John 4:35–54

³⁵Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.^{f 36}Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests^g a crop for eternal life,^h so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. ³⁷Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ⁱ is true. ³⁸I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

Many Samaritans Believe

³⁹Many of the Samaritans from that town^j believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”^{k 40}So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. ⁴¹And because of his words many more became believers.

⁴²They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”^l

Jesus Heals an Official’s Son

⁴³After the two days^m he left for Galilee. ⁴⁴(Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.)^{n 45}When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival,^o for they also had been there.

⁴⁶Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine.^p And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. ⁴⁷When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea,^q he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

⁴⁸“Unless you people see signs and wonders,”^r Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”

⁴⁹The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

⁵⁰“Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”

The man took Jesus at his word and departed. ⁵¹While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. ⁵²When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”

⁵³Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household^s believed.

⁵⁴This was the second sign^t Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.