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Thank you for your reply. It’s certainly true that Jesus taught in parables. However, when his disciples didn’t understand a parable, He carefully and fully explained the meaning to them—and by extension to us.

The present case isn’t like that. I.e.: after they left Samaria, the disciples didn’t ask what Jesus had meant during His two days of teaching there. In fact, nowhere are Jesus’ words elaborated on. This is because they aren’t tricky or deceptive. He was asked about the proper physical locus for worship, and He gave a crystal clear answer.

Namely, ‘Not here or there, but from now on in spirit and truth.’

Worship under the Mosaic Law centered in Jerusalem. Jesus nailed the Law to the cross, and gave us a New Covenant. Having fulfilled the legalism of the Mosaic Law, Jesus now gives us relationship centered worship: namely, God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.’

Jesus was too clear and honest in His teaching to mislead us. The Samaritan woman’s question concerned a physical locus for worship. Jesus explained that with the coming of the Messiah, location would be superceded by the state of the heart. This is consistent with all His other teachings. The New Covenant is a shift away from legalism and a shift toward spirit and truth. Our job is to heed His words, not to change them—and certainly not to add to them.

Thank you for your reply as well. Jesus did explain his parables, but his disciples often did not fully understand them until later. It was not until the Last Supper that they remarked, "Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech" (John 16:29, twelve chapters ahead of where we're discussing). But even then they did not fully understand many things he said. So he told them that when he sent the Holy Spirit, the Spirit "will remind you of everything I have said to you" (John 14:26). It was not until the Road to Emmaus that "he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures" (Luke 24:45).

All this lies long ahead of John 4. In John 4, Jesus is clearly using a metaphor when he shifts the topic from literal water, which is what the Samaritan woman initially thought he was talking about, to "a spring of water welling up to eternal life". What Jesus said to her about this built on what he said to Nicodemus about water, spirit, and truth back in John 3. Prior to that, John had introduced the themes of spirit and truth and water back in John 1, where the context was a contrast between John's baptism with water and Jesus' baptism with the Holy Spirit (also see Matthew 3:11 and the parallel passages in Mark 1:8 and Luke 3:16). What Jesus means by "in spirit and truth" is conveyed in this context. He is talking about a new form of worship that will be based on baptism in the Holy Spirit instead of just baptism in water (see John 1:33).

Jesus does indicate the center of worship will be moving from Jerusalem and that future worship will be "in spirit and truth"--I am not disagreeing with you on that. He does not say that this excludes worship in Rome, though--that is adding to what he says. Rome is not the topic under discussion in this chapter. Nor is legalism--that is something Paul talks about in Galatians, but it is not what Jesus is talking about here.

When Jesus does talk about Rome in the Gospels and in his Revelation to John, he references the prophet Daniel and predicts the evangelization of the Roman Empire (the οἰκουμένῃ mentioned in Matthew 24:14). God had a plan for Rome just as he does for all nations--"he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live" (Acts 17:26). God sent Peter and Paul to be martyred in Rome for a reason--a reason Paul lays out in Ephesians 3 while he was imprisoned in Rome: "For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles. . .This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel".