John 4 (NRSVue)
19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
True worship takes us beyond inherited understandings into embodied, experienced reality.
Here are some questions for discussion:
1. When Jesus says in John 4:23 that “the Father seeks such to worship Him,” everything shifts—the woman who has been pushed outside her community suddenly becomes the one God is actively looking for. How might your spiritual posture change when you imagine that before you ever went searching for God, God was already searching for you?
2. In John 4:20–24, both Jews and Samaritans claim to possess the “right mountain,” yet Jesus redirects them to a kingdom not rooted in any location. Stephen echoes this in Acts 7:48–49 when he reminds us that “the Most High does not dwell in houses made with hands.” Where do you notice the “mountains” we’ve built today—our institutions, traditions, or identities—that we defend more fiercely than we defend people? And what might it look like for Jesus to invite you to step down from those mountains and into a freer form of worship?
3. Cooking apart from the recipe is only possible when we know both the potential ingredients but also the intended final flavor. When our pantry is stocked with the right ingredients we can create something wonderful. How has God stocked your pantry? In what ways has God brought to you the experience of different flavors?
If you’d like to dig a little deeper, consider the following:
1. In John 4:4, we’re told Jesus “had to pass through Samaria”—a line that feels less like geography and more like intention. By the time we reach verses 19–24, He is standing in a place many people would never choose, speaking with someone many would never see. How does that single detail shape the way you hear the rest of their conversation? What does it stir in you as you think about the kinds of boundaries—historical, spiritual, or inherited—that Jesus steps across in this moment?
2. In John 4:23, Jesus speaks of a Father who actively seeks out worshipers—who steps toward us and initiates relationship. Yet in Job 23:8–9, we hear the voice of someone reaching in every direction and meeting only silence. Scripture holds both realities together: the God who draws near and the human who cannot seem to find God. When you place these two passages side by side—the pursuing God and the searching person—how might it expand the way you think about spiritual seeking? What might be happening in that mysterious space where God is moving toward someone, yet they still feel lost, unseen, or uncertain?
3. Whether in cooking for ourselves, our family, or our community at large — how might embracing each participant’s wholeness create a greater feast full of love and grace?
4. Common throughout faith communities is the idea of sharing a meal during times of distress or struggle. What changes a bland meal of physical sustenance into something more truly Christ-like when we break from the recipe and create something with intention and love?
5. Strict step by step adherence to the recipe is safe and predictable, how might this “playing it safe” fail to reflect the spirit with which we are to love one another? What can we do to take our meal beyond just thoughts and prayers?
For further contemplation, consider these prompts:
1. Jesus and the woman meet at a well—a communal place where everyone comes for daily water, where lives overlap, and where all depend on the same source. It’s also the place where Jesus publicly commissions someone to go and tell what they’ve experienced of Him. What might Jesus be revealing about a kind of worship that grows out of shared spaces and common need—worship that is encountered together and then carried outward—rather than something practiced only in isolation or held solely as an individual experience?
2. In John 4:23–24, Jesus describes worship as “in spirit and truth”—something alive, authentic, and infused with the reality of God, not just carried out by steps or tradition. If worship were like cooking, how does Jesus’ definition challenge us to move from simply following a recipe—checking the boxes, doing the steps—to actually infusing the meal with real flavor, intention, and heart? What does that shift look like in your understanding of worship?