The Gospel as Recorded by St. John
Visit to Samaria
Then when the Lord learned that the Pharisees had heard told, “Jesus is securing and baptizing more disciples than John” – although Jesus Himself did not baptize – He left Judea and returned to Galilee. It was necessary for Him, however, to pass through Samaria. He accordingly approached a town of Samaria, name Sychar, near the estate which Jacob gave to his son Joseph; and Jacob’s well was there. Now Jesus, being wearied by the journey, seated Himself just as He was beside the well. It was then about noon.
The Samaritan Woman
A woman from Samaria then coming along to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink”; for this disciples had gone to the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman, however, replied to Him:
“How can You, being a Judean, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” [for Judeans do not associate with the Samaritans.]
“If you had recognized the gift of God,” Jesus answered her, “and Who He is Who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked from Him, and He would have given you Living Water.”
“Sir,” the woman replied, “You have no draw-bucket, and the well is deep; where then have You the Water of Life? Surely You cannot be greater than our forefather Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his cattle?”
“All who drink of this water,” Jesus said to her, “will thirst again; but whoever may drink of the water which I give him will never more be thirsty; but the water that I will give to him will become in him a spring of water flowing into life eternal.”
“Sir,” said the woman, “give me that water; so that I may not get thirsty, not have to come all the way here to draw.”
“Go,” said Jesus to her, “call your husband, and return here.”
“I have not a husband,” replied the woman.
“You answer well, “I have not a husband,’” Jesus said to her; “for you have had five husbands; and the one you have at present is not your husband: there you spoke truly.”
Spiritual Worship
“I perceive, Sir,” said the woman, “that You are a prophet. Our forefathers worshipped in this very mountain; but you say that in Jerusalem is the spot where one ought to worship.”
“Woman, believe Me,” Jesus answered her, “the time is coming when neither in this mountain, nor yet in Jerusalem, will you pay homage to the Father. You pay homage without knowledge; we pay homage with knowledge: because the salvation comes from among the Judeans. The time will come, however, and is even now here, when the real worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; because, indeed, the Father desires such to be His worshippers. God is Spirit; and those worshipping Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
The woman said to Him: “I know that Messiah, the One Who is called Consecrated, is coming; when He Himself arrives, He will tell us all.”
Jesus said to her, “I AM; He Who speaks to you.”
At this point, His disciples returned; and they were much surprised to find Him talking with a woman. Yet none asked, “What are you discussing?” or “What do You talk to her about?”
The woman leaving her draw-bucket, thereupon went off to the town, and said to the men:
“Come here! See a Man Who has told all I have ever done! Must not this be the Messiah?”
So they left the town, and were coming towards Him. In the meantime His disciples pressed Him saying, “Master, take something to eat.”
But he answered them, “I have food to eat, of which you know nothing.”
The disciples then began asking each other: “Has any one brought Him food?”
“My food,” Jesus said to them, “is to do the will of my Sender, and to accomplish His work. Do you not say, ‘The harvest comes with the fourth month’? See! Look up, I tell you, and survey the fields; for they are already white for harvesting. Now the reaper receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life; so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together. For in this thought is truth: “THE SOWER IS ONE, AND THE REAPER IS ANOTHER.1 I have sent you to reap that which you have not cultivated; others have cultivated, and your enter into their cultivation.”
The Work in Sychar
Many of the Samaritans of that town believed in Him on account of the statement of the woman, asserting, “He told me all that I had ever done.”
When, therefore, the Samaritans came, they invited Him to remain with them; and He stayed there two days. Many more then believed because of His own discourse; and they said to woman: “We no more believe through your assertion, for we have heard Him ourselves; and we see that He is truly the Saviour of the world.”
Second Visit to Galilee
Now after these two days He took His departure from there for Galilee; although Jesus had Himself declared that a prophet has no honour in his own country. Then when He arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed Him, having seen all that He had done at Jerusalem during the festival; for they also went to the festival.
The Nobleman’s Son Cured
He returned then to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. Now there was a nobleman, whose son was ill at Capernaum. This man having heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, went to Him, begging that He would go down and cure his son; for he was at the point of death.
Jesus therefore said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”
“Come down, Sir,” said the nobleman, “before my boy dies.”
“Go away,” Jesus answered him, “your son lives.”
The man accordingly believed what Jesus had told him, and went away. As he was returning home, however, his servant met him saying, “Your boy is alive.”
He therefore asked them the hour at which he began to recover. They replied:
“Yesterday, at one o’clock the fever left him.”
The father then recognized that that was the very time at which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” And he himself believed, as well as his whole family. This again, as a second sign, was effected by Jesus while passing from Judea into Galilee.
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- Mic. 6:15
Transcribed by JT Atkinson on 02-13-2015
