John 4:11–54

¹¹The woman said to him, “Sir, you don’t have anything to use to get water, and the well is deep. So where are you going to get this living water? ¹²You’re not more important than our ancestor Jacob, are you? He gave us this well. He and his sons and his animals drank water from it.” 

¹³Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks this water will become thirsty again. ¹⁴But those who drink the water that I will give them will never become thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give them will become in them a spring that gushes up to eternal life.” 

¹⁵The woman told Jesus, “Sir, give me this water! Then I won’t get thirsty or have to come here to get water.” 

¹⁶Jesus told her, “Go to your husband, and bring him here.” 

¹⁷The woman replied, “I don’t have a husband.” 

Jesus told her, “You’re right when you say that you don’t have a husband. ¹⁸You’ve had five husbands, and the man you have now isn’t your husband. You’ve told the truth.” 

¹⁹The woman said to Jesus, “I see that you’re a prophet! ²⁰Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain. But you Jews say that people must worship in Jerusalem.” 

²¹Jesus told her, “Believe me. A time is coming when you Samaritans won’t be worshiping the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. ²²You don’t know what you’re worshiping. We ⸤Jews⸥ know what we’re worshiping, because salvation comes from the Jews. ²³Indeed, the time is coming, and it is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. The Father is looking for people like that to worship him. ²⁴God is a spirit. Those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 

²⁵The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will tell us everything.” (Messiah is the one called Christ.) 

²⁶Jesus told her, “I am he, and I am speaking to you now.” 

²⁷At that time his disciples returned. They were surprised that he was talking to a woman. But none of them asked him, “What do you want from her?” or “Why are you talking to her?” 

²⁸Then the woman left her water jar and went back into the city. She told the people, ²⁹“Come with me, and meet a man who told me everything I’ve ever done. Could he be the Messiah?” ³⁰The people left the city and went to meet Jesus. 

³¹Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, have something to eat.” 

³²Jesus told them, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.” 

³³The disciples asked each other, “Did someone bring him something to eat?” 

³⁴Jesus told them, “My food is to do what the one who sent me wants me to do and to finish the work he has given me. 

³⁵“Don’t you say, ‘In four more months the harvest will be here’? I’m telling you to look and see that the fields are ready to be harvested. ³⁶The person who harvests the crop is already getting paid. He is gathering grain for eternal life. So the person who plants the grain and the person who harvests it are happy together. ³⁷In this respect the saying is true: ‘One person plants, and another person harvests.’ ³⁸I have sent you to harvest a crop you have not worked for. Other people have done the hard work, and you have followed them in their work.” 

³⁹Many Samaritans in that city believed in Jesus because of the woman who said, “He told me everything I’ve ever done.” ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans went to Jesus, they asked him to stay with them. He stayed in Samaria for two days. ⁴¹Many more Samaritans believed because of what Jesus said. ⁴²They told the woman, “Our faith is no longer based on what you’ve said. We have heard him ourselves, and we know that he really is the savior of the world.” 

A Believing Official—Matthew 8:5–13; Luke 7:1–10

⁴³After spending two days in Samaria, Jesus left for Galilee. ⁴⁴Jesus had said that a prophet is not honored in his own country. ⁴⁵But when Jesus arrived in Galilee, the people of Galilee welcomed him. They had seen everything he had done at the festival in Jerusalem, since they, too, had attended the festival. 

⁴⁶Jesus returned to the city of Cana in Galilee, where he had changed water into wine. A government official was in Cana. His son was sick in Capernaum. ⁴⁷The official heard that Jesus had returned from Judea to Galilee. So he went to Jesus and asked him to go to Capernaum with him to heal his son who was about to die. 

⁴⁸Jesus told the official, “If people don’t see miracles and amazing things, they won’t believe.” 

⁴⁹The official said to him, “Sir, come with me before my little boy dies.” 

⁵⁰Jesus told him, “Go home. Your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus told him and left. 

⁵¹While the official was on his way to Capernaum, his servants met him and told him that his boy was alive. ⁵²The official asked them at what time his son got better. His servants told him, “The fever left him yesterday evening at seven o’clock.” ⁵³Then the boy’s father realized that it was the same time that Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” So the official and his entire family became believers. 

⁵⁴This was the second miracle that Jesus performed after he had come back from Judea to Galilee.