Who are the true worshippers?

The Jews looked for the Messiah to come into Jerusalem, where the temple of Solomon was located, and where true worship would be offered when He came. As for the Samaritans, they believed that the Messiah would come on Mount Gerizim. This is why the Samaritan woman told Christ: “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship” (John 4:20). And the Lord answered her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 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. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:21–24).

Thus, Jews and Samaritans were concerned with the place of worship, whether it should be in Jerusalem or on Mount Gerizim. But for the faithful of God, divinity is not limited to

1 St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the First Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians 26.4 (NPNF I/12:153) amended.

any particular location. Thus, they raise their hearts with the spirit of worship wherever they are. Out of His love for humanity, God establishes a house for Himself in the midst of His people. However, when the believer stands in reverence, stretches out his hands, and lifts up his heart towards heaven, the depths of his soul rise up on high towards the throne heaven. He considers himself and his brothers and sisters who pray with him to have all ascended into communion with the hosts of heaven, and with the faithful who have departed from the world. This is what St. John the Beloved percieved in his revelation when he said, “I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held” (Rev. 6:9). “And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed” (Rev. 7:4).

St. John Chrysostom says, “Who then are the true worshipers? Those who confine not their service by place, and who serve God in spirit; as Paul says, ‘Whom I serve in my spirit in the Gospel of His Son’: and again, ‘I beseech you that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, acceptable unto God, your reasonable service’ (Rom. 1:9; 12:1). When He says, [to the Samaritan woman] ‘God is a Spirit’ [John 4:24] He declares nothing else than His Incorporeal Nature. Now the service of that which is incorporeal must need to be of the same character and must be offered by that in us which is incorporeal, to wit, the soul, and purity of mind. Wherefore He says, ‘they that worship Him, must worship Him in spirit and in truth’ … Both Samaritans and Jews … took great pains about the body, cleansing it in various ways, it is not, He says, by purity of body, but by that which is incorporeal in us, namely the mind, that the incorporeal One is served. Sacrifice then not sheep and calves, but dedicate yourself to the Lord; make yourself a holocaust, this is to offer a living sacrifice … not preferring place to place, but giving them the precedence because of their intention.”²

St. Jerome says, “But I do not presume to limit God’s omnipotence or to restrict to a narrow strip of earth, Him whom the heaven cannot contain. Each believer is judged not by his residence in this place or in that but according to the deserts of his faith. The true worshippers worship the Father neither at Jerusalem nor on mount Gerizim.”³

The scholar Origen says, “The one who is perfect and holy will go beyond even this as he worships the Father in a way that is more contemplative, clearer, and more divine. For just as the angels (as even the Jews would agree) do not worship the Father in Jerusalem because they worship the Father in a better way than those in Jerusalem, so those who can already be like the angels in their attitude will not worship the Father in Jerusalem but in a better way.”⁴

St. Augustine says, “If God were body, it were right that He should be worshipped on a mountain, for a mountain is corporeal; it were right He should be worshipped in the temple … It is a wonderful thing: He dwells on high, and yet is near to the lowly; ‘He has regard to lowly things, but lofty things He knows from afar’ (Ps. 138:6) … Did you seek a mountain,

2 St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on John 33.2, 33.1 (NPNF I/14:115, 114).

3 St. Jerome, Letters 58.3 (NPNF II/6:120).

4 Origen, Commentary on the Gospel of John (Books 13–32) 13.98–99 (FOTC 89:88).

then? Come down, that you may come near Him. But would you ascend? Ascend, but do not seek a mountain. ‘The ascents,’ it says, ‘are in his heart, in the valley of weeping’ (Ps. 84:6). The valley is humility. Therefore do all within. Even if perhaps you seek some lofty place, some holy place, make yourself a temple for God within time. ‘For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are’ (1 Cor. 3:17). Would you pray in a temple? Pray in yourself. But be first a temple of God, for He in His temple hears him that prays.”⁵