The struggle against the idea of “Church as an Organization” is today just as difficult (if not even more difficult) as it was then. In 2000 years of Christianity nothing has changed, the True Church, The Catacomb Church is still very much denied today as it was back then. In the Gospel of the Samaritan Woman we read:

“Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

Reading this passage shows very quickly that the struggle the Samaritans were having difficulty with was to recognize the claims of “officialness” of the Hebrews’ Church. The Samaritan woman questioned this “wisdom” of the Jews, yet Christ chose to reveal Himself to her rather than to the “chosen people” of that time. Let’s remember that the Samaritans were considered by the Jews to be in the wrong faith.

Christ our Savior came to correct this wrong understanding, saying that the Church is not physically located here or there, but it is anywhere where people “worship the Father in spirit and in truth“. Yet the pharisees of today continue to insist that “you must be of this jurisdiction or that jurisdiction, or of this place or of that place”, or else you are not of the true faith …