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24th January 2026
SaturdayReflection
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'John Piper'
founder and teacher of Desiring God.org
"Not in This or That Mount,
but in Spirit and Truth"
.... John 4:20-26
We will see Jesus as the Saviour who unlocks the mysteries of true worship, and who is otherwise known as the Jewish Messiah (verse 26). And so much more.
First focus with me on verses 20-22.
To get away from his prophetic probing of her heart, the Samaritan woman leads Jesus into a discussion about worship.
But even here she wants to keep things on the external surface of worship not the heart of worship.
She wants to talk about "where." Verse 20:
"Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship."
Jesus is willing to go with her into this topic, but is not willing to let her limit the issue to location.
He will press into the heart of the matter. Verse 21:
"Jesus said to her, 'Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.'"
Jesus starts with a denial.
A negation. You wonder about where? You are concerned about location?
Ma'am there's a day coming - sooner than you think - when both these mountains will be irrelevant for true worship.
That's amazing for a Jew to say.
The day is coming, he says, when Jerusalem, the holy city, the city of David, the place with the temple of God, will not be the focus of true worship.
"Instead of where we worship, Jesus focuses on whom we worship and how we worship."
This is not the answer she expected.
She expected a good argument that Jews defend Jerusalem as the focal point of worship, and Samaritans defend Mount Gerazim.
But Jesus rejects the whole argument.
Instead, he says we are on the brink of something new:
"The hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father."
Instead of where we worship, Jesus focuses on whom we worship and how we worship.
He said that.
Why? Why not say, "God" or "the Lord" or some other designation?
Why "the Father"? - you are not going to worship "the Father" in either of these mountains.
Three reasons.
First he uses it to link with her reference to the Samaritan fathers and draw her attention to the one all-important Father.
She said in verse 20, "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain."
And she had already asked in verse 12, "Are you greater than our father Jacob" (John 4:12)?
So she is very focused on the externals of place and tradition.
The fathers seem very prominent in her mind.
Jesus shifts the focus.
He doesn't say: well, the real Jewish fathers worshiped in Jerusalem.
He says, there is a Father you should care about, namely, "the Father" - the Father who aims to be worshipped, but not in any particular place.
Second, in saying that the one to be worshipped is "the Father" he points her to the fact that God has children.
There is no such thing as father who doesn't have children.
Giving conception to children is what makes you a father.
So when Jesus says that the one to be worshipped is "the Father," he raises the question of who his children are.
The answer was already given in John 1:12
"To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God."
Those who receive Jesus are the children of God.
God is a Father to those who are 'born again' and believe in Jesus.
So Jesus is wakening her to the truth that when it comes to worship, place is not the issue, but whether you have God as your Father, that is, whether you are born again and believe on his Son.
And that leads to the third answer to why he referred to God as "the Father" at the end of verse 21.
It calls to mind - for us at least - that "the Father" has one unique Son who is "the Son."
The one to be worshipped is "the Father."
This woman is dealing here with "the Son."
And we are going to see: his presence is far more important in worship than what mountain you are on, or what city you are in.
Remember he had already said in John 2:19,
"Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
In other words, he had already said that he himself was the new temple - the new meeting place with God.
The temple was about to pass away as the focal point of worship.
And what would be in its place? A new mountain? A new city? A new building?
No. A new person. The Son.
This is what he is getting at in saying,
"Not in this mountain, Ma'am, nor in Jerusalem." Not where, but who is what matters.
The Father and the Son. The living water, the prophet, the Saviour, the Messiah.
Then verse 22 comes at the same thing another way.
"You [Samaritans] worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews."
This is blunt and painful: the problem with you Samaritans is not that you worship in the wrong mountain, but that you don't know whom you worship.
"True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth."
Why not?
"Because," he says "salvation is from the Jews."
What does that mean?
Does it mean that all Jews knew whom they worshipped?
No. Listen to what Jesus says to the Pharisees in John 8:19 (the really serious Jews):
"You know neither me nor my Father.
If you knew me, you would know my Father also."
They don't even know God.
They're just like the Samaritans. "You worship what you do not know."
All such worship Jesus says is "vain," empty (Matthew 15:9).
It is not "true worship" (John 4:23).
So what does Jesus mean in verse 22b:
"We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews."
He means that Jews teach that a Saviour is coming into the world.
He is coming as the Son of David, the Messiah, the servant of the Lord.
And because there will be a Saviour, true knowledge of God and true worship of God are possible.
The very last clause of this whole story (that runs from verse 1 to verse 42) is the announcement of the Samaritans in the town of Sychar:
"We know that this is indeed the Savior of the world" (verse 42).
He means a Saviour is coming into the world who will make it possible for sinners (like people who have been married five times and are living with their boyfriend) to know God, call him Father, and worship him in truth.
You don't know whom you worship because you are not depending on the Saviour - the salvation that is coming into the world.
The Saviour is the Jewish Messiah.
You Samaritans don't believe that. And therefore your worship is not true worship.
It's very important that we see the implications of this for our situation today - in regard to Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and any other religion that does not embrace Jesus as the divine Savior of the world who comes to die for sinners and rise again and become the Mediator between God and man.
It's important because the glorious, unique, supremacy of Jesus among all the religions depends on it.
And because many Christians are abandoning the truth that knowing and honouring and loving and believing on Jesus is necessary for salvation.
John Piper
is founder and teacher of Desiring God and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary.
For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist
and most recently Foundations for Lifelong Learning: Education in Serious Joy.
This is an edited version.
The full article and Bible references are avaiable on request
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