Jesus Talks With a Woman From Samaria

4 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard about him. They had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John. ² But in fact Jesus was not baptizing. His disciples were. ³ So Jesus left Judea and went back again to Galilee.

⁴ Jesus had to go through Samaria. ⁵ He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar. It was near the piece of land Jacob had given his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there. Jesus was tired from the journey. So he sat down by the well. It was about noon.

⁷ A woman from Samaria came to get some water. Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ⁸ His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.

⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew. I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” She said this because Jews don’t have anything to do with Samaritans.

¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “You do not know what God’s gift is. And you do not know who is asking you for a drink. If you did, you would have asked him. He would have given you living water.”

¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you don’t have anything to get water with. The well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹² Our father Jacob gave us the well. He drank from it himself. So did his sons and his livestock. Are you more important than he is?”

¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. ¹⁴ But anyone who drinks the water I give them will never be thirsty. In fact, the water I give them will become a spring of water in them. It will flow up into eternal life.”

¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water. Then I will never be thirsty. And I won’t have to keep coming here to get water.”

¹⁶ He told her, “Go. Get your husband and come back.”

¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands. And the man you live with now is not your husband. What you have just said is very true.”

¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our people have always worshiped on this mountain. But you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

²¹ Jesus said, “Woman, believe me. A time is coming when you will not worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know. Salvation comes from the Jews. ²³ But a new time is coming. In fact, it is already here. True worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth. They are the kind of worshipers the Father is looking for. ²⁴ God is spirit. His worshipers must worship him in the Spirit and in truth.”

²⁵ The woman said, “I know that Messiah is coming.” Messiah means Christ. “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

²⁶ Then Jesus said, “The one you’re talking about is the one speaking to you. I am he.”

The Disciples Join Jesus Again

²⁷ Just then Jesus’ disciples returned. They were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want from her?” No one asked, “Why are you talking with her?”

²⁸ The woman left her water jar and went back to the town. She said to the people, ²⁹ “Come. See a man who told me everything I’ve ever done. Could this be the Messiah?” ³⁰ The people came out of the town and made their way toward Jesus.

³¹ His disciples were saying to him, “Rabbi, eat something!”

³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

³³ Then his disciples asked each other, “Did someone bring him food?”

³⁴ Jesus said, “My food is to do what my Father sent me to do. My food is to finish his work. ³⁵ Don’t you have a saying? You say, ‘It’s still four months until harvest time.’ But I tell you, open your eyes! Look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest right now. ³⁶ Even now the one who gathers the crop is getting paid. They are already harvesting the crop for eternal life. So the one who plants and the one who gathers can now be glad together. ³⁷ Here is a true saying. ‘One plants and another gathers.’ ³⁸ I sent you to gather what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work. You have gathered the benefits of their work.”

Many Samaritans Believe in Jesus

³⁹ Many of the Samaritans from the town of Sychar believed in Jesus. They believed because of what the woman had said about him. She said, “He told me everything I’ve ever done.” ⁴⁰ Then the Samaritans came to him and tried to get him to stay with them. So he stayed two days. ⁴¹ Because of what he said, many more people became believers.

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

Jesus Heals an Official’s Son

⁴³ After the two days, Jesus left for Galilee. ⁴⁴ He himself had pointed out that a prophet is not respected in his own country. ⁴⁵ When he arrived in Galilee, the people living there welcomed him. They had seen everything he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast. That was because they had also been there.

⁴⁶ Once more, Jesus visited Cana in Galilee. Cana is where he had turned the water into wine. A royal official was there. His son was sick in bed at Capernaum. ⁴⁷ The official heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea. So he went to Jesus and begged him to come and heal his son. The boy was close to death.

⁴⁸ Jesus told him, “You people will never believe unless you see signs and wonders.”

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

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

The man believed what Jesus said, and so he left. ⁵¹ While he was still on his way home, his slaves met him. They gave him the news that his boy was living. ⁵² He asked what time his son got better. They said to him, “Yesterday, at one o’clock in the afternoon, the fever left him.”

⁵³ Then the father realized what had happened. That was the exact time Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole family became believers.

⁵⁴ This was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.