John 2–4

The Wedding at Cana

2Two days later there was a wedding in the town of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, ²and Jesus and his followers were also invited to the wedding. ³When all the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

⁴Jesus answered, “Dear woman, why come to me? My time has not yet come.”

⁵His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you to do.”

⁶In that place there were six stone water jars that the Jews used in their washing ceremony. ⁿ Each jar held about twenty or thirty gallons.

⁷Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled the jars to the top.

⁸Then he said to them, “Now take some out and give it to the master of the feast.”

So they took the water to the master. ⁹When he tasted it, the water had become wine. He did not know where the wine came from, but the servants who had brought the water knew. The master of the wedding called the bridegroom ¹⁰and said to him, “People always serve the best wine first. Later, after the guests have been drinking awhile, they serve the cheaper wine. But you have saved the best wine till now.”

¹¹So in Cana of Galilee Jesus did his first miracle. There he showed his glory, and his followers believed in him.

Jesus in the Temple

¹²After this, Jesus went to the town of Capernaum with his mother, brothers, and followers. They stayed there for just a few days. ¹³When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover Feast, Jesus went to Jerusalem. ¹⁴In the Temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves. He saw others sitting at tables, exchanging different kinds of money. ¹⁵Jesus made a whip out of cords and forced all of them, both the sheep and cattle, to leave the Temple. He turned over the tables and scattered the money of those who were exchanging it. ¹⁶Then he said to those who were selling pigeons, “Take these things out of here! Don’t make my Father’s house a place for buying and selling!”

¹⁷When this happened, the followers remembered what was written in the Scriptures: “My strong love for your Temple completely controls me.” ⁿ

¹⁸Some of his people said to Jesus, “Show us a miracle to prove you have the right to do these things.”

¹⁹Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will build it again in three days.”

²⁰They answered, “It took forty-six years to build this Temple! Do you really believe you can build it again in three days?”

²¹(But the temple Jesus meant was his own body. ²²After Jesus was raised from the dead, his followers remembered that Jesus had said this. Then they believed the Scripture and the words Jesus had said.)

²³When Jesus was in Jerusalem for the Passover Feast, many people believed in him because they saw the miracles he did. ²⁴But Jesus did not believe in them because he knew them all. ²⁵He did not need anyone to tell him about people, because he knew what was in people’s minds.

Nicodemus Comes to Jesus

3There was a man named Nicodemus who was one of the Pharisees and an important Jewish leader. ²One night Nicodemus came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we know you are a teacher sent from God, because no one can do the miracles you do unless God is with him.”

³Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot be in God’s kingdom.”

⁴Nicodemus said, “But if a person is already old, how can he be born again? He cannot enter his mother’s womb again. So how can a person be born a second time?”

⁵But Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born from water and the Spirit, you cannot enter God’s kingdom. ⁶Human life comes from human parents, but spiritual life comes from the Spirit. ⁷Don’t be surprised when I tell you, ‘You must all be born again.’ ⁸The wind blows where it wants to and you hear the sound of it, but you don’t know where the wind comes from or where it is going. It is the same with every person who is born from the Spirit.”

⁹Nicodemus asked, “How can this happen?”

¹⁰Jesus said, “You are an important teacher in Israel, and you don’t understand these things? ¹¹I tell you the truth, we talk about what we know, and we tell about what we have seen, but you don’t accept what we tell you. ¹²I have told you about things here on earth, and you do not believe me. So you will not believe me if I tell you about things of heaven. ¹³The only one who has ever gone up to heaven is the One who came down from heaven—the Son of Man. ⁿ

¹⁴“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, ⁿ the Son of Man must also be lifted up. ¹⁵So that everyone who believes can have eternal life in him.

¹⁶“God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life. ¹⁷God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸People who believe in God’s Son are not judged guilty. Those who do not believe have already been judged guilty, because they have not believed in God’s one and only Son. ¹⁹They are judged by this fact: The Light has come into the world, but they did not want light. They wanted darkness, because they were doing evil things. ²⁰All who do evil hate the light and will not come to the light, because it will show all the evil things they do. ²¹But those who follow the true way come to the light, and it shows that the things they do were done through God.”

Jesus and John the Baptist

²²After this, Jesus and his followers went into the area of Judea, where he stayed with his followers and baptized people. ²³John was also baptizing in Aenon, near Salim, because there was plenty of water there. People were going there to be baptized. ²⁴(This was before John was put into prison.)

²⁵Some of John’s followers had an argument with a Jew about religious washing. ^{n 26}So they came to John and said, “Teacher, remember the man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan River, the one you spoke about so much? He is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”

²⁷John answered, “A man can get only what God gives him. ²⁸You yourselves heard me say, ‘I am not the Christ, but I am the one sent to prepare the way for him.’ ²⁹The bride belongs only to the bridegroom. But the friend who helps the bridegroom stands by and listens to him. He is thrilled that he gets to hear the bridegroom’s voice. In the same way, I am really happy. ³⁰He must become greater, and I must become less important.

The One Who Comes from Heaven

³¹“The One who comes from above is greater than all. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and talks about things on the earth. But the One who comes from heaven is greater than all. ³²He tells what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts what he says. ³³Whoever accepts what he says has proven that God is true. ³⁴The One whom God sent speaks the words of God, because God gives him the Spirit fully. ³⁵The Father loves the Son and has given him power over everything. ³⁶Those who believe in the Son have eternal life, but those who do not obey the Son will never have life. God’s anger stays on them.”

Jesus and a Samaritan Woman

4The Pharisees heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more followers than John, ²although Jesus himself did not baptize people, but his followers did. ³Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard about him, so he left Judea and went back to Galilee. ⁴But on the way he had to go through the country of Samaria.

⁵In Samaria Jesus came to the town called Sychar, which is near the field Jacob gave to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob’s well was there. Jesus was tired from his long trip, so he sat down beside the well. It was about twelve o’clock noon. ⁷When a Samaritan woman came to the well to get some water, Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” ⁸(This happened while Jesus’ followers were in town buying some food.)

⁹The woman said, “I am surprised that you ask me for a drink, since you are a Jewish man and I am a Samaritan woman.” (Jewish people are not friends with Samaritans. ⁿ)

¹⁰Jesus said, “If you only knew the free gift of God and who it is that is asking you for water, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

¹¹The woman said, “Sir, where will you get this living water? The well is very deep, and you have nothing to get water with. ¹²Are you greater than Jacob, our father, who gave us this well and drank from it himself along with his sons and flocks?”

¹³Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I give will never be thirsty. The water I give will become a spring of water gushing up inside that person, giving eternal life.”

¹⁵The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so I will never be thirsty again and will not have to come back here to get more water.”

¹⁶Jesus told her, “Go get your husband and come back here.”

¹⁷The woman answered, “I have no husband.”

Jesus said to her, “You are right to say you have no husband. ¹⁸Really you have had five husbands, and the man you live with now is not your husband. You told the truth.”

¹⁹The woman said, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that Jerusalem is the place where people must worship.”

²¹Jesus said, “Believe me, woman. The time is coming when neither in Jerusalem nor on this mountain will you actually worship the Father. ²²You Samaritans worship something you don’t understand. We understand what we worship, because salvation comes from the Jews. ²³The time is coming when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, and that time is here already. You see, the Father too is actively seeking such people to worship him. ²⁴God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

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

²⁶Then Jesus said, “I am he—I, the one talking to you.”

²⁷Just then his followers came back from…