UST YHN Chapter 4

4 Later, the religious group called the Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining more disciples than John the Baptizer and that he was baptizing more people than John was baptizing. Jesus also found out that the Pharisees had heard this. 2 (Jesus did not actually baptize anyone, but his disciples were baptizing people.) 3 When he found out that the Pharisees were aware of him, Jesus left the region of Judea and returned once more to the region of Galilee. 4 Now to get to the region of Galilee he had to go through the region of Samaria. 5 Next, they arrived at a city named Sychar in the region of Samaria. Sychar was near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph a long time ago. 6 (Jacob’s well was in that area.) After arriving at Sychar Jesus was very tired because of his long journey, so he sat down to rest next to Jacob’s well. It was about noon. 7 A Samaritan woman came out to the well to lower a bucket on a rope to pull up some water. Jesus said to her, “Please give me some water to drink.” 8 He said this because his disciples had left him by himself and had gone into the city in order to buy food. 9 And the Samaritan woman said to Jesus, “I am surprised that you, a Jew, are asking me, a woman from Samaria, for a drink.” (She said this because Jews usually would not have anything to do with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus replied to her, “If you had known the gift that God wants to give you, and if you had known who I am who is requesting a drink from you, you would have asked me for a drink, and I would have given you living water.” 11 The woman replied, “Sir, you do not have a bucket with which to draw the water up out of the well, and this well is deep. Since you can’t get the water out of this well, where did you get this living water from? 12 You are surely not greater than our father Jacob. He dug this well and gave it to us. He, his sons, and his livestock drank water from it as well.” 13 Jesus replied to her, “Everyone who drinks water from this well will become thirsty again. 14 But anyone who drinks the water that I will give him will never become thirsty again. Rather, the water that I will give him will become a spring of water inside him that fills him up and causes him to live forever in heaven.” 15 The woman said to Jesus, “Sir, please give me some of this water in order that I may never become thirsty again or have to come to this well to draw water again.”

16 Jesus told her, “Go get your husband and bring him here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus told her, “You are right in saying that you have no husband, 18 because you have had not one, but five, husbands, and the man you are currently living with is not your husband. What you have said about not having a husband is true.”

19 The woman said to Jesus, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped God right here on this mountain, but you Jews say that we must worship God at your temple in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus told her, “Madam, believe me when I say that a time is coming when neither here on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You people here in Samaria worship the God whom you do not know. We Jews worship the God whom we know. This is true because the way to be saved from your sins comes from among the Jews. 23 Nevertheless, the time is coming and has now arrived when those who truly worship God will worship the Father spiritually and truthfully. This is because the Father indeed searches for such people to worship him. 24 God is a spiritual being, and those who worship him must worship him spiritually and truthfully.” 25 The woman said to Jesus, “I know that the Messiah will come. (He is the one called ‘Christ’ in Greek.) When he comes, he will tell us everything that we need to know.” 26 Jesus told her, “I, who am speaking to you now, I am the Messiah!”

27 Just at that moment, his disciples came back from the city. They were astonished because Jesus was talking alone with a woman whom he didn’t know. However, no one dared to ask him, “What do you want from her?” or “Why are you talking with her at all?”

28 At that time the woman left her water jar there and returned to the city. She said to the men of the city, 29 “Come and meet this man who told me so many things that I have done! He could not be the Messiah, could he?” 30 Those men left the city and came to Jesus.

31 While the woman was gone, Jesus’ disciples, who had just returned with the food, pleaded with him to eat. They said, “Teacher, please eat something!” 32 Jesus told them, “I have sustenance that you know nothing about!” 33 So they were saying to one another, “Surely no one else could have brought him something to eat, could they?” 34 Jesus told them, “This is what sustains me: It is to do what my Father—who sent me—wants and to complete my Father’s work. 35 At this time of the year you usually say, ‘There are four months left, and then we will harvest the crops.’ Listen to what I’m telling you. Look and see that these people are like fields that are now ready for harvest! 36 The one who harvests these crops receives payment and collects fruit, which is people receiving life forever in heaven. The result is that those who sow the seed and those who reap the harvest will be glad together. 37 What I’m going to say is true: One person sows the seeds, and another person harvests the crops. 38 I sent you disciples of mine to gather the harvest from a crop that you did not plant. Others have worked very hard to plant the crop, but you are now joining them in their work.”

39 Now many Samaritans who lived in the city of Sychar trusted in Jesus because of what the woman had told them. She said, “He told me so many things that I have done.” 40 When the Samaritans came to Jesus, they asked him to remain with them. So he stayed there with them for two more days. 41 Many more of them trusted in Jesus because of what he proclaimed to them. 42 The townspeople told the woman, “We believe in Jesus now, but not just because of what you told us about him. We believe because we have heard his message for ourselves. Now we know that this man truly is the one who saves the believers in the world from their sins.”

43 After he stayed for two days with the Samaritans, Jesus left the city of Sychar and entered the region of Galilee. 44 (Jesus wanted to go to Galilee because he himself confirmed that a prophet does not receive honor in the place where he grew up and he did not want publicity.) 45 Since this is true, when he arrived in the region of Galilee many of the people there merely welcomed him because they had seen all the amazing things he had done in Jerusalem during the recent Passover celebration, which they also had gone to. 46 Next, Jesus went back again to the town of Cana in the region of Galilee. That was where he had turned water into wine. There was an official of the king who lived nearby in the city of Capernaum and had a son who was very sick. 47 When that official heard that Jesus had come back to Galilee from Judea, he went to Jesus in Cana and asked him to come down to Capernaum and heal his son, because his son would die soon. 48 Jesus then told him, “You people will only trust in me as the Messiah if you see me perform wonderful miracles!” 49 The official of the king said to him, “Sir, please come down to my home in Capernaum before my son dies!” 50 Jesus told him, “Go home. Your son will live.” The man trusted what Jesus told him, and he started to go back home. 51 As the official was traveling down to his home in the city of Capernaum, his servants met him along the road. They told him, “Your child is going to live.” 52 He asked his servants, “At what time did my son start getting better?” They answered him, “At 1:00 PM yesterday his fever went away.” 53 And the boy’s father recognized that his son had recovered at the exact time that Jesus had told him that his son would live. So this same man, along with everyone who lived in his house, trusted in Jesus.

54 That was the second great miracle that Jesus did. He did it during the time that he came to the region of Galilee after leaving the region of Judea.

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