acts 7:48). He resides in our hearts. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? (1Corinthians 6:19) A.Z. Tozier says it like this: Deep inside every man there is a private sanctum where dwells the mysterious essence of his being. This far-in reality is that in the man which is what it is of itself without reference to any other part of the man's complex nature. It is the man's "I Am," a gift from the I AM who created him. He's in each person's heart and we need to be sensitive to that. We need, in essence, to acknowledge our hearts as His dwelling place. That means acknowledging Him.
So what's this about salvation is of the Jews? To me that's telling us where the roots of our Christianity lie. Our roots are strongly rooted there. Jesus, after all, is a Jew. Israel is God's nation, His people. Jesus is His Son. Remember we, as Gentiles and Christians, are grafted in but we are not the religion of God. Religion means nothing to Him. It's about relationship.
Oh, I know a day will come when eyes will truly be opened. Knowledge will be poured out. I long for that day. I long for more people to have that "aha" moment.
We are called to worship in spirit and in truth. We need to know the Truth of Christ first. Then the worship comes. I was talking with my sister in law one day about how people know that they know they have been touched by God. We both have different ways of sensing something. She gets goosebumps and I get a catch in my spirit, that place in your inward parts we call the solar plexus. I believe that's where we are attached to God's Spirit by an invisible thread. Our worship doesn't always have to be outward. It can be inward. In spirit...and in truth.
John 4:23 - 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.
That hour is at the moment we experience that touch from God, when we recognize Him for who He is. I've said it before...only one who has received that touch can fully understand this revelation. Mmmmm.
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